Holland Now a Big Fan of Vic Fangio (At Least for One Night)

The former Dolphins defensive coordinator earned universal acclaim after the Philadelphia Eagles shut down the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio speaks with the media during a press conference at Hilton New Orleans Riverside during Super Bowl week. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Vic Fangio's first and only season with the Miami Dolphins ended with some of his players taking shots at him.

After his first season with the Philadelphia Eagles, he received nothing but praise, including from Dolphins safety Jevon Holland.

This is significant because of Holland's social media reaction to the Dolphins and Fangio parting ways last offseason, the infamous and since-deleted brief "kicking rocks" video.

While Fangio's defense was putting the clamps on Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense to the tune of six sacks, two interceptions, a pick-six and keeping the Chiefs from reaching Eagles territory until the second half, Holland took to Twitter to offer some praise.

Vic calling a HELL of a game!

— Jev (@quickdrawjev) February 10, 2025

The praise came from everywhere after the Eagles secured their second Super Bowl title with a 40-22 victory, giving Fangio his first ring in an NFL career that began in 1986.

That included from the media, with some going so far as to suggest he should be named Super Bowl MVP, as well as his current players.

One of those was defensive end Nolan Smith, who was a non-factor as a rookie first-round pick in 2023 and blossomed under Fangio.

"Shout-out to Vic Fangio!" Smith said during a postgame interview with Sky Sports. "That man, he's old, but man, he's got so much knowledge up in there and I can't wait to just take all the knowledge that he can give to the game."

"SHOUTOUT TO VIC FANGIO" 🙌

Nolan Smith heaps praise on his defensive coordinator 🦅 pic.twitter.com/mjJOnRq7xp

— Sky Sports NFL (@SkySportsNFL) February 10, 2025

The Internet being what it is, there also were suggestions by media members on social media that Dolphins players drove Fangio out of town because they couldn't handle his old-school ways, which is a bad case of stretching the truth.

While not every player was a fan of Fangio and the Dolphins were fine with letting him leave, the truth is Fangio had his eye on joining the Eagles. It came to fruition three days after he left the Dolphins and he later said it was supposed to happen the previous year instead of coming to Miami.

While it's easy to look at what Fangio did with the Eagles defense — turning them around from 31st in total yards allowed to first and upping the takeaways from 18 to 26 with the youngest unit in the NFL and starting two rookies in the secondary — the reality is this was a clearly more talented group than what he had in Miami in 2023.

The Dolphins actually improved their NFL ranking in yards allowed under new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver in 2024, from 10th to fourth, but they also had massive drops in takeaways (from 27 to 16) and sacks (from 56 to 35).