Eagles DE Brandon Graham eager for Fangio era, opens up about what went wrong in 2023

It’s no secret the Eagles were a disaster defensively last season.

One year after having the No. 1 pass defense, Philadelphia allowed 255.7 passing yards per game in 2023, ranked 30th in the NFL. Several factors contributed to the statistical decline: a lack of pass-rush, poor tackling, and disjointed coaching.

During the Eagles’ mandatory minicamp, veteran DE Brandon Graham about the struggles last season and how to rectify them moving forward.

“We’ve got a good coach in Clint [Hurtt],” he said of their new DL coach. “I really think that last year we just didn’t — that’s what we didn’t have. We didn’t have all the right coaches in the right position, I would say.

You could just see the guys just truly believing in what we’ve got going on, and I’m excited for the young guys that just came in, the new rookies coming in. They’re really going to get a good shot and good taste of what it really is to be in the NFL.”

When asked to elaborate, Graham gave insight into what occurred behind the scenes and expressed his excitement about playing for the new DC Vic Fangio.

“You just noticed little stuff last year, certain stuff you weren’t on the same page about,” he said. “Just here and there, it would pop up, but it popped up in a big way in that last game. It’s just, like, if [there’s[ anything I learned, you always want to make sure that we just have the proper communication.

So it’s real big communication going on right now within the locker room, on the field, in the classrooms. I know [GM] Howie [Roseman] was going to get it fixed because once you notice, you’ve just got to deal with it during the year. That’s how it is. But I don’t see none of that at all.

I’m more excited just because we do got Fangio, somebody experienced, real, real good. I’m not saying anything about the past, but it was just more you can just tell that everybody’s on the same page about stuff.”

As the Eagles unraveled down the stretch, they elected to switch defensive coordinators midseason, demoting Sean Desai and putting Matt Patricia in charge. Needless to say, things only got worse from there.

Aside from Darius Slay and James Bradberry (for now), Philadelphia stripped their secondary down the studs. They drafted top corners Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean while mending bridges with versatile DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

The Eagles are hoping the injection of youth and a sound foundation from Fangio will propel them back into Super Bowl contention, just as they were two years ago.

It sounds like two young pillars on the Eagles defense are buying into new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter spoke to reporters during OTAs this week and last week, respectively. pic.twitter.com/1wTmIzqd8j

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) May 30, 2024

Mandatory Credit: Andy Lewis | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images