Rising Eagles' DB Coach Doesn't Appear Set To Be Leaving Philadelphia Any Time Soon

PHILADELPHIA — Joe Kasper does not spend much time thinking about his next job. The Eagles’ newly minted defensive passing game coordinator says is too consumed with where his feet are.

Asked Wednesday how he prepares for a long-term trajectory the way some coaches do after being named to The Athletic’s 40-under-40 list of rising coaches in the NFL, the emerging assistant revealed a blemish.

“I’m not gonna answer this well,” he said. “I don’t do much to prepare for a long-term trajectory. I know that’s probably not the best answer, but I really actively, like I’m consumed by what we’re doing right now. So, for me, I don’t really look at that.”

The Mentor

That mindset traces directly to Kasper’s boss and mentor Vic Fangio. When Fangio hired Kapser away from the Eagles as Miami’s safeties coach in 2023, the Ohio native suffered with imposter syndrome.

“When Vic hired me as a safeties coach in Miami, I was woefully unprepared, and then I worked real hard to be super prepared,” Kapser said. “Then, went from there.”

Kasper added that summer film study offers a chance to tweak perspective, but the daily work dominates his mindset.

“Honestly, I actively am locked in with this.”

Kasper, a Mentor, Ohio native and Baldwin Wallace product, first crossed paths with Fangio in 2022 when the veteran was a consultant in Philadelphia en route to Super Bowl LVII and Kasper was a quality-control coach.

Fangio took him to the Dolphins the next year. When Fangio returned to the Eagles as defensive coordinator in 2024, Kasper came back as safeties coach.

After Christian Parker left this offseason to become Dallas’s defensive coordinator, Kasper was promoted to defensive passing game coordinator, something Fangio joked about earlier the offseason.

In Fangio’s old-school mind, Kapser is his secondary coach with a new-school label. The job description is what’s important, not the title.

Rewind to South Florida and ultimately getting up to speed in Miami, Kasper pointed to work ethic.

“You just work really hard,” he said. “You work really hard, and you study, and you decide what is Vic’s vision for what we’re trying to accomplish here and you try and complement him as best you can.”

Fangio’s personal influence on Kasper has been just as important as the schematic one.

“Vic’s awesome as a mentor,” Kasper said. “Just watching this process and being able to be a part of that, being able to see how he evaluates guys, evaluates opponents, finds weaknesses, finds our complements. Those are all great things.

“Interpersonally, he’s a really good friend. Like, he’s a really great mentor to have. He’s got a wealth of experiences.”

Kasper also pushed back on Fangio’s gruff public perception.

“I think probably everybody always sees maybe the crustier side of him, but he’s a nice guy to work with,” said Kasper. “Like, I enjoy coming to work with him every day. We have a lot of fun. We make a lot of jokes.”

A Cleveland Guardians fan, Kasper even keeps a running tally with Fangio, a noted Phillies supporter: “I’m a big Cleveland Guardians fan, so every series that we’ve won, we’ve won the last two against the Phillies, so I’m very blessed to have that up on [him].”

What Kasper values most is Fangio’s refusal to stand still. The veteran coach is constantly tweaking and evolving his famed defensive scheme, which remains the most copied in the modern NFL.

“One of his best traits is he’s ever evolving, ever adjusting, and tweaking, and changing, and getting better, and staying on top of things,” Kasper said. “We’re always looking for that new thing or that edge that can create an advantage for us. That’s definitely part of the secret sauce.”

That secret sauce is the constant search for an edge — studying third-down tendencies, second-and-pass looks, whatever might give the defense even a sliver of an advantage.

“We’re always tweaking, we’re not ever sitting static,” said Kasper. “And because of that, you’re constantly learning and evolving both as an individual coach, which gives you an advantage as an individual coach, but also as a unit, too.”

For a coach who says he does not look far ahead, Kasper’s path has been remarkably linear: quality control, first positional job under Fangio, Super Bowl ring with the Eagles in 2024 under Fangio, and promotion after Parker’s departure.

Turns out if you have the right mentor, you don’t have to plan your next move.

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