It was, for sure, an encouraging start for the defense, one that has extremely high expectations. Communication, said safety Andrew Mukuba, was a huge plus, a great sign for a defense with some new pieces.
“We played together as a team. It wasn’t perfect, of course, but it was a good start,” said Mukuba, who played for the first time since suffering a season-ending injury in Week 11 last season. “The communication was great at all three levels and that was important, something we can grow from.”
Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels, one of the premier players in the league at his position at evading the defense, gave the Eagles some moments where they just couldn’t get him down, and that, said Davis, “is something we need to do better. Get the quarterback to the ground.”
But the defense, with coordinator Vic Fangio certainly stressing the teaching points as well as the successes, came away feeling like Week 1 was a positive start to the 2026 campaign.
“When you start a season and you don’t play in a preseason game, you don’t tackle, it can be dicey,” linebacker Zack Baun said. “But we drill it so much in practice that I felt it showed up in the game.”
Now it’s on to Tennessee to play second-year quarterback Cam Ward running a system orchestrated by former New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll.
The Eagles have a sense of what to expect, but, then again, it’s Week 2 and things are hard to predict this early in a season.
“They’re going to be sound and try to make explosive plays,” Davis said. “We have to be ready. They will be physical. The quarterback is growing. We have to be better than we were last week. That’s the mindset we have.”
And that’s the goal for Nashville: Take another step forward and come home with a win to get to 2-0 in 2026.