Could the 2025 Eagles defense be better than last year’s version?

Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson are no longer Eagles. Neither are Isaiah Rodgers, Avonte Maddox, Oren Burks, and retired Eagles all-time great Brandon Graham. Starters Sweat, Slay and Williams left via free agency, and Gardner-Johnson was traded away to the Houston Texans in March.

It was a lot to lose from Vic Fangio’s Super Bowl-winning No. 1 defense in the NFL.

The Eagles have a nauseating large gap to fill defensively, needing to replace 3,369 snaps on defense with the departures of interior defenders Williams (501 snaps), Sweat (622) and Graham (311) and defensive backs Gardner-Johnson (908), Slay Jr. (699) and Rodgers (328).

Presently, those missing pieces will be filled by five players that totaled 834 snaps last season, in defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (388), linebacker Jalyx Hunt (241), strong safety Sydney Brown (79), and cornerbacks Kelee Ringo (112) and Eli Ricks (14).

The Eagles also lost 15.5 of their 41 regular-season sacks in 2024, and 5.5 of their 16 postseason sacks.

For 2024, the Eagles defense—coupled with Saquon Barkley—won Super Bowl LIX. They did it by allowing the fewest total yards per game (278.4 ave.), the lowest yards-per-play average (4.7), the second-fewest points per game (17.8), and were plus-11 in the giveaway-takeaway ratio, causing 26 turnovers and only giving up 15. The Eagles did it by basically bludgeoning teams with an exhaustive ground game that chewed up an NFL-high average of 32-minutes, 21-seconds time of possession a game, and limiting opposing team an NFL-low 999 plays—the only team in the NFL last season to not allow the opposition 1,000 or more total plays during the 2024 regular season.

It all fit perfectly—a well-rested defense, limiting the opposition an NFL-low average of 58.7 plays a game, and the Eagles’ offensive line bulldozing over everyone in front of them.

Can the Eagles duplicate that recipe this coming season?

Probably not.

Much would come down to Barkley carrying a heavy load again, which would keep the Eagles’ defense off the field. Though after a season in which the NFL’s leading rusher had a career-best 378 touches, the most touches since his rookie season in 2018 (352), that will not happen.

Ojomo will be expected to fill in for Williams, and with Jalen Carter next to him, attracting double- and sometimes triple teams inside, he may be able to produce similar numbers as Williams. Ojomo had two tackles, one loss, in Super Bowl LIX. Williams had two sacks and forced and recovered a fumble in the Super Bowl.

Hunt went from a head-scratching third-round curiosity out of tiny Houston Christian to making an impact during the postseason, with 1½ sacks in four games, equaling the 1½ sacks he had in 16 regular season games. He had 9 hurries during the regular season. He had 8 in the playoffs.

So, it looks to be solid production there.

Gardner-Johnson had six of the Eagles’ 13 interceptions last season, with fellow safety Reed Blankenship right behind with four. Of the Eagles’ six postseason interceptions, rookie defensive backs Quinyon Mitchell (2) and Cooper DeJean (1) combined for three, with Zack Baun grabbing two and Slay one.

The first month of last season, Gardner-Johnson was a mess. Against Atlanta, Kirk Cousins torched him. In the season opener against Green Bay, Gardner-Johnson turned the wrong way, and was burned when Jayden Reed ran right by him unchecked for an easy TD. The 70-yard TD toss was Jordan Love’s longest in his NFL career. Against Atlanta, Gardner-Johnson got burned when Cousins found Darnell Mooney for a 41-yard touchdown pass with 1:21 left in the third quarter. Gardner-Johnson got caught looking at Cousins as Mooney ran right by him. Then, CJGJ made a weak attempt to take Mooney down.

The glaring problem the Eagles’ 2025 defense will face is depth.

“Remember, the Eagles had no major injuries on defense,” NFL Network expert Brian Baldinger told Bleeding Green Nation. “Jeremiah Trotter Jr. won the trust of Vic Fangio, and not just because his last name is ‘Trotter,’ Vic doesn’t play that game, and will get time at linebacker, because they will have a hole to fill there with Nakobe Dean recovering (from a debilitating torn patellar tendon in his left knee). Nolan Smith flourished, after the Eagles awarded Bryce Huff with a big contract. Vic plays the best guys available. This team comes back knowing Vic’s defense. They know where to be, and how to adjust. The fourth week of the season, they really didn’t know what they were doing. They made structural changes and fixed a lot of things.

“The Eagles played with a lot more reduced fronts, which meant a Bear Front covering the inside three. Their answer to anyone running the ball was [to] move Baun up and play a 6-1, with Nakobe Dean the lone linebacker. They covered every gap up front and that was a big adjustment against teams successfully running the ball the way Tampa did (in the Week 4 33-16 loss). Talk to anyone who played for Vic, they will tell you it is a pretty simple defense, don’t give up the big play, keep everyone in front of you, with certain rudiments that allow his players to keep simple, and play fast. Jams at the line of scrimmage, no free releases, rerouting guys, following things to the middle of the field, not a lot of blitzing, throw out a lot of zone coverages and shrink the field.

“Baun played in 21 games. Jalen Carter played 100-percent of the snaps. Gardner-Johnson I think is a big loss. He knew that defense. But no one got hurt. You can’t really count on that during an entire NFL season. Someone is going to get hurt. Adding Azeez Ojulari and Josh Uche will help. They are good depth players. We’ll see if Hunt can take a step up. I think he is ready. This defense can be better than last year. If anything were to happen to Jalen Carter, everyone slides to him, this whole thing wouldn’t fall apart, but he is their best player. He allows everyone else to get one-on-one attention.

“This defense can be better than last year. It is a group that really figured it out. They had 13 takeaways during the postseason, which is tied for the most in NFL history. But it is a lot to ask any defense to stay 100-percent healthy two years in a row.”

Said Trotter Jr., “Once we got the defense down, which took us about a month, we played fast. We lost a lot of talented guys. But they’re being replaced by a lot of talented guys who everyone has trust and confidence in.”

If you would ask Fangio what he would like more, being the No. 1 defense in the NFL, or be among the league leaders in takeaways, Fangio would most likely reply takeaways.

This is a defense that can accomplish that.