As we’ve been doing for several years now, we’ll break down the Pittsburgh Steelers’ opponent each week, telling you what to expect from a scheme and individual standpoint. This year, Jonathan Heitritter and I will cover the opposing team’s defense. I will focus on the scheme, Jonathan on the players.
Today, scouting the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense.
Alex’s Schematic Report
Eagles’ Run Defense
The run defense has been strong throughout the year. On the season, they’re eighth league-wide in rushing yards per game at 105.8 per game. They’ve given up 4.3 YPC, fifth league-wide, and allowed just nine touchdowns, ranking sixth in the NFL.
Their leading tackler is LB Zach Baun with 129 of them. Fellow LB Nakobe Dean is second with 106 stops. Neither leave the field much. Baun is out there 95 percent of the time while Dean logs 92 percent of the season’s defensive snaps.
It’s a 4-3 front, but similar to the Cincinnati Bengals, they will show heavier looks on first down. On 1st and 10 against 12 personnel, they will use five and even six-down fronts, 5-2 or 6-1. That doesn’t always mean bringing an additional lineman onto the field like Cincinnati, but the versatile Baun, an EDGE/ILB hybrid dating back to his days at Wisconsin, can play on and off the line.
The Eagles like to pinch and play their d-tackles in tight. Often with a 1-tech and 2i to make running up the middle difficult. And they have a talented interior led by last year’s top pick Jalen Carter, a dominant force inside.
Carter leads the team with 12 tackles for loss, responsible for 32.4 percent of his total tackles on the season. But as Jonathan will touch on before, guys like Milton Williams have also been impactful up front. Philadelphia has allowed 37 runs of 10-plus yards this season, eighth-best of any defense in the league this year.
The Eagles mix up one and two-gapping but will slant and scrape their d-line and linebackers to get upfield and disrupt. The best thing to do is not be as heavy and condensed either by running 11 personnel or spreading out 12 personnel and not being so tight. Still, the Eagles trust their front seven and they can effectively stop the run out of two-high.
Some other stats: They’re tied for the second-fewest points allowed this season at 18 PPG. They allowed 20-plus in three of their first four games but only allowed 20 or more in two of their last nine – all wins – never giving up more than 23 points in a game over that span.
They rank No. 1 in yards per game, giving up just 284.2. Situationally, the Eagles rank third on third down (34.7-percent) and red zone (48.7-percent).
Eagles’ Pass Defense
They’re stout here, too. Philadelphia is second in the league in pass yards per game allowed with just 178.5. Opposing quarterbacks are completing just 61.7 percent of their passes (fifth-best of any defense), 6.1 YPA (No. 1 of any defense, the next-closest at 6.6) and given up just 14 passing scores all season (tied fifth-best). They’ve picked off eight passes and have 36 sacks, the latter seventh-best.
DE Josh Sweat paces the team with seven sacks. DT Milton Williams has five while DT Jalen Carter has 4.5 of them. In all, eight different Eagles in Vic Fangio’s defense have at least a pair of sacks. They make impact plays defensively. LB Zach Baun has four forced fumbles. Their safeties pick off most of their passes, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and Reed Blankenship responsible for three apiece. Their cornerbacks do not have a pick this year, but they have two strong man-to-man corners in veteran Darius Slay and first-round rookie Quinyon Mitchell.
As a defense, they’ve allowed only 29 completions of 20-plus yards, third-fewest of any team this season. Really good numbers across the board.
They don’t blitz much, just 18.6 percent of the time, though their pressure rate isn’t anything special either. It sits just higher at 19.1 percent, 27th league-wide.
Schematically, they play split coverages. Lots of Cover 6, clouding the boundary/single-receiver side.
You get more quarters from the Eagles and they’re heavy on zone-match principles.
Where they did struggle was pick plays in the red zone to beat their man coverage (they’re also man/Cover 1 heavy on all third downs) and responding to late-motion. First play is an example of a pick play in the red zone for a Carolina Panthers touchdown while the latter shows the Baltimore Ravens TE Mark Andrews getting wide open off miscommunication, though the ball didn’t go his way.
Their blitzes aren’t very creative but they do like to stunt and twist up front.
Jonathan’s Individual Report
The Pittsburgh Steelers got revenge against the Cleveland Browns last weekend, beating their AFC North rival to move to 10-3 on the year. They will now prepare to battle the Philadelphia Eagles on the road as Philly is one of the best teams in the NFC this season.
The Eagles’ defense is currently ranked second in the league in points allowed and first in pro football in yards allowed, making them quite the formidable group. They rank second in the league against the pass and eighth in the league against the run.
Defensive Line
The DL is led by No. 98 Jalen Carter who was a former top 10 pick out of the University of Georgia and has quickly become one of the best young interior defenders in the league. The 6-3, 314-pounder has the brute strength to anchor against the run, but also the athleticism and quickness to chase down ball carriers and rush the passer, having 37 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, four pass deflections, and a forced fumble so far this year.
