Where did this come from? Zack Baun’s Eagles breakout has the NFL looking for the next him

PHILADELPHIA — As the Los Angeles Rams lined up on third-and-3, Zack Baun crept up to the right edge. The Philadelphia Eagles linebacker looked ready to blitz.

But when Matthew Stafford fielded the snap, Baun instead backpedaled. He shuffled out toward receiver Puka Nacua, who would catch nine passes for 117 yards on this late November night.

Nacua would not catch this pass. Because Baun — yes, the same Baun who was just threatening to rush Stafford — broke up the pass.

Where was this guy during his first four pro years, when he played just 15 percent of defensive snaps?

Team and league voices offer different explanations for how the inside linebacker leading the league in tackles and several other metrics played so sparingly throughout his rookie contract with the New Orleans Saints, then exploded onto the scene in his first year in Philadelphia.

Rarely do players cement themselves as starters after four years unable to crack the lineup.

Questioning the Saints is fair — and some do, one NFC executive going so far as to call it “negligent” to play Baun so sparingly when “he had All-Pro in his body.” But Baun’s resurgence isn’t just about the Saints’ depth chart or the Eagles’ success mining for traits independent of production. This isn’t just about Baun finally getting the opportunity to play 95% of defensive snaps.

Baun’s progress toward realizing his potential stems from his work ethic and ability as well as landing in the right scheme with the right coaching staff. It stems from the block-destruction guidance from a linebackers coach whose eye he caught during their pandemic-shortened pre-draft meeting in March 2020, and from a front office sharp enough to pursue an unproven linebacker as early in free agency as it pursued star running back Saquon Barkley.

For teams constantly seeking elusive edges in a league of parity, understanding how to identify and transform a cost-effective special teamer into a Pro Bowl starter can push an average team to good and a good team to great. Baun’s story hits on several league trends and microcosms. Teams should and will study what worked in their pursuit of capturing the same luck.

Baun’s Week 12 breakup of Stafford to Nacua showcases a glimpse of the athleticism and instincts that have fueled his stellar campaign. The interaction that followed says almost as much.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni accepted an offensive holding penalty that would position the Rams to face fourth-and-3 in the red zone. Then Sirianni changed his mind, declining the penalty and opting for his players to defend third-and-13 from the 24 rather than fourth-and-3 from the 14.

Why did he choose to give the Rams another shot at third down?

“Hey, if Nick’s aggressive, then he trusts us,” mic’d-up footage caught Baun telling fellow linebacker Nakobe Dean on the field. “I love it.”

Sirianni confirmed just that when the defense returned to the sideline after a sack.

“I declined that ’cause of trust,” Sirianni told Baun.

“I know,” responded the linebacker who craved just that belief the prior four years.

Finally, Baun has found it — from his coaching staff and himself.

The first 4 years

During the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the Saints worried Baun wouldn’t last. So they dealt their 2021 third-round selection to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a seventh-round pick and 14-spot rise.

With the 74th overall pick, Baun became a Saint. But playing what position exactly?

At Wisconsin, the 2019 consensus All-American trained exclusively as an outside linebacker. He racked up 12.5 sacks his final season and anticipated more pass rushing as a professional. But some talent evaluators saw him as a “tweener,” in part because he wasn’t as big as some edge rushers and in part because his athleticism and change-of-direction fluidity suggested he’d thrive in coverage.

“Moves damn near like a DB,” one NFC executive told Yahoo Sports. “His feet are quick, his hips are loose, he can turn, he can close ground. He naturally flows in space.”

Baun didn’t naturally flow into the Saints’ defense. Assigning blame to one party would be disingenuous to the myriad dynamics that influence NFL roster decisions around the league. The factors varied. COVID-19 interrupted Baun’s first two offseasons of training, reducing his exposure to practices and the facility as the club asked him to learn all three linebacker positions after he’d played just one. Baun’s performance in practice and limited game snaps didn’t help matters. He struggled to adjust to the full-field vision required at inside linebacker but not edge rusher, Baun’s mental errors sowing doubt in the coaching staff that held the power to play or bench him.

Mistakes festered internally, too.

“There was days in New Orleans where I just came home and cried,” Baun told Yahoo Sports during a recent interview in Philadelphia. “I played on the ball; now I’m off the ball. I made a couple mistakes and then I felt like I let myself down in that situation and I let the organization down in that situation. Then they moved me to [strongside linebacker] and then I’m like ‘Dang, they moved me. I must not be doing good.’ Then I’d make another mistake.

