The Eagles' Next Defensive Star?

PHILADELPHIA - Milton Williams didn’t get paid $26 million per season by the New England Patriots by accident.

According to Pro Football Focus, Williams was the best interior pass rusher in football last season. He was ahead of second-team All-Pro teammate Jalen Carter, who had often lined up next to him, or even future Hall of Famer Chris Jones.

However, context matters in the “ultimate team game,” as Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni often calls professional football.

For years, when conference calls were mandatory for opposing coaches in the lead-up to games, whenever an offensive mentor spoke about the Philadelphia defense, it started with Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham.

Or, because so many coaches like to speak in numbers, 91 and 55. That’s where game-planning started for the opposition.

If today’s coaches had to go through the same weekly exercise, the answer without fail would be 98. That’s Carter’s jersey number, the emerging third-year star who will be in the conversation for the best defensive player in all of the NFL for the foreseeable future.

Carter is so gifted, he’s the first order of business in any discussion of Vic Fangio’s defense. And whenever people are drawn to that orbit, it will naturally leave plenty of opportunities for the pilot fish swimming alongside the shark.

Williams, a very good player himself, parlayed that into life-changing money.

Next up is Moro Ojomo, a seventh-round pick in 2023 who showed serious signs on the pass-rushing front as a rotational player last season, as his playing time spiked.

As a rookie during Cox’s final season, Ojomo, 23, was essentially redshirted, playing in only 68 defensive snaps the entire season.

Cox’s retirement after the 2023 campaign meant Williams and Ojomo were elevated a notch and both ran with the baton. In Ojomo’s case, his snap count spiked to 388 with 102 more in the postseason, and the Texas product was often a pest, generating 22 pressures.

Ojomo’s pass-rushing win rate of 18.2%, not only topped Williams (17.6%), it was also second-best in the NFL to Jones’ 18.8%, albeit with the limited sample size.

The key is turning those 388 snaps Ojomo played last season into the 653 that Williams toiled in, or even more if rookie fourth-round pick Ty Robinson isn’t quite ready to handle Ojomo’s workload last season with the same efficiency.

Fangio raved about Ojomo’s pass-rushing acumen multiple times last season, but would also caution about his size limitations, listed at 6-foot-3 and 292, which could impact run support and the ability to play major snaps.

That said, there is far more to like than not about Ojomo, who entered the league very young and with an extremely high football IQ, making the Nigerian native perhaps the best bet to turn into the Eagles’ next defensive star.

MORE NFL: Eagles Need To Be More Open-Minded With WR Depth