This defense won’t be the best in Eagles history. But it will be plenty good enough. Even great.
The 1991 defense, led by Reggie White, is practically mythical. But the Vic Fangio era has been terrific, and this season's unit is poised to be his best yet.
Before the Eagles won two Super Bowls, before they established themselves as a franchise that expects and is expected to compete for a championship every year, before they built the defense they have now — a defense that might be the best in the NFL this season — there was a moment that scarred everyone who cheered for or cared about them.
It has been 35 years since that fateful 1991 Week 1 game at Lambeau Field, since Randall Cunningham threw an incomplete pass on the first play of the second quarter, since a low and late hit from the Packers’ Bryce Paup crumpled Cunningham’s left knee and tore two ligaments in it. The Eagles won that day, 20-3, but everyone knew: Randall was done for the season, and so was his team.
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The sadness and frustration in the aftermath of Cunningham’s injury weren’t just for him but for the hopes and dreams of a fan base that hadn’t celebrated a Super Bowl yet and believed it would. That’s how spectacular Cunningham could be. More importantly, that’s how good that Eagles’ defense — with Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Wes Hopkins, et. al. — was. Sure enough, the next 15 games were one long exercise in what-might-have-been.
Coached by defensive coordinator Bud Carson, its members hand-picked by Buddy Ryan, that ‘91 unit remains mythological here. It led the NFL in rushing defense and passing defense. It turned every opposing quarterback into Napoleon Dynamite’s Uncle Rico. It ranked first in sacks, first in completion percentage (44.7%!), third in interceptions, and fifth in points allowed.
Now, will the 2026 Eagles’ defense be as great as the 1991 Eagles’?
No.
Will it have to be?
Probably not.
First things first: The comparison isn’t as crazy as it might first sound. Yes, that ‘91 defense had White, who was one of the five best defensive players in league history, and was overflowing with talent and ferocity at every level of its alignment: defensive line, linebackers, secondary. Plus, those guys could play with a brutality that, in the modern NFL, would result in most of them being suspended before halftime of the regular season opener.
In Cunningham’s absence, Jim McMahon, Jeff Kemp, Pat Ryan, and Brad Goebel all were, at one time or another, the team’s No. 1 quarterback. The Eagles didn’t have a running back who rushed for more than 450 yards or a skill-position player with more than 950 receiving yards, and there could be no more compelling evidence for that defense’s dominance than the Eagles’ record that season. Somehow, they went 10-6.
Keep in mind, though: It was just two years ago, in Vic Fangio’s first season as their coordinator, that the Eagles had the league’s best defense for the first time since ‘91: first in total yardage, first in passing yardage, 10th in rushing yardage, second in points. That group saved its best performance of that season for the 40-22 romp over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, when the Eagles intercepted Patrick Mahomes twice, sacked him six times, and didn’t allow Andy Reid’s offense to cross midfield until less than three minutes remained in the third quarter.
Zoom out, too, and consider the prime three years of that Ryan/Carson defense, 1990 through 1992, and these two seasons the Eagles have had under Fangio.
Those comps aren’t far off, and they will be even closer if this season’s defense turns out to be better than 2024’s. It’s not a stretch to think it will be.
The secondary already has two All-Pros in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean — both rookies in ‘24 — and now has an outside corner, in Riq Woolen, who has the size and talent to deliver the quality of coverage that Darius Slay provided. At linebacker, Zack Baun is also an All-Pro. Jihaad Campbell was a first-round pick. Based on those who have observed him during training camp, edge rusher Jalyx Hunt, who led the team in both sacks and interceptions last season, looks like the product of an experiment that spliced the genes of Hugh Douglas and Brian Dawkins. (An overstatement, to be sure, but Hunt is an intriguing and improving player.)
The defensive tackle rotation — Jalen Carter (with two surgically repaired shoulders), Jordan Davis, and Moro Ojomo — is so deep and so good that it will create one-on-one matchups for anyone the Eagles line up on the outside. And if Jonathan Greenard and Nolan Smith Jr. are healthy, the Eagles should win those matchups most of the time.
The most important questions the Eagles have to answer this season don’t have much to do with their defense, if any of them have anything to do with the defense at all. They will have a new offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion, who will be calling plays in the NFL for the first time. Jalen Hurts will have to adjust to playing in a system with which he was completely unfamiliar, and there’s no way to know how he’ll fare in it. The offensive line should be better than it was last season, but it’s hard to see yet how the Eagles won’t be worse at wide receiver and tight end.
Again, questions, lots of them. And while we’re doing the then-vs-now thing, it is fitting that the quality of Hurts’ backups — Tanner McKee and Andy Dalton — have become a popular discussion topic and cause for concern. But none of those potential issues presents the same complications that arose all those years ago once Cunningham went down and stayed down.
Part of the reason that the ‘91 defense was so great was that it had to be just for that team to have a chance each week. Everyone remembers the “House of Pain” game, a 13-6 victory over the Houston Oilers on Monday Night Football in which Reggie & Co. pretty much left bodies strewn about the Astrodome, as if they’d fought off a zombie apocalypse. Not everyone remembers that the Eagles actually gained fewer yards that night (240) than the Oilers did (247). As awesome as that defense was, that offense was just about as bad.
This defense shouldn’t have to meet that same skyscraper-high standard. Barring a worst-case outcome, it will just have to be what it can be. It will just have to be great enough.
The Eagles’ regular season roster is set - for now. How ready is the team for the new year, and will the talent be enough for the Eagles to get back to Super Bowl contention? The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Mike Sielski examine general manager Howie Roseman’s final roster decisions in the aftermath of cutdown day. Listen here.
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