“It just snowballed in my head that I felt like I wasn’t good anymore.”

Baun leaned into special teams as his path to a roster spot, playing 62 games in New Orleans even as he started only 14 in four years. He worked with Saints linebackers coach Mike Hodges on footwork, coverage and step-and-replace techniques, hoping that the efforts to grasp inside linebacker responsibilities would one day pay off.

As Year 2 in New Orleans turned to Year 3 and then Year 4 without much change, Baun wondered whether his breakthrough would ever come.

In the parking lot of the Saints’ facility, Baun would get into his car and sigh.

“This is about to be a long year,” he thought to himself.

His agent, R.J. Gonser, and wife, Ali, countered: “Just be patient.”

A fit for the Fangio system

Ahead of Baun’s rookie contract expiring last March, he began researching the market for special teams contracts.

Of course he wanted to play linebacker, too. But would any team want him?

Gonser had navigated a similar winding road for a client a year prior, when quarterback Sam Darnold sought to revive his career. Darnold spent the 2023 season as the San Francisco 49ers’ backup. What he missed in playing time he gained in a crash course of the Kyle Shanahan offensive system. From 2023 to 2024, with just 46 pass attempts to show for his year, Darnold more than doubled his salary and arrived in Minnesota ready to operate the offense at a high level.

Applying that principle to a linebacker, Gonser wanted his client to learn the Vic Fangio system that defenses are craving as offenses seek Shanahan concepts.

The Eagles had just hired Fangio as defensive coordinator, and general manager Howie Roseman sought a versatile but cost-effective linebacker whose versatility could emulate Andrew Van Ginkel’s on Fangio’s 2023 Miami Dolphins.

Nobody in Philadelphia pretends now that they anticipated what happened next. Could they have projected a best-case scenario where Baun’s traits fueled a breakout year? Sure. Was this the most likely outcome? No way. They would have considered the signing a success if Baun became special teams captain and played 45 to 50% of snaps as a hybrid linebacker. And they welcomed more.

“I never want to put a limit on a guy,” Fangio said Dec. 10. “When I watched him, he displayed some instincts, which is a big part of the equation in evaluating an off-the-ball linebacker.”

As offseason activities bled into training camp, Baun stopped asking himself when the Eagles planned to transition him back to on the ball and instead leaned into shifting between coverage responsibilities and run fits, faux rushes and actual blitzes. He embraced learning a new block destruction technique from linebackers coach Bobby King four years after the two met at Café Hollander in Wisconsin, when King lit up because: “Man, this guy knows some ball.”

Baun has realized the Eagles don’t expect perfection and in fact he plays better when he’s not defining success so narrowly. Fangio wants instinctive rather than robotic linebackers, Dean said. That’s encouraged Baun each week to stress what he calls “my Vic boundary” as he gauges when he can make plays within his responsibilities.

The result: After never ranking higher than 55th on Pro Football Focus’ linebacker ratings his first four seasons, Baun currently ranks first of 181 linebackers in coverage grade and second in overall grade (the only linebacker to grade higher, fellow Eagle Jeremiah Trotter Jr., sustained that success over 28 snaps vs. Baun’s 889).

Baun leads the league with 91 solo tackles and trails only four-time All-Pro T.J. Watt (Baun’s college teammate at Wisconsin) with five forced fumbles to Watt’s six. He’s collected 3.5 sacks, three pass deflections and 11 tackles for loss … contributing to Baun’s league-best 84 defensive stops, which Next Gen Stats defines as “tackles made by a defender that result in a positive play for the defense, measured by a negative change in expected points.”

“I had a lot of nerves coming into this year because I knew the pieces the management has brought in and how good this team could be, and I didn’t want to be that guy that was just transitioning, trying to ease into the position,” Baun said. “I had to just jump in full. And obviously I was nervous.

“But after the first couple games, I’m like, ‘OK, I got this.’”

The assignment

What does a successful day at the office look like?

Like Baun’s game-plan responsibility, the answer changes weekly. That’s by design.

“Front multiplicity, coverage simplicity,” King told Yahoo Sports. “So the coverage can be the same, but all the other stuff can be voodoo.”

During the Eagles’ season opener against the Green Bay Packers, Baun sacked starter Jordan Love on a first-quarter blitz and backup Malik Willis on the game-sealing stop. Against the Cincinnati Bengals, he traveled sideline to sideline to stop tight end Mike Gesicki on one play before stripping Gesicki later in the day. And against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the on-ball linebacker transitioning to off-ball linebacker might as well have stunt-doubled as a defensive back.

