What to expect from a Vic Fangio defense

Vic Fangio is on his way to becoming the Eagles' new defensive coordinator. Here's a look inside the numbers and history of his defenses.

BY SHAMUS CLANCY
PhillyVoice Staff

HAL HABIB/USA TODAY SPORTS

Likely new Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

Anew defensive coordinator is coming for the Eagles. Vic Fangio is on his way to Philadelphia to sign a contract with the team, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. 

After consulting with the Eagles during the 2022 season, the assumption was that Fangio would be the Birds' 2023 defensive coordinator with Jonathan Gannon headed elsewhere as a head coach. With the Gannon-to-Arizona situation fuzzy, Fangio moved on and became the DC of the Dolphins. The Eagles were left empty handed after the Super Bowl, however, and were forced to pivot to worse replacements. 

An adult is back in the room for this defense.

If you want to play the "From Here" card, Fangio is a native of Dunmore, Pennsylvania, which is just outside of Scranton. He stayed in the state for college too, attending East Stroudsburg. He's a hardcore Phillies fan as well. For another local wrinkle, he was a defensive assistant on the Philadelphia Stars' coaching staff when the team won the USFL championship in 1984. 

Fangio has spent 19 seasons in the NFL as a defensive coordinator, dating back to 1995, before becoming a head coach in Denver in 2019, plus his lone season in Miami. Here's how his squads ranked in yards and points allowed in that period:

Year	Team	Yards rank	Points rank
1995	Panthers	7th	8th
1996	Panthers	10th	2nd
1997	Panthers	15th	13th
1998	Panthers	30th	27th
1999	Colts	15th	17th
2000	Colts	21st	15th
2001	Colts	29th	31st
2002	Texans	16th	20th
2003	Texans	31st	27th
2004	Texans	23rd	15th
2005	Texans	31st	32nd
2011	49ers	4th	2nd
2012	49ers	3rd	2nd
2013	49ers	5th	3rd
2014	49ers	5th	10th
2015	Bears	14th	20th
2016	Bears	15th	24th
2017	Bears	10th	9th
2018	Bears	3rd	1st
2023	Dolphins	10th	22nd

Some noteworthy points on Fangio's squads:

• Fangio became the defensive coordinator for an expansion Panthers team in 1995. Carolina made the NFC Championship Game in 1996.

• That early Peyton Manning era in Indianapolis felt like the Mike D'Antoni "7 Seconds or Less" Phoenix Suns. They didn't care about defense before hiring Tony Dungy in 2002. I don't fault him too, too much for that.

• Fangio joined the expansion Texans in 2002. He did not have that same initial success in Houston as he did in Carolina clearly.

 

• In between his defensive coordinator gigs in Houston and San Francisco, Fangio spent two years as a defensive assistant and one as a linebackers coach in Baltimore. Fangio then went to Stanford to be their defensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh for a single season. Harbaugh then went on to became the 49ers' head coach in 2011 and brought Fangio along with him. 

• Those 49ers defenses were awesome. NaVorro Bowman, Justin Smith, Patrick Willis, Aldon Smith and Dashon Godson were all First-Team All-Pro players there. San Francisco made the Super Bowl in 2012 and advanced to the NFC Championship Game in both 2011 and 2013. 

• Chicago had a monster defense in 2018. That Bears team, however, ran into the buzzsaw that was Nick Foles and lost in the iconic Double Doink playoff game to the Eagles. 

• Fangio's numbers with the Dolphins this past season aren't impressive, but they dealt with a rash of injuries.

Fangio's teams struggled overall in Denver, as the Broncos went just 19-30 in his three seasons as a head coach there, but the defense he's known for remained stout (there was a down year in 2020):

Year	Yards rank	Points rank
2019	12th	10th
2020	21st	25th
2021	8th	3rd

If Denver didn't have a game of musical chairs between horrific quarterbacks playing in the same division as Patrick Mahomes, perhaps Fangio doesn't burn out in the same fashion. Some coaches aren't head coaches and are just meant to be coordinators. I look at Dick LeBeau and Wade Phillips as those types of figures. Fangio, too.

