This is nothing new for Vic Fangio, an architect of NFL defenses for more than 30 seasons. He is seated in the auditorium at the NovaCare Complex fielding questions about an Eagles defense very much in the formative stage of the offseason.

Is there change for this defense from last year to now? Of course, as it is with every defense.

Is there some youth here for 2025? Yes, but dive a little deeper and you will see a lot of experience within those young legs and that is an extremely exciting prospective.

Is Fangio naturally going to reserve judgment on what he has seen and what he expects, understanding that – there are no hot takes from him – there hasn't been a lick of full-pad, all-out contact on the practice field to date? Without a doubt, yes.

"I look at this year very similar to last year," Fangio said at a press conference on Tuesday, "in that this time last year, you know, we had a lot of turnover in personnel from the previous year. You had (Zack) Baun, nobody knew what he was at this point last year. You had Nakobe (Dean), who hadn't played any meaningful NFL football in his first two years. You had (linebacker) Oren Burks, who we had just signed. You had Isaiah Rodgers, who we had just signed. You had (Moro) Ojomo, who didn't play hardly at all in his rookie year. You had Nolan (Smith), who didn't play hardly at all in his rookie year. We got Chauncy (C.J. Gardner-Johnson) back. We drafted Q (Quinyon Mitchell), Cooper (DeJean), Jalyx (Hunt). We had a lot of question marks at that time.

"This year, those names are replaced. (Kelee) Ringo, Adoree' (Jackson), Sydney (Brow), (Tristin) McCollum, (Azeez) Ojulari, (Joshua) Uche, Byron Young, Gabe Hall, (Thomas) Booker, Jihaad (Campbell), all the draft picks – (Andrew) Mukuba, (Ty) Robinson, Smael (Mondon), and the rest of the rookies.

"Some of those guys on the second list have to become like those guys on the first list and I don't know how that's going to turn out, but I look at it like it's basically the same one year to the next. The names have changed; hopefully we'll get the same results from these new guys like we got from a lot of the new guys last year."

Fangio knows he has a lot to work with and he knows he has to integrate new players into the scheme. That literally is the way it works with every team every season. The Eagles lost some players in the offseason who helped win the Super Bowl, and those players are to be thanked for their contributions and wished good luck with their new teams.

But all of this, what is Fangio doing now? It's part of the process, as everyone says. He has young veterans who have thrived when moving up the line of succession – tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis come immediately to mind. His rookie cornerbacks of a season ago – Mitchell and DeJean – are looking for that jump in Year 2. Fangio is exploring ways to get DeJean on the field more than just in nickel, but the facts are the defense played with nickel personnel 90 percent of the time in 2024. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is building reps in the spring alongside Baun while Dean rehabs his knee injury. Brown is in a "competition," said Fangio, with young veteran McCollum and second-round draft pick Mukuba at safety.

And on and on it goes. This is a young and extremely talented and potentially very, very deep defense. We're in the spring. Fangio won't give concrete answers because he's telling the truth here. He doesn't yet have them.

But what he DOES have is a roster that is going to get after it in the summer, in Training Camp and in the preseason. How do you win with defense? You have a great scheme combined with great players and, yeah, the Eagles are excited about both pictures. They played 21 games last season on the way to a Super Bowl victory, so they are very aware of how much depth matters through and through.

Nobody, especially Fangio, is taking a thing for granted. He is meticulously teaching the scheme and the coaches are hammering home precision of technique and that's where we are. That's the defense, one that was best in show in the NFL a season ago.

The encore is always a tough one, but the Eagles have the pieces here and they have the path. Now, some time. Let's see how it unfolds and what it looks like when Dallas comes to town on September 4 for the opener.