Growing up only two and a half hours away from the Philadelphia metropolitan area, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was only two years old when legendary Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik caused massive headlines with the play simply known as ‘the hit’ that took out Frank Gifford. The legacy of hard-nosed players on Philadelphia’s defense is as long as Fangio’s football journey that had taken him everywhere but to his childhood team until this year, where he coached in the Super Bowl in the same venue his coaching career began.
A defensive coordinator for his high school just three years after graduation, Fangio wasn’t naturally gifted enough to even get college offers. Yet, teams don’t win because they have the most naturally gifted talent. For every naturally gifted player, there is a far more gifted mind calling their plays and putting them in the best positions to succeed with the team, understanding the nuances of the role each opposing player plays on their team on every snap. For some people in those positions, they get coaching jobs from their player prowess. Others? They jump from their high school coaching staff, to a no-name secondary institute in college, and utilize that experience to find their way into the USFL. With Jim Mora as his mentor, Fangio was able to jump into the NFL when Mora got his job with the Saints in 1986 with an opening at Linebackers Coach. While linebacker coach sounds like a position that may not be important to the average football fan, New Orleans newly-christened Dome Patrol set the standard for the modern linebacker as Fangio preached a lethal combination of aggression and speed, similar to that of the Philly linebackers he grew up watching. In 1992, Fangio’s combination of Vaughan Johnson, Pat Swilling, and Pro Football Hall of Famers Rickey Jackson and Sam Mills, the latter of whom had been developed in the USFL by Fangio, made the Saints the first team to ever have all of their starting linebackers elected to a Pro Bowl. As Fangio continued to excel developing the second line of Steve Sidwell’s 3-4 defensive scheme, it became something he’d utilize masterfully in his future defensive coordinating jobs.
Fangio’s defensive scheme was perhaps at one point the most unique in football, but it’s followed him everywhere he’s gone. It’s also a scheme that has taken over the NFL to manipulates offenses since Fangio introduced it. Fangio likes to put two safeties deep, ordinarily in a high shell, designed to eliminate the deep ball out of the repertoire of the offense. Typically, this allows the rest of the defense, regardless of coverage scheme, to play the ball and cover the offense on shorter-range play. Fascinatingly, Fangio’s reasoning for this has little to do with the deep ball, but a philosophical understanding of what a quarterback is trying to look for. For example, if a team lines up the same way with their safeties deep on every ball, they’ve already decided that the deep ball is out of play. However, if the safeties move up on the snap, that forces more pressure up front after the quarterback has already stopped looking deep down field. Not to mention, lining up the same way on every snap keeps the quarterback from having a much better guess when the teams are lined up before the play. Where Fangio deviates from the typical high shell coverage, however, is found on the line with the box. Using the same general front scheme that Steve Sidwell liked to use when Fangio coached the Dome Patrol, Fangio tends to employ a lighter box and fewer defenders, doubling some of his lineman as linebackers. This allows the offense a little more wiggle room on the snap, but slims the margins that the quarterback has to find an open receiver. A lighter box means that there are fewer lineman blocking the O-Line, leaving a perfect route for the run-game, but more defenders up front-and-short to beat receivers on slants. With Fangio’s backfield protected, even if a running back were to break away, a defender would be waiting for them. This defensive mindset is a huge reason that the NFL has seen a massive increase in rushes in recent memory, as the scheme essentially challenges offenses to win with the ground game.
A year ago, Fangio was released from his contract as defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins, deemed ‘too tough’ on his defense, something he’s been since he started, something rooted in him from growing up watching players like Chuck Bednarik. The philosophical differences that led to broken communication with head coach Mike McDaniel may have cost Fangio his job, but a perfect fit back home was found immediately as the Eagles swooped him up coming off of a year where their defense was near-bottom of the NFL. The Eagles brought in a total of eight new defensive starters, all of whom had to learn Fangio’s scheme in a city that’s notoriously hard on its players. The outcome? The #1 ranked defense in the NFL and the only team to allow fewer than 300 yards-per-game in 2024.
With the Chiefs being the 22nd ranked rushing team in football and their top back option of Isiah Pacheco having an injury-plagued season, it was unlikely that Matt Nagy’s Super Bowl playbook was designed to run the ball frequently. This gave Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs little leverage on snaps as Mahomes would have few open receivers to throw the ball to throughout the night, forcing constant scrambles until somebody could find his way open. The scrambling led to 10 hits of Mahomes and a total of six sacks, despite the fact that the Eagles defense did not blitz a single-time across 42 drop backs. These sacks, despite the lack of blitzing, led to Mahomes being forced to make plays that weren’t there, leading to two key interceptions from the Eagles defense. The pressure was from the scheme from the start as Kansas City didn’t have the manpower to fight it. Essentially, the defensive gameplan of Philadelphia never had a Kansas City win in the cards.
As the Eagles walloped Andy Reid’s offense, shutting them out through the first half, it became evident that Fangio’s elusive ring after nearly half a century innovating the coaching game was to become his at the end of the Eagles’ eventual 40-22 route of the Chiefs.
A lot of teams have used Fangio’s scheme to win. It worked for Fangio in all six organizations he’s been a defensive coordinator for. His defensive prowess is why the Eagles had him as a consultant for the Super Bowl two years ago. But his scheme has finally won for him, with his childhood team of the Philadelphia Eagles, in his first year as Eagles defensive coordinator after 46 years coaching. The Eagles won him his ring on the strength of their defense in the first stadium he ever called home as an NFL coach. For Vic Fangio, the mastermind of the defense he revamped in an offseason with a scheme he created many years ago, a Super Bowl for Philadelphia in the former Louisiana Superdome is as full circle a football story as you’ll find.