As for Fangio's schematic style, his teams are known to be light on blitzing and with a structure based around two high safeties. These looks are predicated on stopping deep, explosive gains and living with shorter, underneath completions. Fangio's success in San Francisco and Chicago led to that style of play seeping through the rest of the NFL. Pete Carroll's single-high look was all the rage at one point in time (I recommend reading "The Essential Smart Football" by Chris B. Brown for more on that). Fangio's system has now become a blueprint for defensive minds everywhere.

 

Those Fangio disciples struggled in 2023, including the Eagles' own Sean Desai, as the team seemed hellbent on employing a Fangio-like scheme given the whiff on him last February. The same is true of Brandon Staley, Gannon in Arizona and others. If someone is going to have success with the system, however, I'm banking on it being "Lord Fangio" himself. 

Fangio's base front is 3-4, which meshes with the Eagles' recent mix of multiple look fronts. Aldon Smith had a whopping 42 sacks as a stand-up edge rusher from 2011-2013 under Fangio. The Bears acquired Khalil Mack in the 2018 offseason and he was an All-Pro with 12.5 sacks in his lone season with the coach. The Eagles are hoping they revert to their record-breaking 2022 sack numbers with Fangio now in town rather than the underwhelming 2023 performance from the pass rush.  

With Sirianni becoming the archetypal "CEO coach," this show is Fangio's to run. The Eagles finally have their guy and there's nowhere to go but up after the disaster that was the 2023 Birds defense.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-news-vic-fangio-defensive-scheme-front-defensive-coordinator-stats-dolphins-broncos-bears/

From what I understand his scheme is creative but make no mistake his scheme relies heavily on having talent. And yes that may be obvious but it needs good players in the secondary who can do their job and give the DL time to get home. Fangio will be creative and will mix up coverages and do a lot of post snap changes to confuse QBs which is great but without the secondary players his scheme will fail. Howie needs to go after LBs and he needs to go after Safeties, oh and he needs to add at least 1 CB. So yeah a lot of work to be done which I think is a major concern.

5 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

From what I understand his scheme is creative but make no mistake his scheme relies heavily on having talent. And yes that may be obvious but it needs good players in the secondary who can do their job and give the DL time to get home. Fangio will be creative and will mix up coverages and do a lot of post snap changes to confuse QBs which is great but without the secondary players his scheme will fail. Howie needs to go after LBs and he needs to go after Safeties, oh and he needs to add at least 1 CB. So yeah a lot of work to be done which I think is a major concern.

LBs absolutely.  I also agree on a secondary need at S ... need depth and would be great if someone could push Blank and Brown (can't say we are settled there with either).  Though at CB Slay is still playing at a decent enough level (for now ... probably safe to assume that will drop off in the near future considering his age) and we also have Isaiah Rodgers waiting to come back from suspension.  Also hoping one or both of Ricks and Ringo can build off the experience they got this year and be a valuable contributor.  

4 minutes ago, time2rock said:

LBs absolutely.  I also agree on a secondary need at S ... need depth and would be great if someone could push Blank and Brown (can't say we are settled there with either).  Though at CB Slay is still playing at a decent enough level (for now ... probably safe to assume that will drop off in the near future considering his age) and we also have Isaiah Rodgers waiting to come back from suspension.  Also hoping one or both of Ricks and Ringo can build off the experience they got this year and be a valuable contributor.  

For me they need to add at least 2 good LB's either through the draft or FA. Not sure who is going to be available this off season but if we are moving to a 3-4 system then that needs to be addressed. I am not convinced by Blank to be honest, I think he is fine and solid but we need an upgrade to make him a rotational piece. Brown might develop nicely but that remains to be seen and so it will be interesting to watch him develop this year.

With CB I agree we have Slay, we have Ricks and Ringo who flashed and then Rodgers coming back but can we rely on Rodgers? A year out of the game and I mean is he really that good? Not sure myself. Again would like to see them invest at CB given we know Slay will eventually decline even though last year he was fine (not great).