Philadelphia Eagles 2024 Defensive Goal is About Collective Competency

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles' expected improvement on defense in 2024 will be about the sum of the parts, not the best part, a player many locals now believe will reside in East Rutherford after the Eagles officially traded Haason Reddick to the New York Jets for a 2026 conditional third-round pick on Monday. 

Even if you want to stipulate to Reddick being Philadelphia’s top defender (he was in 2022 but not last season) it would be prudent to point out it’s not necessarily good policy to double down on veteran players perceived to be on the downside who spearheaded you to finishes of 31st in pass defense, 30th in points allowed, and 26th overall.

More so, the sharp drop in production from 2022 when Reddick finished fourth in the balloting for NFL Defensive Player of the Year to 2023 when his dip on film dropped his grade from 11 to 43 at edge rusher, according to Pro Football Focus, is not something you expect to reverse course with a 30th birthday approaching after consecutive seasons of 928 and 911 defensive reps.

One of the ugly sides of this industry is the toll it takes on the players and the Eagles understand they rode Reddick hard the past two seasons. GM Howie Roseman has enough experience to know what that typically means and the trick is to pay players for what they are expected to do in the future, not what was accomplished in the past.

It's evident that the Eagles’ defensive plan is to build on the foundation of their last two top draft picks, nose tackle Jordan Davis and defensive tackle Jalen Carter, who was the team’s best defender as a rookie last season, as well as 26-year-old edge rusher Bryce Huff, who was signed to a three-year, $51 million deal in free agency, ironically from the Jets.

To reach its 2024 goal and be a significant contender again, Philadelphia will need another solid year from cornerback Darius Slay at 33, have safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson replicate what he was as a playmaker in the 2022 season, and perhaps seek a reversal of fortune from veteran CB James Bradberry if that position is not further addressed in the draft or the trade market.

From there, the Eagles picture a bounce-back season from defensive end Josh Sweat in what will be a contract year, major leaps from what have been unfulfilled expectations from Nakobe Dean and Nolan Smith to date, continued development from young defensive backs Reed Blankenship, Sydney Brown, and Kelee Ringo, and a dart throw or two to hit like Devin White and Isaiah Rodgers. 

All of that isn’t going to unfold seamlessly, of course. 

Still, if there are more positives than negatives in those blueprints the mere presence of veteran defensive coordinator like Vic Fangio rather than the tortured Sean Desai/Matt Patricia nightmare should be enough to push the Eagles closer toward the top half of the league in defense rather than the bottom five. 

Fangio himself also likely had a say in the Reddick deal because his edge players typically have to do a little more work in coverage as quarter-flat options, a skill set better suited to someone like free-agent pickup Zach Baun, who Roseman briefly compared to Andrew Van Ginkel in Miami last season, a young player who excelled under the stewardship if Fangio.

In the end, however, the Eagles you will see in September are supposed to outscore people.

The offense is the headliner. The defense needs to be the competent co-star and Roseman decided you don’t need a $20M edge rusher to accomplish that.