Carter’s running mate is a familiar face as No. 90 Jordan Davis played alongside Carter at Georgia. The 6-6, 336-pound behemoth in the middle is an ideal run plugger, using his size and strength to make him almost impossible to move off his spot. While Davis isn’t a fine-tuned pass rusher, he has shown promise in that area of his game thanks to his sheer strength and surprising quickness at his size.
No. 93 Milton Williams sees plenty of playing time along the defensive line as more of a pass rusher than Davis, standing 6-3, 290 pounds with five sacks and six tackles for loss on the season. Williams is a quick defensive lineman who does a great job shooting gaps as well as using his hands to fight off blocks in pursuit of the quarterback on the edge or along the interior. Providing depth behind the starter are No. 97 Moro Ojomo and No. 59 Thomas Booker IV.
EDGE
No. 55 Brandon Graham tore his triceps in November and is out for the year, but No. 19 Josh Sweat has developed into a quality pass rusher in his own right and leads the Philly edge rush. The 6-5, 265-pound Sweat leads the Eagles with seven sacks on the season
having great length, speed, and explosiveness to get around the corner while possessing sneaky strength to defeat blocks in the run game.
No. 3 Nolan Smith starts opposite of Sweat, and is coming along nicely in his second season after being a first round pick last year out of Georgia. 6-2, 238-pound pass rusher has 4.5 sacks on the season to go along with 33 total tackles, five tackles for loss, and a pass deflection. Smith doesn’t have much finesse as a pass rusher, but his athleticism and pursuit help him get in on a ton of plays. Rookie No. 58 Jalyx Hunt has begun seeing more time after Graham’s injury in a rotational role while No. 95 Charles Harris just joined the squad after getting released by Carolina a couple weeks ago.
Linebackers
The linebacker position has always been a problem for the Eagles in the past, but they are getting solid play from the guys they have in the room this season. No 53 Zack Baun only was a part-time player in New Orleans for his first four seasons, but he’s become an integral cog in Philly’s defense in his first season, posting 129 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, three pass deflections, and one interception as a do-it-all linebacker.
Beside him is another former Georgia Bulldog in No. 17 Nakobe Dean. The 5-11, 231-pounder lacks ideal size but makes up for it with his intellect, always seeming to be around the football. Dean also is over the 100-tackle mark with 106 total stops this season along with nine tackles for loss, three sacks, two fumble recoveries, four pass deflections, and one interception. He is better in zone coverage than man coverage and is best when freed up to chase ball carriers but will struggle to fight off blocks.
Behinds those two are No. 54 Jeremiah Trotter Jr. who is following in his dad’s footsteps with the Eagles as a rookie fifth-round pick as well as No. 42 Oren Burks who is a special teams ace.
Cornerbacks
The Eagles have one of the better battle-tested veteran corners in the league in No. 2 Darius Slay. Slay has been with Philadelphia since 2020 and has made the City of Brotherly Love his home, providing the Eagles with as close as a shutdown corner that they have had in nearly a decade. Slay struggled his first season in Philly but has since rebounded to provide the Eagles with a man-to-man CB that can run with the best receivers in coverage. Slay doesn’t have a pick this season, but he does have 10 pass deflections and will be a test for whoever lines up at receiver for Pittsburgh this weekend.
Rookie No. 27 Quinyon Mitchell was a name that Pittsburgh looked at throughout the pre-draft process, but he landed in Philly with the 22nd pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The 6-0, 193-pound Mitchell has great speed and size to run with bigger-bodied pass catcher on the outside. He also doesn’t have a pick yet this year, but Mitchell has been solid in coverage, allowing just a 56.1 completion percentage with 10 pass deflections on the season.
Fellow rookie No. 33 Cooper DeJean mans the slot for Philadelphia as the second round pick out of Iowa has great size and athleticism for the position, standing 6-0, 198 pounds with the speed to run wither pass catchers down the field as well as the strength to be reliable in run support.
No. 29 Avonte Maddox stills sees a good amount of time in sub packages as a long-term starter for Philadelphia and has been stout in coverage this season, allowing 47.8 percent of pass his way to be completed. No. 22 Kelee Ringo, No. 34 Isaiah Rodgers, and No. 23 Eli Ricks round out the depth chart at cornerback for Philly.
Safeties
On the backend for the Eagles, No. 8 C.J. Gardner-Johnson is the definition of a chess piece, having played the Star position back at the University of Florida thanks to his versatility and has continued that role in the league. He will play rolled up near the LOS as a box safety or in the slot as a nickel defender, but also will drop deep as a split zone or centerfield safety, playing the free safety role on the defense. Gardner-Johnson has 55 total tackles, one tackle for loss, nine pass deflections, one forced fumble and three interceptions on the season.
No. 32 Reed Blankenship has started 12 games for Philly but missed last week’s game due to a concussion. He will look to try and get back for this game as a second-year starter that is all over the field when it comes to pursuit of the football, having 67 total stops, one fumble recovery, five pass deflections and three interceptions on the season. No 21 Sydney Brown and No. 36 Tristin McCollum also provide depth for Philadelphia at safety.
