Philadelphia Eagles: Vic Fangio is an upgrade over Jonathan Gannon

Breaking news: Today, Jonathan Gannon is still the Philadelphia Eagles‘ defensive coordinator.

I know, I know, halt the presses, a coach is still employed one day removed from making his playoff debut as a defensive coordinator; who would have guessed?

But tomorrow? Maybe the Eagles will be in the market for a new defensive head honcho.

No, not because Gannon’s defense was predictable, vanilla, or routinely picked apart by opposing passers with ease, but because multiple teams around the NFL have reached out to the Eagles about interviewing the 38-year-old Cleveland, Ohio native about running their programs heading into the 2022 season.

But why? I mean, I doubt the Eagles were planning on handing Gannon his papers at the end of the season, in actuality he is almost 100 percent safe heading into his sophomore season, but how could a team, even one as rudderless as the Houston Texans, look at how Philly’s defense looked in 2021 and go “yes please?”

Either way, if Jonathan Gannon is snatched up or a Doug Pederson-style change of heart goes down in the not too distant future, the Philadelphia Eagles should go all-in on hiring ex-Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio to serve as Nick Sirianni‘s partner in crime, as defensive minds like him don’t become available all that often.

Vic Fangio is the perfect veteran foil for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Vic Fangio has been coaching football professionals since 1979, which is two years before Nick Sirianni was even born.

A native of Dunbar, Pennsylvania who went to college at East Stroudsburg, Fangio got his first NFL opportunity in 1986 coaching linebackers for the New Orleans Saints and slowly worked his way up to defensive coordinator, first with the Carolina Panthers in 1995, then the Indianapolis Colts in 1998, the Houston Texans in 2002, the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, and finally the Chicago Bears in 2015.

Over that tenure, which spanned 19 years over the five teams, Fangio had seven defenses ranked in the top-10 in yards allowed per game and turned in eight campaigns where his teams finished top-10 in points allowed, including his entire run with the 49ers and his final season in Chicago.

Fangio parlayed that consistent string of success in the 2010s to his first head coaching opportunity, where he took over for Vance Joseph with the Denver Broncos. While the Broncos turned in some encouraging efforts over said three year run, specifically on the defensive end of the ball, the team had a winning percentage of 38.7 over that tenure, and Fangio was relieved of his duties as a result.

Unfortunate? Most definitely, the Broncos have been looking for a quarterback since Payton Manning’s Super Bowl run in the early 2010s and every coach will have a tough time finding consistency in the Mile High City until that situation is resolved, but Fangio’s brand of football didn’t exactly breed a ton of excitement in the modern, offensive-happy NFL.

With that being said, Fangio is still a darn good defensive coordinator and could bring the sort of wealth of experience that the Philadelphia Eagles’ coaching room is in desperate need of.

Known for running a two-high, 3-4 defensive front that relies heavily on misdirection, stunts, and pre-snap disguises, Fangio’s defense doesn’t blitz a ton but still gives opposing quarterbacks fits because they never know where pressure is coming from. Like Jonathan Gannon, Fangio likes to use his safeties closer to the defensive line, where they can drive in for run support, drop back into coverage, or be deployed into creative zone coverage concepts.

While zone concepts have been a fixture of Fangio’s defenses regardless of where he’s coached, he’s prioritized bigger, longer cornerbacks as of late, and has turned players like Kyle Fuller and our old pal Ronald Darby into legit starting options on the outside where other teams could not.

Give Darius Slay a coordinator like Fangio and he might have five interceptions, not just three.

And what about linebackers? Well, Fangio likes to use his linebackers as utility pieces depending on the strength of the position. In San Francisco, linebackers were a strength and thus, the dynamic duo of NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis were relied on heavily in coverage, against the run, and as blitzers. In Denver, the Broncos’ linebacking corps wasn’t that much better than that of the Eagles’ and Fangio instead had to put more pressure on the dynamic, upper-tier safety tandem of Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson to pick up the slack.

Other than deploying a nose tackle in base packages instead of a third off-ball linebacker, the scheme Fangio runs isn’t too disparate from the one Gannon ran with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021, with the biggest difference being a disparity of creativity between the master and his indirect apprentice.

Sidebar: Don’t believe me? Check out Gannon’s own words on Fangio’s influence here.

If the Eagles lose Gannon to another team, securing Fangio would be like swapping out a Mexican Fender Stratocaster for a master-built 1963 custom shop job – look it up – but even if the team’s defensive coordinator goes 0-3 on his interviews, that doesn’t mean the pride of East Stroudsburg shouldn’t be an option unworthy of consideration; if anything, the Eagles’ 2021 tape proves just how valuable Fangio’s addition could be.

From the jump, I was always a tad skeptical about going into the 2021 NFL season with three young, largely unproven coordinators opposite Nick Sirianni. Call me old-fashioned but I always liked the idea of partnering Sean McVay with a Wade Phillips-type who can help to ease along the transition from being a non-playcalling coordinator to a full-on head coach. While the team’s strategy ultimately proved correct, as that quartet took a four-win team to the playoffs, that lack of experience reared its ugly head in the Wildcard round, as every facet of the Philadelphia Eagles’ game was outgunned by their Tampa Bay counterparts. Would Vic Fangio magically fix the team’s offensive issues? No, but he certainly wouldn’t have let the team go down 31-0 after three quarters. Why? Because Fangio is a Super Bowl-caliber defensive coordinator and since the Eagles are leagues further along than anyone expected heading into the season, upgrading the defensive coordinator position with a certified guru with local roots would be a Jim Johnson-level hire.