Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is dialing back the heat-and it’s working.
After opening the season with an unusually aggressive blitz-heavy approach, Fangio has shifted gears in recent weeks, leaning back into his bread-and-butter: a disciplined four-man rush. And with the Eagles' defensive front finally healthy, deep, and disruptive, the timing couldn’t be better.
Let’s start with the personnel. The midseason trade for Jaelan Phillips, the return of a healthy Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham un-retiring for one more ride, and the growth of second-year edge rusher Jalyx Hunt have all helped Fangio feel more comfortable letting his front four go to work without extra help. And the results speak for themselves.
Since their bye week, the Eagles have racked up the fourth-most sacks in the NFL. Graham, in particular, turned back the clock with two sacks on just seven snaps against the Raiders.
That’s not a typo-seven snaps, two sacks. Efficiency at its finest.
Phillips, meanwhile, hasn’t lit up the stat sheet with sacks-just one in six games since arriving from Miami-but he’s been active and disruptive. He’s batted down passes in back-to-back games and notched a pair of QB hits against Las Vegas.
And speaking of that game, the Eagles' defense delivered a statement. A 31-0 shutout snapped their three-game skid, and Fangio’s crew allowed a jaw-dropping 1.0 yards per pass attempt. That’s not just dominance-it’s suffocation.
What’s even more telling is how Fangio got there. He blitzed just once on 29 Raiders pass attempts.
That lone blitz came on Las Vegas’ opening drive, when linebacker Nakobe Dean came on a 2nd-and-11 pressure. Kenny Pickett managed to step up and hit rookie Jack Bech for 10 yards-one of the Raiders’ longest plays of the day.
Fangio didn’t dial up another blitz the rest of the game.
That’s a far cry from the early-season version of this defense, when Fangio brought the heat at nearly a 30% clip. Against Matthew Stafford and the Rams, he blitzed on 41% of dropbacks.
In Week 3 vs. the Chiefs, it was 29%. But since the bye, outside of one outlier game against the Bears in Week 13, the blitz rate has plummeted.
Analytics sites vary slightly in how they define a blitz-some count simulated pressures where a linebacker rushes and a lineman drops into coverage, others only count five-or-more-man rushes-but the consensus is clear: the Eagles are blitzing far less. Fangio’s unit is currently sitting around a 19% blitz rate, which ranks at or near the bottom of the league depending on the source.
That 19% figure is strikingly similar to last season’s 19.3%, which was the fifth-lowest in the NFL. In other words, Fangio is getting back to what he knows best-disguising coverages, trusting his front four, and letting the pressure come from execution, not numbers.
When asked last week if Nakobe Dean’s blitzing ability tempts him to send more pressure, Fangio gave a typically measured response: “Yeah, I mean, it's like anything. You want to do it when you feel it's necessary and not because you have to. I feel confident that when we rush any of our ILBs, which we do, we mix it up, we’ve got a chance.”
That’s classic Fangio. He’s not chasing sacks-he’s hunting efficiency. And with his front four finally healthy and humming, he’s got the luxury of playing chess while others are still playing checkers.
The Eagles' defense may have taken a few lumps early in the season, but if this trend holds, they’re shaping into a unit nobody wants to face in the stretch run.