Not only did Vic Fangio say he wasn\u2019t close to retiring this offseason, but he also said he\u2019s \u201cgood for two years, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s great news for Eagles fans.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s honestly great news for Eagles reporters too, because no one is more honest than Fangio in a press conference setting. And as the Eagles prepare for OTAs next week, Fangio hit on a bunch of topics Thursday.<\/p>\n
Here are some takeaways:\u00a0<\/p>\n
1. The safety battle<\/p>\n
We know Drew Mukuba is going to be one of the Eagles\u2019 starting safeties in 2026. As for the other starting job now that Reed Blankenship is gone?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s open,\u201d Fangio said.<\/p>\n
The Eagles veteran defensive coordinator did reveal that Cooper DeJean will play safety in the Eagles\u2019 base package, but will slide to nickel corner in sub packages. But that other safety job when the Eagles are in nickel is a competition that starts with veteran Marcus Epps, but also includes plenty of other players like Michael Carter II, Andre\u2019 Sam, J.T. Gray, Cole Wisniewski and more.<\/p>\n
But Fangio certainly made it seem like Epps is the front-runner for the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he had to play last year, he came in and showed his experience, showed his instincts that he has for the game,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cI was pleased with the way he played last year. I wasn’t considering him an old player at this point, but he’s obviously a veteran. I think he’ll do fine. I’m not sure what his injury history has been, but I think if he stays injury-free and if he wins the job, we’ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Carter has mostly played nickel corner in the NFL, the Eagles are planning on trying him at safety this spring and summer. Fangio pointed out Carter\u2019s instincts and said he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d had a hard to learning the position from a mental aspect.<\/p>\n
As for Mukuba, he\u2019s entering Year 2 after fracturing his ankle last November.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarted off the season up and down, had some shaky plays,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cBut I felt like the last five or six games prior to him getting hurt, he was coming on and hopefully he’ll be able to pick up from there. He’s had a rehab-dominated offseason, but he’s been out there with us these last couple of weeks. He’s not 100% yet, but he will be soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. The big new additions<\/p>\n
The Eagles top defensive additions this offseason were edge rusher Jonathan Greenard and cornerback Riq Woolen. Fangio was asked about both on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Greenard, 28, is expected to be the Eagles\u2019 top edge rusher in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s been productive in the rush,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cHe’s had years where he’s had good numbers sack-wise, but like we always discuss, pressure on the quarterback is also important and he’s been able to do that throughout his career. I think he’s strong on the edge vs. the run game. We’re excited to have him, but I think there’s a lot of good there.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the 27-year-old Woolen, Fangio revealed that the Eagles took a long look at him during the 2025 season because they thought Seattle might be interested in trading him.<\/p>\n
While Fangio didn\u2019t get too deep into the evaluation during the season, he got a chance to really watch Woolen this offseason and came away impressed. In fact, Fangio was surprised Woolen didn\u2019t get a long term deal and said he was \u201cthrilled\u201d the Eagles got him.<\/p>\n
What does Fangio like about Woolen?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, he’s a rare guy in that you don’t see many corners in the league that are 6-4,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cYou don’t see many that are 6-2 or even 6-1 and there’s a reason for that. It’s hard to find guys at those heights that can move and mirror receivers that are hard to cover. He can do that for a guy his height. He can get in and out of breaks. He obviously has good downfield speed and his length is more of an asset than a detriment in his case. I’m excited to have him. He’s been here since we started the offseason. Seems to be a great guy. He’s into being here and really looking forward to working with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about Woolen\u2019s reputation for letting his emotions get the best of him, Fangio said he\u2019s confident Woolen will overcome that.<\/p>\n
3. Back for training camp<\/p>\n
It was Fangio earlier this offseason who revealed that linebacker Jihaad Campbell is getting over a shoulder injury this offseason.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Fangio said Campbell is coming along \u201cgood.\u201d He couldn\u2019t say if Campbell would be back in time for any spring practices but did offer that Campbell will \u201cbe ready for training camp.\u201d That\u2019s good news for the second-year linebacker and the Eagles\u2019 defense. Campbell is expected to be a full-time starter next to Zack Baun in 2026.<\/p>\n
4. The need for patience<\/p>\n
There\u2019s plenty of excitement about Eagles\u2019 seventh-round pick Uar Bernard. But the Nigerian freak-show athlete has never played football, so patience will be important.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it’s really different,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cThe guy’s never played high school football, college football. I had a similar experience when I was with the Niners. We had a guy by the name of Lawrence Okoye who was an Olympic discus thrower for England. Looked a lot like Uar looks now and we kept him for a couple years. Other teams tried. It never worked for him, but patience will need to be a virtue both on his part and ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okoye has represented Great Britain in three different Olympics and is the British record holder in the discus. He actually broke his own record last month in Oklahoma with a throw of 71.88 meters.<\/p>\n
But football never worked out for Okoye, who signed with the 49ers in 2013 when Fangio was their defensive coordinator. Okoye also spent time with the Cardinals, Jets, Cowboys, Bears and Dolphins but never played in an NFL game before going to the CFL and then the AAF before returning to the discus.<\/p>\n
5. Hangin\u2019 with Mr. Kuper<\/p>\n
After 13 years with Jeff Stoutland, the Eagles will have a new offensive line coach in 2026. They hired Chris Kuper because of his familiarity with new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, but Fangio knows Kuper well too.<\/p>\n
Kuper was the assistant offensive line coach in Denver for three seasons when Fangio was the Broncos\u2019 head coach. So when the Eagles got close to hiring Kuper this offseason, they reached out to Fangio to pick his brain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Kup’s an excellent coach,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cHe did a great job for us in Denver. Worked under Mike Munchak there for a good three years. Went on to Minnesota as the head line coach. I thought did a good job there. I have the utmost confidence in Kup that he’ll do a great job here, and I think the players will like and respect him. I don’t see any issue there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest issue for Kuper is that he\u2019s replacing a legend. Fangio and Stoutland became friends in recent years and even though Fangio hasn\u2019t seen Stout in a few weeks, he has played golf with him a couple times this offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe seems to be enjoying himself,\u201d Fangio said. \u201cI know he’s playing a lot of golf. I don’t know that he’s gotten any better, but he’s trying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not only did Vic Fangio say he wasn\u2019t close to retiring this offseason, but he also said he\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6107,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-201763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eagles-blog","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}