February 11, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio pondered retirement again but is expected to return.
The 2025-2026 season is completely in the books, so now feels like an appropriate time to take some questions for an Eagles mailbag. This will be Part I of a two-part mailbag.
Question from @xavierzg (via Threads): With the recent news of Jeff Stoutland leaving and Vic Fangio almost retiring, do you get the sense that maybe Nick Sirianni is driving away these great coaches?
It does seem that there were some hard feelings between Stoutland and the Eagles, but Vic Fangio's near-retirement had little to do with any perceived internal team turmoil, per a source.
My understanding of the situation is that when Fangio is in-season, he's extremely locked in, and obviously misses out on family stuff, as does every coach. When he gets out of season, he realizes what he is missing. That time with family is valuable to a lot of older coaches, and Fangio will turn 68 before the start of the 2026 season. There isn't really any drama there.
Question from @Jack_Despeaux: Is Jim Schwartz still good? Would he have been a decent replacement for Vic if he had retired this offseason?
Yeah, Schwartz is still good, in my opinion, and if he takes a year off as a defensive coordinator, I would probably consider hiring him in some kind of consulting role just so that he's already in the building in the event Fangio retires after the 2026 season, which to me feels likely.
I think that most of the players would be fine in Schwartz's scheme, and some might even be enhanced by it, like Jalen Carter and the cornerbacks. But certainly there are a few players — like Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith, and Jalyx Hunt — who are better fits for Fangio's scheme than they would be in Schwartz's.
Question from @jawnbomb: Why was Landon Dickerson not held out at all during the season if his injuries were as serious as recent reports indicate with him “contemplating” retirement? The Eagles' medical staff has taken leaps in recent memory, but this was a miss by them. What’s the real story? He shouldn’t have played.
In the locker room after the Eagles' playoff loss to the 49ers, I asked Dickerson if playing through injuries is a team-wide culture kind of thing.
"If you're in team sports, you understand that you don't want to let the guys down beside you, because you've been through a lot [together]," he said.
It was pretty obvious during the season that Dickerson was hurt, and it was affecting his play. If casual fans can see it, then certainly the coaches can, too. Doctors can advise if injuries are merely painful to play through or if they can lead to further long-term damage, but the concussion protocol aside they can't really force players not to play. And some players, like Dickerson, are not going to willingly sit out games.
In my opinion, it should have been on the coaching staff to understand that he wasn't helping the team by playing below his usual high standards, and they should have rested him for some games to allow him to get right again.
Question from @iaokun10: Should the Eagles franchise tag Dallas Goedert and still draft a TE high (top 100) in the upcoming 2026 draft?
Goedert was scheduled to make $14 million in 2025, before he took a pay cut, lowering his pay to $10 million. The projected franchise tag amount for tight ends this year is projected to be a little over $16 million, per OverTheCap. If they weren't going to pay him $14 million in 2025, they aren't going to pay him $16 million in 2026.
As noted in our "stay or go" series, I think he'll sign elsewhere, partly because the team forced a pay cut on him last year.
Question from @eagletodd (via Bluesky): Thinking outside the box, would you consider trading Jalen Carter? They can’t pay everyone and he will demand the most money. While he has the potential to be an All-Pro player, and has been for short stretches, he simply has not reached the Chris Jones level but will likely want to be paid as such. Combine that with immaturity and recklessness, I’m not sure it is worth the gamble. He might not ever be a better player than he is now, and his value will never be higher. Paying him his market price likely means other players will have to be left unsigned.
Jalen Carter doesn't just have the "potential" to be an All-Pro. He IS an All-Pro, or at least he was an All-Pro in 2024. He is a star player who had a down year, partly because of shoulder injuries. So, I guess I disagree with the assertion that "his value will never be higher." His value is probably lower than normal at the moment, because of the disappointing season he just had.
Carter is still only 24 years old, and he might be the most talented player on the team. At a minimum, he is the player that opposing offensive coordinators must have an answer for, first and foremost. My expectation is that he will have a long, outstanding career, and you'd have to be offering an absurd package of pick/player capital to make me even consider trading him.
Question from @jerseyjedi (via Bluesky): Lots of fans were angry or simply asking "WHY?" over the Sixers' trade of Jared McCain. What Eagles moves have had a similar reaction? What are your biggest "WHYs" in recent Eagles years?
I'll do one of each of the following: Bad extension, bad release, bad trade, and bad draft pick.
The Eagles extended Alshon Jeffery' contract when there were pretty clear signs that he was cooked. It was high risk, low reward. I never understood it, and it bit them in the ass. Just a complete and obvious unforced error.
Cutting DeSean Jackson simply because the head coach didn't like him was a low point during the Chip Kelly era.
The trade for Sam Bradford was nuts, not even because the compensation was lopsided, but more so because Kelly decided, "THIS is the guy I want at quarterback." Like, how?!
Drafting Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson was ridiculous when they did it, and obviously that aged horribly. (There was no "20/20 hindsight" on that pick, as Jefferson was widely regarded as the much better prospect.)
That's probably my "Bad Eagles Move Mt. Rushmore" of the last 15 years.
Question from @fritztastic: Is Julian Lurie off limits? I've asked several beats in their mailbag and no one takes the question. And I think it's a legit one, especially in the offseason and while he was sitting in on offensive coordinator interviews. You must have some thoughts on this heir apparent?
He's going to own the team one day, so, yeah, I'd love to interview him. He's in his 30s now. It's not as if he's some young kid. But, yep, he's off-limits, in that the team has never made him available to the media.
Question from @PatrickCahiII: Why can’t they ever just be normal?
The Eagles' beat is the best in sports, in my opinion, because the team is good a lot more often than they're bad, the fans care a lot, it's ultra competitive (if you can thrive here, you can dominate anywhere else), and perhaps most of all, the team is never boring. So, I dunno, selfishly, the team never just being "normal" as you put it is fine by me.
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