Three cheers for Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio

Vic Fangio he was already the oldest NFL defensive coordinator last season with the Miami Dolphins at 65 and apparently too hard about a group of not-so-pushy dudes who seemed to prefer hanging out on South Beach rather than at the movie theater.

The Dolphins finished 10th in total defense and 22nd in points allowed, which was a big surprise for the team in the playoffs, and the dissatisfaction that several Miami players felt toward Fangio and his methods didn’t leak out of the locker room – it flowed colloquially. . The situation was the most tiresome cliché of coach-player relationships come to life: the gray-haired taskmaster who perhaps couldn’t connect with today’s athletes, the spoiled twenty-something who perhaps couldn’t accept or perhaps didn’t care that their coach knew best. Boomer vs. Zoomers, two generations come in, both generations leave after losing to Patrick Mahomes.

Fangio and the Dolphins “parted ways” shortly after the season – they parted ways is an NFL term meaning, Look, coach, you probably don’t want to be here anymore, and we really don’t want you here anymore. The Eagles waited 18 seconds regardless of whether they hired him, and suffice it to say, there are reasons the Dolphins didn’t win Super Bowl in 51 years. Fangio turned 66 in August and remains the league’s top player. The only conclusion that can be drawn based on how the Eagles’ defense has performed under him this season is that Fangio refused to provide his Social Security Administration routing number and then ate his AARP card.

Whenever anyone here discusses the best defense in Eagles history, the long-standing standard has been Bud Carson’s 1991 unit: Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Eric Allen, Wes HopkinsAndre Waters, a holdover from Buddy Ryan’s Game 46 “House of Pain” game against the Houston Oilers. This group led the NFL in total defense, pass defense, rushing defense, sacks and turnovers; was fifth in points allowed; and allowed an Eagles team that lost Randall Cunningham in Week 1 and used Jim McMahon, Pat Ryan, Jeff Kemp and Brad Goebel at quarterback to win 10 games.

You could make a good case that Fangio’s defense came closer to meeting the 1991 standard than any Eagles team since – and that Fangio had a tougher job than Carson, for all his brilliance. This season, the Eagles rank first in total defense, second in points allowed, first in yards per play, first in yards allowed per play, first in passes per attempt and sixth in turnovers.

They achieved all this while playing most of the season with two starting defenders (Quinyon Mitchell AND Cooper DeJean), a Pro Bowl center fielder who was never a center fielder before Fangio turned him into one ( Zack Baun ), and several young players who were somewhat of a question mark entering the season (Jalen Carter, Jordan DavisNakobe Dean, Nolan Smith). The Eagles’ defense has neither the talent nor the continuity that the 1991 defense had. Fangio did more with less, relatively speaking, than either Ryan or Carson.

“It’s a great honor for the players,” Fangio said Tuesday when asked about his reaction to the fact that the Eagles have the top defense in the NFL. “They did all the work. They deserve it. … You don’t put restrictions on players. If you put restrictions on them, you get limited production. Take them to the ceiling where they can reach.

This is a bigger honor for Fangio, who reassured the core of the Eagles’ management that the team does not need another up-and-coming coordinator, but a coach who is smart, experienced and has seen some things. You have to dig deep into Eagles history to find the best parallels to Fangio’s hiring. Andy Reid’s decision to hire Jim Johnson in 1999 comes to mind, but Johnson was only 57 at the time, a baby compared to Fangio. Perhaps a better comparison would be Sid Gillman, who joined Dick Vermeil’s staff in 1979 as a special assistant in charge of quality control and quarterbacks – the closest thing Vermeil had to an offensive coordinator. Gillman was 67 years old. In July 1979, while the Eagles were in training camp, he underwent six bypass surgery, and a month later he showed up to camp in a Rolls Royce provided by owner Leonard Tose and driven by Tose’s chauffeur.

The following season, the Eagles won their first Super Bowl in New Orleans. This year’s Eagles are more than capable of returning to the Big Easy on February 9 and winning once they get there. If that happens, they can thank Fangio and his defense and appreciate that they followed the old school the right way.