Crossing Broad
Vic Fangio speaks every week, but doesn’t say much. One-sentence answers, maybe two or three if you’re lucky. That being said, this was somewhat interesting from Tuesday’s press conference:
When you have such a young defense, what are the biggest concerns you have? Especially as you get deeper into the season with a young secondary. Really, all three levels, you have young guys. (Bob Brookover)
VIC FANGIO: Nothing, really. Back in the day, you used to hear rookies hitting the ‘rookie wall.’ I don’t think that rookie wall exists anymore because back in the day, you’d have two-a-days in training camp. When you got a rookie that you thought would play, you’d practice him a lot. He’d play a lot in preseason games when there were four.
Well, that doesn’t happen anymore. So, I don’t buy the rookie wall anymore. It’s not physical. It might be mental or emotional. But it’s not physical anymore, in my opinion.
They’ve got two key rookies playing out of their minds in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Mitchell hasn’t allowed a passing TD and PFF loves DeJean in pretty much every facet of the game. Jalen Carter is wrecking shop in year #2 and Nolan Smith is contributing as well.
The Eagles are 10 games in and a shoe-in for at least a wild card spot, barring some epic, 2023-ish collapse. If you consider that they’ll play at least 18 regular season + playoff games, they’re more than halfway through the slate. Looking at snaps, Mitchell has played 590, which is 96% and second-most on the defensive side, behind CJGJ. That’s typical for outside cornerbacks, to play every available snap. In Mitchell’s case, the ball is rarely being thrown his way, and it’s not like he’s banging in the trenches, so you’d think durability and endurance and conditioning are fine for him. DeJean is an interesting case, because the injury kept him out of the lineup until a few games in. His rookie wall was more of a rookie injury hurdle, which is why he’s only played 317 snaps, or 51%. Nolan Smith and Jordan Davis are under 50%, so if I’m being honest with you, the only mileage I’m worried about is Nakobe Dean’s 92% of snaps and Carter’s 80.4%. Fletcher Cox touched 80% a few times in his career, but during the Super Bowl year they had a deep defensive tackle rotation to keep everyone fresh. That was Cox, Timmy Jernigan, Beau Allen, Destiny Vaeao, and a bit of Elijah Qualls and Brandon Graham on obvious passing downs.
Fingers crossed. The defense has been durable and healthy so far. Slay is the only player besides DeJean to miss time via injury. The best ability is availability, as some say. It’s why the Eagles’ D is top 10 in almost every meaningful statistic category. If there’s a mental or emotional wall, as Fangio suggests, we’ll find out soon enough. Or hopefully not.
The post [Vic Fangio Doesn’t Believe...