“They ran a Cover 3-beater and we just so happened to be in Cover 3,” Baun explains his breaking up the ball Trevor Lawrence threw 23 yards downfield. “A deep sail route and I backpedaled and then I flipped my hips and then I made a play on the ball. That was a really cool one.”

Baun secured an interception that day as well after Dean’s blast of Travis Etienne Jr. sent the ball flying.

“Nakobe got a good shot on him,” Baun said. “Then a tipped ball and it was just hustle.”

Baun credits Dean for helping him line up pre-snap, sometimes literally pushing Baun into position and other times giving his fellow backer a heads-up that the running back has cheated out and triggered an alert.

Baun is also eager to dole out praise to the defensive linemen who clog pulling guards, like Josh Sweat did when the Eagles defense sought to shut down the Baltimore Ravens on third-and-2 earlier this month. After Lamar Jackson sent Derrick Henry on a perimeter run, Baun tapped into his film study to travel an efficient path to the ballcarrier.

Staying low for leverage and keeping his feet moving to avoid the dreaded Henry stiff arm, he downed Henry for a loss of 4 yards. The Ravens punted, the Eagles pulling ahead 14-9 on the resulting drive. Baltimore wouldn’t catch up.

Baun finished with a game-high 13 tackles, half a sack, a forced fumble and a tackle for loss.

“We knew he had to play tough and he did,” King said. “During the week we try and scar them, and just take a walrus with those scars on them, polar bears. By the end of it, that freaking flesh is like a rock.”

King implores his linebackers not to fear mistakes nor otherwise let doubt suppress their physicality.

“On Sundays, go cut it loose, dude,” he tells them. “Mistakes are mine.”

The future Zack Baun’s made for himself

Like any player, Baun wants some snaps back.

While Eagles brass marveled at his ability to pace receiver Calvin Austin III on a Pittsburgh Steelers flea-flicker two weeks ago, Baun lamented allowing the 31-yard completion.

“I was there, but I didn’t make the play,” he said. “I got to the sideline mad.”

With six seconds left against the Commanders last Sunday, Baun dropped receiver Jamison Crowder, leaving an uncovered Crowder to catch the game-winning touchdown in the back of the end zone. Fangio took accountability for the coverage’s weakness against the play-call while admitting “we could have played it a little bit better” and shadowed Crowder “a little longer.”

“We try to be perfect, but it’s not a perfect game,” Baun had said two days earlier. “We’re hard on ourselves.”

Baun views man coverage as a key area for growth, eye discipline on misdirection plays and more efficient film study as two more goals. Before this season, he hadn’t spent much time backpedaling in man nor learning formations this broadly.

On a phone call, Van Ginkel gave his former college teammate tips for navigating Fangio’s creative visions for a hybrid linebacker.

“It allows us to play fast and have them slow down a little bit cause they gotta think a little bit more,” Van Ginkel told Yahoo Sports. “When they’re communicating, sometimes you might be able to pick something up [of] what they’re saying. You can get run-pass reads out of it and it allows you to stay one step ahead.”

In a year when playoff defenses will need to balance the pass-heavy modern NFL with the resurgence of highly productive running backs, Baun’s value continues to soar.

And in 2025?

Neither Baun nor the Eagles want to speculate publicly on what awaits a player who’s finally found his NFL stride. But everyone knows he’s earned a contract more lucrative than his current one-year, $3.5 million deal. His playmaking and consistency have earned him Pro Bowl and All-Pro votes, and executives across the league expect his production to last past this year.

Teams hope, too, that the latest example of an underused player finding his home will motivate teams to uncover the next Zack Baun — not just the next hybrid linebacker on the fringes, but also the next player at any position whose potential could shine with the trust and confidence of his coaching staff and thus himself.

One NFC executive said the 2025 draft class is ripe with players who “fit the Zack Baun mold.” Perhaps their teams won’t wait five years to embrace them.

For now, the Eagles savor the player who has earned respect from offensive and defensive teammates alike. Tight end Grant Calcaterra says the front office “found a gem, for sure.”

And quarterback Jalen Hurts thanks the Saints for letting Baun walk.

“I call Zack Baun the tone setter,” Hurts said. “The No. 1 thing I was telling him was just keep it going while it’s hot.

“They let him slip away to us.”

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