September 23, 2025
What's up with Vic Fangio? His blitz percentage, for sure.
The Eagles' defensive coordinator, in his 25th season as a coordinator or head coach but just second in Philly, has come out of his comfort zone so far this season.
Fangio has historically been a zone-heavy play caller, with a moderate affinity for blitzing. His signature Cover 4 or Quarters schemes – with both safeties starting deep – have been copied by coaches around the NFL, to the point where some similarly minded coordinators or defensive schemes are considered "Fangio" the way some vertically reliant offenses or offensive coaches are still labeled "Air Coryell" after former Chargers coach Don Coryell, an innovator of pass offense in the 1980s.
Last year, Fangio would've rather had his toenails plucked out than rush more than four on any given snap. His blitz rate (19.3%) was the fifth-lowest in the NFL, third-lowest in the NFC behind the Packers (16.8) and 49ers (18.6), and his four-man rush reliance picked up even more in the postseason.
In Super Bowl LIX, a 40-22 win by the Eagles over the Chiefs, Fangio famously didn't send a single blitz against Patrick Mahomes. But so far this season, Fangio has shown much more of propensity to send extra-man pressure, which continued Sunday in the Eagles' 33-26 win over the Rams.
Fangio sent five or more defenders at Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford on 14 of 34 drop-backs (41%), a plan that resulted in Stafford completing 8 of 14 passes for 52 yards and only three completions that led to a first down.
One week earlier, against the same Chiefs team he didn't blitz once on the game's biggest stage, Fangio blitzed at nearly 29 percent. He was asked why.
"Well, we didn't need them in the first game you're alluding to," Fangio said last week of the Super Bowl. "And we needed them in this game. They’re always there, it’s just whether you need them or not."
For whatever reason, Fangio has felt the need to increase pressure this year on opposing QBs. For the season, Fangio is blitzing at a 27.1-percent clip, per NFL Pro. That puts the Eagles at 14th in the NFL, not where Fangio typically ranks among the NFL's defensive coordinators.
Here's a look at where Fangio's blitz percentage has ranked going back to 2018, when NFL Pro began charting this stat, including his stints as Bears defensive coordinator and Broncos head coach:
| Year | Team | Blitz%/Rank |
| 2025 | Eagles DC | 27.1 (14th) |
| 2024 | Eagles DC | 19.3 (28th) |
| 2023 | Dolphins DC | 21.4 (23rd) |
| 2022 | Unemployed | N/A |
| 2021 | Broncos HC | 26.6 (15th) |
| 2020 | Broncos HC | 28.3 (16th) |
| 2019 | Broncos HC | 23.9 (23rd) |
| 2018 | Bears DC | 19.8 (25th) |
Even as Broncos head coach from 2019-2021, when he blitzed more than usual, presumably because Denver's defense needed help, he still didn't rank among the top 14 like he does right now.
It'll be interesting to see what Fangio thinks he needs to do Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that carved up his defense last year in Week 4 en route to a 33-16 win over the Eagles.
In fairness, Fangio's defense last year performed a complete 180 after that game. The swap of nickelbacks from Avonte Maddox to then-rookie Cooper DeJean, along with outstanding linebacker development from Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean, took the Eagles right to the top of defense rankings by season's end.
Fangio's 28-percent blitz rate last year against the Bucs was his fourth-highest of the season. His very next game, Week 6 against the Browns, was his highest of the season at 36.7, so three of his highest blitz-percentage games came in the first six weeks of the season.
Here were his top five from 2024:
| Week/Opponent | Blitz % |
| Week 6 vs. CLE | 36.7 |
| Week 16 @. WAS | 33.3 |
| Week 1 vs. GB | 32.4 |
| Week 4 @ TB | 28.0 |
| Week 17 vs. DAL | 25.8 |
From Week 7 to Week 15, a span of nine consecutive games, Fangio never blitzed higher than 24.4 percent and seven times never blitzed at more than 20 percent, including a 0-percent rate against the Steelers in Week 15 and less than 5 percent against the Giants (Week 7) and Cowboys (Week 10).
Only eight times in 2024 did he blitz at a higher rate than his season average, and when the playoffs came, Fangio basically locked his pressure schemes in a vault – save for one opponent.
| Opponent | Blitz % |
| vs. Packers | 5.6 |
| vs. Rams | 28 |
| vs. Commanders | 12.5 |
| vs. Chiefs | 0 |
Not surprisingly, Fangio doesn't prefer to go into detail about when and why he prefers to send extra pressure. There could be several reasons for his higher percentages the past two weeks – the Chiefs had no receivers to fear, Stafford is a statue in the pocket, and Eagles defensive backs Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Andrew Mukuba can all handle man coverage.
Blitzing also appears to be up around the league through three weeks, with three teams blitzing at a rate of 50 percent or more. Last year, only the Broncos blitzed at 50 percent or more for the entire year.
Nine teams so far are blitzing at more than 35 percent compared to last year, when just five teams did. But it's early, so these percentages could easily regress over the next few weeks.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is also feeling the impact of the rising blitz rates. Last year, the Eagles were blitzed at a 35.3 percent rate, third-highest in the league. This year, Hurts has seen that percentage jump to almost 41 percent – still third-highest in the NFL – with the Chiefs coming after him with extra-man pressure at a near 63-percent clip.
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