The Eagles are looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. It may be coming in the form of a 5-foot-10 defensive back who had team brass drooling at the NFL Scouting Combine. Sydney Brown, deemed a Red Star player in 2023, is slated to return from injury and help out a hobbled secondary.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio confirmed the Eagles were planning to open the 21-day practice window on Brown after the bye, adding one caveat: “I’m not positive of that, so don’t hold me to that.” Assuming the hybrid defensive back’s return is imminent, there could be a spot open at strong safety or nickel cornerback. What happens next may depend on Cooper DeJean, the talented rookie who is looking for a full-time job in Fangio’s work-in-progress secondary.
“We’ll see. We’re excited to get him coming back,” Fangio said of Brown. “We all have to have some patience, which I know isn’t a big virtue amongst any of us at this time of the year. The guy hadn’t played any football since his injury, I believe was the first week of January last year.”
Or, maybe, Fangio decides to slide C.J. Gardner-Johnson into the slot and put Brown at safety. There are tons of options for a player Roseman drafted in the third round because he “exemplifies what it means to be an Eagle.”
“I think he’s a good football player that brings energy,” Fangio said of Brown. “I think he’s a good tackler. I’m excited to see him, you know, for the first time. Because I do think he’s a good football player. Where he’ll exactly fit in, we’ll have to see.”
Eagles Struggling to Find Balance in Secondary
The Eagles’ defense looked like world beaters in Week 3, locking down Derek Carr and the Saints’ passing game as Reed Blankenship sealed the win with an interception. The dominant performance was a sight for sore eyes.
One week later, the opposite was true. Vic Fangio’s unit was chasing its own shadow for four quarters, missing 14 tackles in Week 4 and allowing 334 passing yards to Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers. The Eagles now own the NFL’s ninth-worst passing defense: 990 yards surrendered through four games while giving up seven air touchdowns. Mayfield was surgical, too. His average release time? 2.05 seconds.
“Yeah, they came out throwing, obviously, and throwing quick. We weren’t close enough,” Fangio told reporters. “We played a lot more man in those first three series than we usually do, or we were in some tight matchup zones, and we just didn’t play it good enough. Their pass offense was better than our pass defense.”
Color commentator Tom Brady blamed the porous pass defense on the Eagles’ inability to play press coverage. Facing two-shell high coverage most of the day, Mayfield feasted like Jelly Roll at a Grammy after-party. Fangio accepted blame for the horrid showing, saying “we can press more” and pinning some of the problem on his players not switching to tighter coverage when they saw the matchups and receiver splits.
“Coach it better and do a better job during the week,” Fangio said. “And then understanding that sometimes, teams come out in different stuff, different tack than what you saw going into the game. We’ve got to adjust.”
Jalen Carter: Playing Too Many Snaps?
There were some rumors at last season that Jalen Carter was running on fumes at the end of the year. Maybe the rookie’s conditioning wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Perhaps the 6-foot-3, 314-pound defensive tackle wasn’t quite ready for the grind of a 17-game schedule.
Whatever the case, Carter saw 621 total snaps in 2023: 563 of them on defense. Fast forward to 2024 and Carter is on pace for 850 snaps. Is that too many?
“I don’t know. It’s an individual thing,” Vic Fangio told reporters. “I’m used to – in a lot of places, where defensive lineman can play that much. To me, it’s an individual thing. And it’s also how the reps are falling in a game. In some of the games, the New Orleans game, we had a fair amount of three-and-outs or five-play drives. That wasn’t the case the other day, obviously, and then the heat factored in.
“So rather than being a hard number, circumstances do affect it. But I do think guys are capable of playing.”
Mandatory Credit: Caean Couto-USA TODAY Sports
