Why Vic Fangio knew Zack Baun could play inside, how Jim Mora helped the Eagles tackle, and more

The Eagles appear to have the NFL free-agency bargain of the year in linebacker Zack Baun, but very few could have seen this coming.

Vic Fangio, though, saw something that others may have missed. When Howie Roseman signed the former New Orleans Saints pass rusher and special teams ace, he figured the Eagles would have a cheap and useful backup outside linebacker who would contribute on special teams. The general manager said as much to Fangio, the defensive coordinator the Eagles hired six weeks before inking Baun.

Fangio thought there was more. It was similar to how Fangio convinced Andrew Van Ginkel last season in Miami that there was more to his game than just being an edge rusher.

“When I evaluate players, there’s no checkbox, things to check off,” Fangio said Tuesday. “You just watch the tape, watch the movement patterns, watch the player play.

“After I watched [the tape], I said I think he’s an inside linebacker. Luckily it hit.”

Has it ever. Fangio said earlier this season that it’s hard to play good defense in the NFL without getting good linebacker play. Ask the Eagles of yesteryear how true that rings. This year has seemingly been a 180 with Baun and Nakobe Dean.

How good has Baun been?

Pro Football Focus grades aren’t gospel, but Baun grades second among NFL linebackers in pass coverage behind three-time All-Pro Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers.

Baun filled the stat sheet during Sunday’s win at Dallas, forcing two fumbles and recovering another. That came a week after his lone interception of the 2024 season. After 10 weeks, Baun ranks 11th in the NFL and first on the Eagles with 87 tackles, and all but one of the 10 players above him on the list have yet to have their bye week.

Not a bad use of $1.6 million.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Zack Baun, ‘a superstar, mega-athlete,’ is still growing as an NFL linebacker

Rookie edge rusher Jalyx Hunt saw his largest snap count with 25 on Sunday (42%), thanks mostly to the Eagles resting their starters during the blowout victory and also because of Bryce Huff’s wrist injury.

Fangio said that Hunt has improved in practice and has earned more snaps. He saw the field Sunday before Huff, but that may mostly be because the veteran, who has struggled so far to live up to his $51.1 million deal, has been dealing with the injury for the last two games.

“He’s got a big cast on his hand, leaves his thumb totally immobilized and really his palm is immobilized,” Fangio said. “So he’s just got four fingers dangling there with no thumb or palm to help him. On the less obvious downs, it just makes sense to put a guy in there that’s 100%.”

» READ MORE: Jalyx Hunt has proved to be a quick study. Could more playing time be on the way for the rookie?

The Eagles missed 16 tackles, according to Next Gen Stats, when they were walloped during their Week 4 loss at Tampa Bay. Nick Sirianni said the day after that one of the deep dives during the bye would be figuring out how the Eagles could get better at tackling, a problem that plagued them during their 2-2 start.

Fangio decided to go back 40 years to something he learned when he first got into coaching professional football in 1984.

“I had an old coach when I first started in pro ball who said if you emphasize something, you have a chance to get it,” Fangio said. “That’s what happened there. Plus, we’ve played better overall, and the ball hasn’t been in the open field as much.”

Who was that coach?

“A guy by the name of Jim Mora,” Fangio said.

Mora, of course, won 125 NFL games, but he was the coach of the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars when he hired Fangio.

“Jim is, to me, one of the most underrated, great coaches in the league,” Fangio said. “He just never did much in the playoffs, never quite had the overall team to go far, but a damn good coach and a guy I always looked up to.”

» READ MORE: Truths from a Phillies diehard: Vic Fangio, the grizzly Eagles DC and baseball traditionalist, plays it straight

Two days after a rant on how the sun impacts playing conditions inside his billion-dollar mega-stadium, Jerry Jones doubled down Tuesday on a Dallas radio station, saying he thinks the sun shining onto the field is part of the home-field advantage.

It sure doesn’t seem like one.

On Tuesday, Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was asked about the sun. Moore was on the Dallas roster as a backup quarterback from 2015-17 and made two starts. He was then the quarterbacks coach and later the offensive coordinator until the 2022 season ended.

“Stadiums all have different circumstances,” Moore said. “That one, obviously, the sun plays a decent role. You just have to call plays according to it, knowing certain parts of the field at times can be a little bit challenging.”