Fletcher Cox leaves behind a legacy of dominance; few Eagles defensive tackles have done it better

It may sound unfathomable now, but Fletcher Cox didn’t start immediately upon his entrance into the NFL.

For the first six games of his career, Cox was behind the forgettable Derek Landri on the Eagles’ defensive tackle depth chart. He played more snaps early on, but then-coach Andy Reid didn’t want to burden the first-rounder with labels after his two previous top draft picks struggled in their first seasons.

It was more than just Cox’s in-game performance that ultimately led to his promotion midway through the 2012 season. He so thoroughly dominated the Eagles’ already decimated offensive line in practice — sometimes inflicting injury — that Reid once had to call the rookie into his office.

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Take it easy, we can’t lose any more interior linemen, was Reid’s message. But the more obvious solution was to bump Cox up to the first team. He would start in the next 194 games, including the playoffs, that he played over 12 memorable Hall of Fame-caliber seasons.

Cox announced his retirement from football on Sunday, and while his Instagram post was far more understated than longtime teammate Jason Kelce’s emotional news conference last week, his career was no less impressive.

He was at one point the best player on the best team in the NFL, even if some didn’t exactly acknowledge it at the time. But coaches who knew he could blow up game plans, and O-linemen who knew they couldn’t block him one-on-one, understood that Cox was one of the best defensive tackles of his era.

His place in Eagles history is cemented, and in five years when he’s eligible, he’ll warrant consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

His achievements rank up there with the franchise’s greatest: six Pro Bowls, four All-Pros (one first-team selection and three second-team honors), membership in the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team, and a Super Bowl title at the end of the 2017 season.

His career statistics — 70 sacks (fifth in team annals and most among defensive tackles), 173 quarterback hits, 519 tackles, 88 for losses, and 16 forced fumbles over 188 games — don’t nearly tell the complete story of his superiority in the middle of the Eagles’ D-line.

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Cox was, from the moment he first walked out onto an NFL field, athletically freakish for a 6-foot-4, 310-pound D-tackle. Some of his NFL scouting combine speed numbers still rank among the highest.

But Cox also had He-Man-like strength. He would use his quickness and agility to glide past guards from the three-technique spot, but some of his most awe-inspiring rushes came when he would bull-rush interior linemen into the backfield like they were on roller skates.

It didn’t matter the scheme, Cox would find a way to thrive. He went from Jim Washburn’s wide-nine four-man front to Jerry Azzinaro’s two-gapping 3-4, back to an aggressive system under Jim Schwartz, to Jonathan Gannon’s hybrid D-line.

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And even though last season’s defense was a disaster under Sean Desai and Matt Patricia, Cox played arguably his best in years. When his younger counterparts Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis tired late in the season, the 33-year-old outshone them while still logging his same amount of playing time.

Cox’s durability was remarkable. He missed just seven games to injury over his career. He often saved stellar outings for the biggest games — when a berth in the postseason was on the line or when the Eagles played into January and February.

He finished with only 2½ sacks in 12 playoff games, but few who watched him draw repeated double teams in some of the Eagles’ most important games will forget his singularity. He was a one-man wrecking machine against the Seahawks in an eventual first-round loss in 2019.

But his “Playoff Fletch” nickname suggested the subtext that he didn’t strive to consistently perform at that level in the regular season. When Cox started to regress following a high-water 2018, Eagles sources worried that he wasn’t taking all the necessary measures to maximize his abilities as he grew older.

He was still better than most, but no longer was he mentioned in the same breath as Aaron Donald. While the Rams defensive tackle has since gone on to be recognized as maybe the best ever at his position, Cox dropped off considerably as he entered his 30s.

By the 2020 season, he had great sway within the Eagles and some had viewed the turnover with defensive line coaches as partly his doing. He struggled that season — as did most of the team in coach Doug Pederson’s last season — and was even worse the following year.

Cox publicly groused about Gannon’s defense and nearly left the following offseason when his record-setting six-year, $102.6 million contract expired. But general manager Howie Roseman had kicked so much of his earnings into future years that it made if difficult to sever ties and Cox returned the next two seasons on one-year deals.

The Eagles are still on the hook for $14.3 million in dead money. As with Kelce’s remaining $20.6 million, Roseman is likely to drop Cox’s salary to the veteran minimum and process retirement papers after June 1 to push the majority of the money — about a combined $26.4 million — into 2025.

But the Eagles would still have a combined $12.9 million on the books in 2024 for players no longer on the roster.

It’s hard to put a price on the two franchise all-timers, though. Cox and Kelce, along with defensive end Brandon Graham, who signed a one-year to return next season, and tackle Lane Johnson, formed a core that sustained coaching changes and losing seasons and still had great success.

Carter has the skills to match, or even exceed, Cox’s exploits. His initial practices evoked comparisons to his mentor’s first workouts. Like Cox, he didn’t start from the get-go. Unlike him, Carter only started in the season finale because the Eagles decided to rest Cox ahead of the playoffs.

But Carter will be the guy next season. He has big shoes to fill. Talent can only go so far, as Cox can attest. But he’ll leave behind a legacy of dominance. Few have done it better.