For most of the Eagles' Super Bowl LIX-winning 2024-25 season, Vic Fangio and Clint Hurtt kept the interior defensive line rotation at four.
Star pass rushers Jalen Carter (1,065 defensive snaps, including the playoffs) and Milton Williams (653) got the majority of the work, followed by Moro Ojomo (490) and Jordan Davis (444). With the luxury of health for the top four, the only other DT getting defensive snaps last season was Thomas Booker (179).
Moving forward, Williams and, more importantly, his impact and pitch count, need to be replaced after the emerging star signed for big money in New England.
The conventional wisdom is that rookie fourth-round pick Ty Robinson will simply pick up the baton and become the fourth man in the rotation. However, there are other options available, beginning with Booker, a third-year, high-IQ option out of Stanford with some versatility to toggle between 3-technique and 4i, and at least hold his own at the nose or shade techs.
At 6-foot-3 and about 300 pounds, the Eagles also gave Byron Young a look at the nose in five-man fronts during minicamp, which was notable after essentially a redshirt year in Philly last season after the 2023 third-round pick was claimed off waivers from Las Vegas at the initial 53 cutdown last year.
The other option is lengthy first-year player Gabe Hall, an undrafted free agent out of Baylor last season who spent his rookie year on the practice squad.
The idea of one player taking over Williams’ snaps is the wrong way of looking at things. It will take a village, and the goal is to split the workload between Davis, Ojomo, and either Robinson or the others pushing the rookie.
What should also be mentioned is the idea of stuffing the run. If the Eagles do it well again with lighter boxes, that means less time for Davis, and the idea of finding a backup NT of less importance.
While Robinson has a nice opportunity to get on the field as a rookie, Booker is closer to the Nebraska product than most realize, while Young and Hall have skill sets that the Eagles have found intriguing enough to put significant developmental time into them.
