Vic Fangio

Q. Why didn’t DE Bryce Huff work out here? (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: Well, I think the one thing is, he was getting better, and when he hurt his hand, he tried to play with it for a couple weeks. It wasn’t going good because he was reluctant to use his hand. Then when they operated on it, he had to play with a big cast on his hand, which basically rendered his hand useless and then rendered his arm useless because you can’t use your hand. That really had an effect on him.

We just came out of draft season and the first thing you see when they put a guy’s name up on the board is his hand size, arm length. Well, he lost all that. While he was out, [OLB] Nolan [Smith] got more snaps, [OLB] Jalyx [Hunt] got more snaps and things evolve, but I think he’ll do fine in San Francisco.

Q. What kind of role do you envision for LB Jihaad Campbell? Specifically, as a pass rusher, how do you evaluate him? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: Well, right now he’s working at ILB because there’s a lot more to learn there. So that’s where we’ll start him. He won’t hit the practice field until sometime in August. So, we’re doing all we can. He’s doing all he can in meetings, we’re doing all we can with him on the field. I take him to the side and do an individual drill with him that’s suited to what he can do right now. So, he’s working good and trying to pick it up.

Q. When you see LB Jihaad Campbell though, do you see pass rush upside? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Potentially.

Q. What would it take to realize that? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: Getting him out there.

Q. How do you feel about the edge rusher situation? Like the fact that OLB Josh Sweat has parted, BG [former Eagles DE Brandon Graham] has retired, DE Bryce Huff has been traded, you have two young returning guys, and I know you have a couple free agents. How do you feel about that position? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, I feel good about Nolan. I think we’ll feel good about Jalyx now that he’s going to get a lot of reps and develop. He played good for us down the stretch last year and played a lot, as you saw, so I feel good about those two guys, and I think they’ll continue to improve. We’ve got [OLB Joshua] Uche, we’ve got [OLB] Azeez [Ojulari], we’ve got three other guys there. I think we’ll be fine.

Q. What are you looking to find out about DB Cooper DeJean as you’re trying him out at base, at corner, and that plan right now? (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: We’d like to keep him at nickel, and then in our base package, we’ll find a spot for him either at corner or safety.

Q. What’s the benefit of someone who can play inside at nickel and outside in base? You’d have to find some of that corner at the nickel size with like 80% of snaps. (Brooks Kubena)

Vic Fangio: I think a lot of it will end up depending upon how the rest of the guys develop and where we most need him. So, it will be determined by what’s best for him and what’s best for the team, and probably what’s best for the team will win out in that decision. But he’s capable of playing corner and he’s capable of playing safety also.

Q. What do you think about those guys who are developing, whether it’s CB Kelee Ringo, CB Mac McWilliams, CB Adoree’ Jackson? How do they look and how comfortable are you with them starting on the outside right now? (Jason Dumas)

Vic Fangio: It’s always hard to tell this time of year without the pads on even at that position, but I think both those guys are making good strides. They’re both into it and they know there’s a job there to be had for somebody. I think they’ve had good off seasons, both of them.

Q. What’s your view of the S Drew Mukuba-S Sydney Brown competition? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: It’s a competition that is going to take a training camp and a few preseason games to sort out. And [S] Tristin [McCollum]’s in that, too.

Q. What are the pros for S Sydney Brown going in, in terms of having the experience that he has? How does that help him? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: Well, his experience came in ’23, not ’24. Last year at this time, he wasn’t doing anything and didn’t do anything really until the middle of October. So he lost all this time of year, training camp, early part of the season, and really never got many reps with us defensively. He did play in the last game against the Giants and did fine, but it’s a new system from what he had in ’23. So yes, he’s sitting in meetings, but that only goes so far. You’ve got to get out there and experience it and build on it, and he lost that last year, so he’s going through that process now and he’s doing fine.

Q. You mentioned LB Jihaad Campbell. Also, LB Nakobe Dean’s got a difficult rehab. You started with LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr. How are you going to work that until those guys are ready, and does [LB] Zack [Baun] play MIKE in that situation? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: Yeah, well, Zack can play either spot, just like with Cooper, wherever we need him the most, what’s best for the team, which will be determined some by who the next guy is until Nakobe comes back, which he won’t be back for a while. That’ll be TBD. That’ll be a good question after two preseason games.

Q. What do you like about the idea of DB Cooper DeJean at safety and what will go into determining whether he plays at safety or the outside? (Tim McManus)

Vic Fangio: I think he would play very well at safety. I think it suits his skillset, things that he does well. I just think he would do very well in there. We played 21 games last year. How many base snaps do you guys think we played? About 160 in total.

Q. Is that part of your philosophy, having your five best defensive backs out there in the secondary no matter– (Martin Frank)

Vic Fangio: Well, in last year’s case, we evolved to that because once Cooper started to play very well, it got him on the field more. It was a much better fit for our edge guys. They could play nickel end instead of having to play three-four outside backer. So last year it was a good fit for where we were personnel-wise. This year that could change.

Q. Where did you factor into the decision to have DT Jordan Davis pick up his fifth-year option, and what does he need to do in his fourth year to warrant that decision? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: I mean I didn’t have anything to do with that decision. That’s [General Manager/Executive Vice President] Howie [Roseman]’s. But Jordan last year, I would say the last seven or eight games including the playoffs, played very well down the stretch. I think that’s carried over into this offseason and I anticipate it carrying over into the season. I think he’s in the best shape that he’s ever been in, which he kind of got into late in the season last year and he’s carried it over, so I think he’s going to do very well for us this year.

