June 22, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Vic Fangio takes a quick nap while standing during an Eagles minicamp practice.
During the 2023 season, only one of the Eagles' rookie draft picks, Jalen Carter, had a prominent role. None of their rookie draft picks, including Carter, played 50 percent or more of the offensive or defensive snaps. The drafted rookie snap counts looked like so:
| Round | Player | Snaps | % of O/D snaps played |
| 1 | DT Jalen Carter | 600 | 48.7% |
| 1 | EDGE Nolan Smith | 204 | 16.6% |
| 3 | OL Tyler Steen | 71 | 5.9% |
| 3 | S Sydney Brown | 335 | 27.2% |
| 4 | CB Kelee Ringo | 234 | 19.0% |
| 6 | QB Tanner McKee | 0 | 0% |
| 7 | DT Moro Ojomo | 68 | 5.5% |
There are good arguments to be made that Nolan Smith, Tyler Steen, Sydney Brown, and Kelee Ringo all should have played more than they did in 2023, and that it would have also made sense for Nakobe Dean to be mixed in more in 2022.
At the NFL Combine in February, Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni had mixed messaging on rookie playing time. Roseman expressed that the team shouldn't be afraid to play the rookies, while Sirianni took a more rigid stance saying that his philosophy "has always been play the guys that are going to help you win the game every week."
Because the Eagles selected defensive players — CB Quinyon Mitchell, DB Cooper DeJean, and EDGE Jalyx Hunt — with their first three picks, I took a look at how much new Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio played his rookies in previous stops with the Dolphins, Broncos, Bears, and 49ers. The following chart shows all the players who were Day 1 or Day 2 picks, and how many snaps they played under Fangio as rookies (his 2011 season with the 49ers omitted, because snap count stats weren't available then):
| Team (Year) | Player | Draft round | Snaps |
| Dolphins (2023) | CB Cam Smith | 2 | 20 |
| Broncos (2021) | CB Patrick Surtain | 1 | 902 |
| Broncos (2021) | LB Baron Browning | 3 | 564 |
| Broncos (2020) | CB Michael Ojemudia | 3 | 882 |
| Broncos (2020) | DL McTelvin Agim | 3 | 141 |
| Broncos (2019) | DL Dre'Mont Jones | 3 | 295 |
| Bears (2018) | LB Roquan Smith | 1 | 947 |
| Bears (2016) | DE Leonard Floyd | 1 | 537 |
| Bears (2016) | DL Jonathan Bullard | 3 | 297 |
| Bears (2015) | DL Eddie Goldman | 2 | 518 |
| 49ers (2014) | S Jimmie Ward | 1 | 262 |
| 49ers (2014) | LB Chris Borland | 3 | 476 |
| 49ers (2013) | S Eric Reid | 1 | 982 |
| 49ers (2013) | DE Tank Carradine | 2 | 0 (injury) |
| 49ers (2013) | DE Corey Lemonier | 3 | 276 |
Not including Carradine, who was injured his rookie season, Day 1 and 2 picks played an average of 507 defensive snaps as rookies. First-round picks played an average of 726 snaps. My conclusion: Fangio isn't super afraid to play his early round picks.
"He's going to have to adapt to the NFL game, covering NFL receivers, NFL schemes in the passing game," Fangio said of Mitchell during a May press conference. "There's a lot to learn. We think he's the right guy emotionally and mentally to do that. Hopefully he'll pay dividends quickly rather than later. But he's going to be one of the many competing."
The Eagles also selected linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in the fifth round. Here's a quick list of Day 3 guys who played at least 300 snaps as rookies under Fangio, going back to 2012:
| Team (Year) | Player | Draft round | Snaps |
| Broncos (2021) | S Caden Sterns | 5 | 321 |
| Broncos (2021) | DL Jonathan Cooper | 7 | 457 |
| Bears (2018) | DL Bilal Nichols | 5 | 359 |
| Bears (2017) | S Eddie Jackson | 4 | 1055 |
| Bears (2016) | LB Nick Kwiatkoski | 4 | 457 |
| Bears (2016) | S Deon Bush | 4 | 333 |
| Bears (2015) | S Adrian Amos | 5 | 1032 |
| 49ers (2014) | CB Dontae Johnson | 4 | 490 |
| 49ers (2014) | DE Aaron Lynch | 5 | 515 |
I did not search out how much undrafted rookie free agents played for Fangio because that would be like an extra hour or two of research and I like to pretend I have a life outside of this job during the summer. My apologies.
MORE: Five players the Eagles need to step up in 2024
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