Eagles New School Defensive Tackle Ready To Play For Old School Vic Fangio

The second-year star expressed fondness for Vic Fangio and his old school ways.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter talks with reporters following an open OTA practice on May 22, 2024. /

PHILADELPHIA – Old school is about to meet new school. Like, really, really new school.

As Jalen Carter so astutely pointed out after Wednesday’s OTA practice, “In our group, I don’t think there’s anybody over 25 years old. We’re very young.”

That group is the Eagles’ defensive tackles, which got a lot younger with the offseason retirement of veteran Fletcher Cox after punching the clock in Philly for the past 12 years.

The old-school is Vic Fangio, the Eagles' 65-year-old defensive coordinator.

Carter is just 23. The “veteran" of the group is Milton Williams, 25. Jordan Davis and Marlon Tuipulotu are both 24. Moro Ojomo is the baby at 22. Other sub-25s that could make a roster push include undrafted free agent Gabe Hall, Thomas Booker, and P.J. Mustipher.

As first-round draft picks, Carter and Davis are the pedigree players, but Carter doesn’t believe that necessarily mean they are the leaders of the group.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I’d say a lot of people, they look up to us and whatever, but I wouldn’t say we’re the leaders because we’re all young at the end of the day. We all can learn from each other.

“There’s stuff I’ve learned from Mo (Moro Ojomo), and we’re in the same (draft) class. There are some things he learned from me. I still learn from JD. We’re all just working with each other to help each other get better.”

That’s new school.

Can the two schools co-exist? Fangio rubbed some of the new-school guys in Miami the wrong way when he spent his only year with the Dolphins a season ago.

They’re still griping about him. Safety Jevon Holland said recently that the Dolphins new DC is “a complete 180” from Fangio.

Carter is cool with old school. At least for now.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio meets with reporters. / By Ed Kracz

“I love Vic,” said Carter. “Old-school, man. He’s fun to talk to. A good coach. … I’m all about old-school football. If you know Apopka (Fla.) High School, where I’m from, the city of Apopka, our coach was old school with everything that we did.

“Running stadiums and stuff like that. So, it’s always been an old-school, hard work. I’m ready to be coached any kind of way. Old school, new school, whatever you want to call it.”

The Eagles have some old school players on their roster, cornerback Darius Slay, 33, among them, and even he seems ready to be coached by an old-school guy like Fangio.

“He’s come in here with great energy, said Slay. “He’s a guy who has been in a room with a lot of great vets. Not one time since I’ve been here as an Eagle somebody had something bad or negative to say about a DC because we know we have to go hard for him because we want to win.

“I don’t know what happened over there (in Miami), but my point of view over here, he’s a great dude and I’ve heard nothing but great things about. I used to watch Aqib Talib and those guys, corners who played under his system and they’ve always talked highly on him.”

For his part, Fangio has moved on from Miami, saying he didn’t see the negativity spewing out of South Florida. He’s moved on to a new school in Philadelphia.

More NFL: Eagles Could Sign Four-Time Pro Bowler To Add Another Dynamic Weapon