Bleeding Green Nation
Vic Fangio set the bar incredibly high last season.
Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson are no longer Eagles. Neither are Isaiah Rodgers, Avonte Maddox, Oren Burks, and retired Eagles all-time great Brandon Graham. Starters Sweat, Slay and Williams left via free agency, and Gardner-Johnson was traded away to the Houston Texans in March.
It was a lot to lose from Vic Fangio’s Super Bowl-winning No. 1 defense in the NFL.
The Eagles have a nauseating large gap to fill defensively, needing to replace 3,369 snaps on defense with the departures of interior defenders Williams (501 snaps), Sweat (622) and Graham (311) and defensive backs Gardner-Johnson (908), Slay Jr. (699) and Rodgers (328).
Presently, those missing pieces will be filled by five players that totaled 834 snaps last season, in defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (388), linebacker Jalyx Hunt (241), strong safety Sydney Brown (79), and cornerbacks Kelee Ringo (112) and Eli Ricks (14).
The Eagles also lost 15.5 of their 41 regular-season sacks in 2024, and 5.5 of their 16 postseason sacks.
For 2024, the Eagles defense—coupled with Saquon Barkley—won Super Bowl LIX. They did it by allowing the fewest total yards per game (278.4 ave.), the lowest yards-per-play average (4.7), the second-fewest points per game (17.8), and were plus-11 in the giveaway-takeaway ratio, causing 26 turnovers and only giving up 15. The Eagles did it by basically bludgeoning teams with an exhaustive ground game that chewed up an NFL-high average of 32-minutes, 21-seconds time of possession a game, and limiting opposing team an NFL-low 999 plays—the only team in the NFL last season to not allow the opposition 1,000 or more total plays during the 2024 regular season.
It all fit perfectly—a well-rested defense, limiting the opposition an NFL-low average of 58.7 plays a game, and the Eagles’ offensive line bulldozing over everyone in front of them.
Can the Eagles duplicate that recipe this coming season?
Probably not.
Much would come down to Barkley carrying a heavy load again, which would keep the Eagles’ defense off the field. Though after a season in which the NFL’s leading rusher had a career-best 378 touches, the most touches since his rookie season in 2018 (352), that will not happen.
Ojomo will be expected to fill in for Williams, and with Jalen Carter next to him, attracting double- and sometimes triple teams inside, he may be able to produce similar numbers as Williams. Ojomo had two tackles, one loss, in Super Bowl LIX. Williams had two sacks and forced and recovered a fumble in the Super Bowl.
Hunt went from a head-scratching third-round curiosity out of tiny Houston Christian to making an impact during the postseason, with 1½ sacks in four games, equaling the 1½ sacks he had in 16 regular season games. He had 9 hurries during the regular season. He had 8 in the playoffs.
So, it looks to be solid production there.
Gardner-Johnson had six of the Eagles’ 13 interceptions last season, with fellow safety Reed...
