Conscientious And Aggressive: Former Vic Fangio Player Offers Insight On The DC's Defensive Line Impact

PHILADELPHIA - Former NFL defensive lineman Seth Payne revealed a rare look inside Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio's vaunted scheme that has been the most copied defensive system of the NFL’s modern generation.

When Fangio's scheme is discussed most of the talk goes to the vast array of zone coverages he will use on the back end, all of which are generally spun into post-snap.

Payne spent a decade in the NFL as a fourth-round pick of Jacksonville out of Cornell in 1997. He was the eighth overall selection in the 2002 expension draft by the Houston Texans where he met Fangio, who was hired as the first ever DC in the reboot of Houston football.

"Vic Fangio probably made me an extra few million dollars because he just completely transformed me as a player," Payne said on the Ross Tucker Podcast Monday.

“Vic Fangio probably made me an extra few million dollars because he just completely transformed me as a player.”@SethCPayne explains how on today’s @RossTuckerPod: pic.twitter.com/yNVWj9YNWX
— Ross Tucker Podcast (@RossTuckerPod) March 24, 2025

Payne spent the final five seasons of his career with the Texans and was under Fangio for the first four of them before the veteran defensive mind went to Baltimore.

Payne noted that Fangio taught him a way to play the defensive line that he had never even been exposed to prior.

"His scheme, he gives the defensive linemen so much freedom," Patne said. "... He gives you these options if you can handle it to slant to your responsibility, stem all the time.

"He gives you a rulebook for when you can play more aggressively and when you need to be more of a two-gapper and gap-responsibility guy based on the coverages you play behind you. And it's stuff I had never been exposed to or even aware it was possible as a defensive lineman."

Payne described himself as an overly-disciplined player who didn't play aggressive enough.

"I [was] always a guy that was trying to really play my responsibilities and everything and I probably wasn't as aggressive as I should have been," Payne admitted. "Vic's scheme gives you that license like 'Ok on this play -- based on this formation with this coverage behind you -- you're just gonna hit it.'"

Marry that up with a talent like second-team All-Pro Jalen Carter in Philadelphia and special things can happen.

"It's cool to watch Jalen Carter I think do some of those things in Vic's scheme because it allows you to be a conscientious player but also an aggressive player at the same time," Payne said. "It mixes and matches the elements of the old school 3-4 but with just an aggressive 4-3 defense."

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