SportsPulse: NFL insiders Lindsay H. Jones and Lorenzo Reyes discuss the matchups that will determine whether it will be the Vikings or Eagles to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LII. USA TODAY Sports
PHILADELPHIA – Fletcher Cox always sensed that he was special.
“Straight from the womb,” the Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle jokes.
OK, so maybe not quite that early, Cox concedes. But it didn’t take him long to realize. At Yazoo City High in Mississippi, he had his way with foes.
“I’d bully them or just run circles around them and finesse it. Whatever I felt like,” he told USA TODAY Sports.
During three seasons at Mississippi State, Cox dominated thanks to his talent and work ethic. He earned All-Southeastern Conference and All-American honors in 2011 and went 12th overall to the Eagles in the 2012 NFL draft.
That’s when the realization hit Cox. He had encountered plenty of other talented defensive linemen, but he had been blessed with something extra.
“It really clicked when I was drafted. Coach (Jim) Washburn always told me, ‘God created you to play the Wide 9,’” Cox said, referring to his rookie-year positional coach and the Eagles' current defensive alignment. “Ever since, I’ve just had that mindset. I try to go out there and try to be different.
“I’m not a big finesse guy. But I can bend, I can rush, I’ve got a quick twitch, and the thing about it is, I can move guys. I’ve got the speed and power, and that’s what makes an interior defensive lineman dominant: when you can create that separation to make tackles and all that.”
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In the last six seasons, Cox has definitely distinguished himself as one of the best interior defensive linemen in the game. While earning Pro Bowl honors for a third straight year, he has anchored a defense this season that ranked first in the league against the run, limiting teams to just 79.2 yards per game.
Now Cox and the Eagles find themselves one game away from the Super Bowl as they host the Minnesota Vikings in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.
“He’s strong, physical and has great quickness,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer praised. “In the four-down lineman scheme, those inside pass rushers are extremely valuable and he is an outstanding player. He’s good against the run, he’s good in the passing game. He’s got great quickness, great hands, and power, and I think that’s what makes him good.”
On Sunday, the Eagles will rely heavily on Cox and his fellow defensive linemen to neutralize a Vikings offense that ranks seventh in the league rushing (122.3 yards per game) and 10th in scoring (23.9 points per game).
“Our whole front, they make our defense go. We’re No. 1 in rushing for a reason,” safety Malcolm Jenkins said on Thursday. “… I don’t know anybody that can stop Fletcher Cox. Tim Jernigan does a great job, and when Fletch gets all the attention (from offensive linemen), all of a sudden, he gets going. and (Brandon Graham) on the outside has been disruptive all year. Chris Long, Vinny Curry, (Derek) Barnett — we’ve got guys that we’re rotating and are fresh and everybody’s productive. It makes it a lot easier on the back end. We’re not covering forever. We don’t have to blitz, so we can have guys in coverage, so that’s really a strong point for the defense.”
Indeed, the Eagles' entire defensive front has played well (four different players have at least five sacks), but it all starts with Cox. Teams have to devise a detailed game plan, as blocking him one-on-one seldom suffices. And if offensive linemen double-team Cox, that leaves another Eagle unaccounted for. That’s exactly what Cox wants: to make the plays or to set someone else up to make them.
“I can’t always get a sack,” Cox said. “So, evaluating my games, I look at pressures, look at the what-ifs, look at the things you affected and how you helped another player get a sack, how you helped that DB get an interception. It’s about helping and things like that, and you take it and grow from it and don’t be selfish.”
Cox has grown accustomed to bullseye placed on him by opponents, which motivates him to constantly improve.
Each offseason, he goes back to Mississippi to work with trainer Deon Hodges. But because speed and agility are such huge part of his game, Cox doesn’t do defensive line drills. Hodges trains the 6-4, 310-pound Cox like he would a wide receiver, defensive back or running back.
The drills take Cox back to his high school days, when in addition to playing on the defensive line he also starred as a 6-2, 210-pound sprinter and high jumper who then ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash and could bench press 300 pounds.
“That’s how I make sure I have those quick moves,” said Cox, who now can bench more than 400 pounds. “(Hodges) always creates stuff to make me uncomfortable, and that’s the type of stuff you want, because If you’re not, then you’re just going to be where you are, and I’m never where I want to be.”
Cox’s self-improvement efforts also involve film study. He watches the other top players at his position – he mentioned the Rams’ Aaron Donald, the Buccaneers' Gerald McCoy and the Dolphins' Ndamukong Suh – and looks for tricks and moves to implement into his own game. During the season, he also studies his counterparts to see how common opponents attack them.
“Every interior D-lineman is different, and you can’t really compare us,” Cox said, “but if I’m playing a team they played, you watch to see how they attacked him so I can know how they plan to attack me the same way.”
This week is no different. The Vikings faced both the Buccaneers and Rams this season, so Cox expects they will try to attack him similarly to how they approached McCoy and Donald.
But on Sunday, Cox will once again come prepared and expect a special impact.
Follow Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones.
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