Inside Vic Fangio's Process: 'Constant Evolution And Change' For Eagles' DC

PHILADELPHIA - Joe Kasper first developed a relationship with Vic Fangio in 2022 when the veteran defensive coach was a “friend of the program” with the Eagles before taking on a formal role as a consultant in the lead up to Super Bowl LVII.

Kasper was a quality control coach at the time and Fangio saw enough in the young coach to take him to Miami in 2023 as the Dolphins’ safeties coach.

When Fangio returned to Philadelphia as the DC he brought Kapser back with him as the safeties coach. When Christian Parker left this offseason to become the DC in Dallas, Kasper was promoted to the role of defensive pass game coordinator.

Fangio joked about modern NFL “titles” earlier this month when discussing Kasper’s promotion.

“Defensive pass game coordinator?” Fangio smiled. “All these titles you guys see around the league, pass game coordinators, run game coordinators. There's many more. Assistant head coach, associate head coach, this, that, and the other. You know what those titles mean? About as much as this bottle of water's going to mean after I finish drinking it.”

To Fangio, Kasper is running his secondary and you can interpret the titles any way you want.

“Joe was with me in Miami. When I came back here, he came with me and has done a good job. So he was the logical choice just to move up, and I have the utmost confidence in him,” the gruff Fangio said.

That’s high praise in Fangio’s world.

As mentioned, though, the relationship with Kasper reached back to 2022 and Philadelphia.

“I don’t know if there’s anything in particular, like one seminal moment. But we’ve always had a great relationship,” Kasper said when asked about catching Fangio’s eye. “We got close that year, with just talking about the game and sharing different insights. And through that process – we obviously played for a long time that year, which was great – so we got closer and closer and he came around and around, and we just developed a pretty genuine relationship.”

Football is about relationships and if you’re a defensive coach there’s no better relationship to have than a strong one with Fangio.

“When an opportunity presented itself for him to go [to Miami], and he was like, ‘Look, I think you’d be perfect in this kind of a role,’ I jumped at it,” Kasper explained. “Coach is an amazing teacher at coaching coaches. Not just of players. I think everybody realizes how great he is for the players, and what he does schematically for us as an organization, but just for the coaches, to sit in there every day in his process, is really unique.”

The Process

Eagles assistant coach Joe Kasper looks on at Maxen Hook. | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

The Fangio process is perhaps the most valuable commodity for any young defensive coach with ambition.

“For me, it was like, ‘I can’t wait to learn from this guy. I can’t wait to be a part of his system. I can’t wait to be a part of his process,’ the day-to-day, week-to-week operation with how we uncover what gives us advantages and what disadvantages or what kind of weaknesses do we want to avoid,” Kasper said.

So what makes Fangio’s process unique?

“The process of how he goes about week to week developing players, from taking what we're working on right now right in the OTA period and how that stacks on top of what we're going to work on at training camp and how we're going to evolve and change things,” said Kapser. “The best part about Vic, in my opinion, is that he’s constantly evolving and changing despite what people think. So, to be exposed to that, I think, is awesome and awesome for me.”

Fangio’s feel for the game coupled with experience has turned him into the Godfather of modern NFL defense and most copied defensive mind of the generation.

“He’s seen that process, that evolution year to year, week to week, and how we tweak things and people sometimes pick up on it – and hopefully never do – and sometimes don’t,” Kasper said. “And how we take advantage of that. Seeing that process is really cool. And then how that comes to life on game day.”

Kasper is savvy enough to not give up proprietary information but was willing to speak about how the product evolves along the way.

“Well, we try new things. We try things. We study other teams. We’re here a lot,” he said. “We look at copious amounts of film, and we try and decide what marries best to what other teams do."

Nothing is ever standing still and the idea of a "finished product" is chasing a dragon that can't be caught.

“Can we steal something from somebody else? Do we understand what they’re doing? Can we pick and choose where it can help us? Kasper said. "... You see what works and you see what doesn't work. And you try things in training camp. You try things in the season that you try and complement your guys and see, you know, is this something we love and we're going to lean on?

“And we have our staples and our bread and butter that we hang our hat on.”

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