The Eagles were back to practice on Saturday, following their Thursday night preseason game, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio spoke to reporters about some of the young players’ performances.
He mentioned that they will call certain plays in the preseason for the sole purpose of getting some evaluations on players, so they aren’t necessarily scheming for their opponent as much as trying to learn more about the guys. Fangio also thought it was great that some of the young players got meaningful snaps against the Bengals’ starters on Thursday. It’s helpful that the Eagles defense gets to go against A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in practice, but Fangio pointed out that the WR’s have missed quite a bit of practice time this training camp.
Here’s what the DC had to say:
On the Bennett-Booker trade
Fangio admitted he didn’t remember new CB Jakorian Bennett from the pre-draft process, but did watch some of his tape from last year with the Raiders.
“He’s got some good speed, got some cover ability. We’ll see.”
The DC said Bennett could possibly compete for the starting corner spot, and noted that everybody has a right to compete for the job. But first, the cornerback needs to get his feet wet, the coaches have to get him acclimated, and then they’ll see where they’re at in a few weeks.
Fangio also talked about Thomas Booker and made clear he didn’t feel like the DT was expendable, and noted that he’s going to miss having Booker on the roster.
“But, the get something you have to give something, so…”
On the DT depth
He was asked about the DT depth, and he pointed to their three starters, and then Gabe Hall, Byron Young, and rookie Ty Robinson have all been coming along.
“Are they where they need to be? No, but they’re coming along and hopefully that’ll continue.”
Fangio later talked about Hall and Robinson both showing in the preseason game that they understand what is being asked of them from a knowledge and technique standpoint.
The DC also singled out Hall, noting he’s the poster child of what a practice squad player should be — he spent 2024 on the practice squad and developed into someone competing for an active roster spot. Hall needed that year to gain some confidence — coming off a college injury —, needed to get stronger, and needed to get used to playing against men, not college players.
He was asked about Jacob Sykes, who signed with the team in late-July:
“[Jacob Sykes’] got good movement. He’s better on the move, right now, than he is grinding blocks. We’ve got to improve on his ability to grind blocks more, but yeah, he did play pretty good.
On Kelee Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson
“Obviously they had some tough assignments in that game – going against [the Bengals] quarterback and those receivers, but I think it’s a great learning experience for both of them. Hopefully they’ll both come back, obviously Kelee had more balls thrown his way than Adoree’ did, but I think it’s great that happened, and we’ll see how much they can grow from that.”
On the LB preseason workload
Fangio admitted that Jihaad Campbell was going to start against the Bengals for their first preseason game, but a few days before, the trainers asked that the rookie get fewer reps than they initially planned. Campbell was supposed to get the same amount of playing time as Smael Mondon and Jeremiah Trotter Jr., but in order to give Mondon and Trotter some logical rest periods, it made sense to start Mondon rather than Campbell.
On Sydney Brown
“I thought [Sydney Brown] did fine, and I think he’ll keep progressing. Sydney’s got a lot of good stuff to his game, we’ve just gotta polish him up, and see things a little better, a little quicker – which is a natural progression for young players.
Last year, from a defensive standpoint, was a very small chance for him to grow. So, this is his time.”
On edge rusher depth
Fangio acknowledged that they need some of the depth guys to step up, but he feels the group is making some progress. He specifically named Joshua Uche as someone who is getting better, but said the OLB still needs to get better at how they want certain details done, against the run and the pass. Same thing for Azeez Ojulari. Other than those two, they are looking for someone else to surface and force a roster spot.