Q. Can I just follow up real quick on that? You don’t typically see guys get in their best shape late into the season. Why did it take so long for him to get in his best shape? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: We could be here a long time for that. For some guys it takes time, but I’m ducking that question.

Q. How has DT Jordan Davis evolved as a pass rusher? (Jeff Kerr)

Vic Fangio: He got better towards those last seven or eight games. He really did. You saw it in practice first. A lot of people think you don’t need practice, you do need practice, and he showed it in practice first and then it carried over into the games. I think he realized that, felt it, felt good, and he’s just carried it over all offseason.

Q. DT Jalen Carter played over a thousand snaps last year. On the offensive side of the ball, Head Coach Nick Sirianni’s gotten questions about RB Saquon Barkley’s heavy usage last year. Is that something you have to consider going forward with him and making sure that he’s able to play at a high level? (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: In Jalen’s case, the two plays he had at the end of the Rams game, which everybody has alluded to many times, those were his 68th and 69th snaps in that game.

Q. Obviously he showed that he was well-conditioned last year. I just mean from the perspective of long term, if he’s playing an extreme number of snaps every year, do you worry that his proponents would drop off? (Jimmy Kempski)

Vic Fangio: He’s still a young pup.

Q. To follow up on that, in terms of DT Jalen Carter year three, former Eagles LB Jeremiah Trotter Sr. said on 94WIP yesterday that he’s been hearing from some folks that Jalen doesn’t even know how to play the position yet. It was a complimentary fashion in a sense to say that he doesn’t even know how to play the position yet, the sky’s the limit. What are your thoughts on that? (Dave Zangaro)

Vic Fangio: I agree with the point he’s trying to make. I do think Jalen– the good news about Jalen is twofold. One, he played very well for us last year, and two, he can still improve a lot.

Q. CB Kelee Ringo, what did you see? You’ve had Ringo for a full year now. What do you like about his skillset to play the outside and where does he still need to improve? (Ed Kracz)

Vic Fangio: He just needs reps. He needs to learn to play the game, and that comes with reps. To quote what Nick said in a meeting recently, ‘Repetition is the burden of leadership.’ It’s up to us to get him enough reps in practice, expose him to all the things he needs to be exposed to so he can play a full NFL game. When I say full, not physically conditioning-wise, but be a competent corner throughout a full game in a full season.

Q. How much did depth have to do with the defense’s success last year, and do you think you have that same depth going into this season? (Bob Brookover)

Vic Fangio: It’s too early to say. I mean, I look at– and I told the players this. I look at this year, very similar to last year in that at this time last year, we had a lot of turnover in personnel from the previous year. You had Baun, nobody knew what he was at this point last year. You had Nakobe, who hadn’t played any meaningful NFL football in his first two years. You had [LB] Oren Burks, who we had just signed. You had [CB] Isaiah Rodgers, who we had just signed. You had [DT Moro] Ojomo, who didn’t play hardly at all his rookie year. We got Nolan, who didn’t play hardly at all his rookie year. We got Chauncey [S C.J. Gardner-Johnson] back. We drafted Q [CB Quinyon Mitchell], Cooper, Jalyx.

We had a lot of question marks at that time. This year, those names are replaced. Ringo, Adoree’, Sydney, McCollum, Ojulari, Uche, [DT] Byron Young, [DT] Gabe Hall, [DT Thomas] Booker, Jihaad, all the draft picks– Mukuba, [DT Ty] Robinson, [LB] Smael [Mondon Jr.], and then the rest of the rookies. Some of those guys in that second list have to become like those guys in the first list, and I don’t know how that’s going to turn out, but I look at us really basically the same one year to the next. The names have changed. Hopefully we’ll get the same results from these new guys that we got from a lot of the new guys last year.

Q. What are your thoughts on trading S C.J. Gardner-Johnson? (Jeff McLane)

Vic Fangio: That was a salary cap-type thing, and Howie made that decision. I was fine with it.

Q. With Drew Mukuba– We talked about Cooper’s versatility, played a lot of slot earlier in his career. Do you see that kind of versatility? (John McMullen)

Vic Fangio: We haven’t yet, only because we’ve focused him at safety right now, but we are well aware that he played it in college and might have some ability there, too.

Q. Of the three levels of the defense, is there one area where it’s keeping you up at night or where you are most curious about what the answers are going to be? (Bo Wulf)

Vic Fangio: No, really, it’s all of them because until Nakobe comes back, which won’t be anytime soon, you’ve got that to fill. We’ve got to get guys in our edge rotation; minus the guys we lost last year. You’ve got to replace Milt [DT Milton Williams] and his snaps, which I think will be done with guys we already had here with the addition of Robinson. Obviously, got to have a starting safety, a starting corner, so it’s kind of spread equally.

Q. Is there one that matters most? (Bo Wulf)

Vic Fangio: They all matter.

Q. Heard the anecdote of you bringing the defense together to review the second half of the Super Bowl. Why was that important to you that day to do that? (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: That was fake news. Yeah, I never did that. I actually brought them together on that day to compliment them on how well they played in the Super Bowl. There was not a negative word spoken.

Q. Glad you clarified that. (Zach Berman)

Vic Fangio: Fake news.