Jonathan Greenard: 'I want to do dirty work, I want to go against the best of the best'

This is a happy man.

On Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft, Jonathan Greenard is in the Jefferson Health Training Complex as a Philadelphia Eagle and he doesn't want to hide his emotions after signing his contract extension through TKTK. His grin is ear-to-ear. He is friendly, curious, excited. He sat down with Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro for an exclusive one-on-one interview after meeting the Philadelphia media and talked about, well, just about everything as he starts his journey in Vic Fangio's defense ...

Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro: If you were to talk about the career arc of becoming a great edge player, how did it happen?

Jonathan Greenard: "My whole life, I was a running back and MIKE linebacker. I didn't get to defensive end until about my junior, senior year of high school (Hiram, Georgia). When they came to me, I said, 'Well, I'm gonna have to be effective in this somehow.' If they put me here, they see something in me that I don't, but I just want to make plays. I was always somewhat undersized, slender guy you see now, and I didn't really see a fit for me at the collegiate level, because I'm like, all right, well, if I'm only barely scraping 200 pounds as an edge guy, I'm looking at guys 250, 260, there's no way I got a chance. The one thing that didn't change was my mentality.

"I was like, listen, just because I'm barely 200 pounds, I can fight just as hard as 250- or 300-pounder, and just carried that underdog mentality my whole entire career. Ended up going to Louisville, and that was kind of the first part of me like, 'OK, well, I can kind of do this a little bit.' I ended up transferring to Florida for my final year to kind of really put the icing on the cake of my collegiate career.

"I could kind of see myself possibly playing in the league, and literally from that point on, once I kind of believed it within myself, I felt like I could just go out there and dominate a game at any point in time, obviously, just learning the ropes, and about stopping the run first. I was a big tackles for loss guy, never really thought about sacks, even in college. I was like, all right, I'm going to go blow somebody up that has the football, and then when that perspective kind of shifted, I got to the league a little bit of how you can actually dominate and change games within the pass rushing game, and go get strip sacks, or pressures, and understand how effective the edge position could really be.

"I've always wanted to be the best edge guy in totality, not just being a pass rusher, because a lot of people kind of confuse this, just edge guy, just being that straight pass rusher. I started from stopping to run, and then I earned my way to go get the quarterback."

Spadaro: But even within that, there are different ways, and coordinators always talk about affecting the quarterback, so what are the ways that you can affect a quarterback?

Greenard: "Start with moving the quarterback off the spot, affect the quarterback, mess his timing up. Stop the running game. Slip a block going inside from an overset of a tackle, just trying to reach on a reach block, and you're going to make a TFL, that changes everything, that changes the game plan. Once I learned really early on to stop their bread and butter and getting TFLs, it made the sacks much easier, because now you know when they're about to run it, they know when, what type of protection they're going to have. Getting your guys involved as well. Rushing as a unit. I'm not just out here just freelancing – the best edge guys are the guys that get everybody else involved and on the same page. I feel like that's when you see a true impact of an edge guy, if an edge guy is the only guy out there making all the plays, he's not doing anything else to help the interior guys be able to make his job easier, if that makes sense."

Spadaro: When you go to a new team, what's the key to fitting in and being yourself and being productive?

Greenard: "I think that's the last part is not necessarily fitting in, just being yourself. How I've been carrying myself since I've been in the league has literally been the same person from day one, even in high school. I can see bull really early and I know the guys can see that as well. I've seen guys try to play, you know, one way to in the building, one way out the building, and that's tiresome. I've always been a person that just treated everybody with respect, the same way I want to be treated. I grew up in the South, where Southern hospitality was a real thing. I was raised by good, good parents, so I had a really good Christian upbringing. That's just kind of helped me be able to be the person I am today."

Spadaro: Your takeaways from playing against the Eagles in 2025, the kind of football this team plays, the mindset that this group brought to the field?

Greenard: "I had that game circled, I'm not gonna lie. These are Super Bowl Champions, these are some All-Pros, and arguably one of the greatest tackles ever in Lane Johnson, and obviously Jordan Mailata is going to be in that conversation really soon. Saquon (Barkley) is a great running back, Jalen Hurts is that quarterback ... all around this team has these guys that you just obviously knew. It was a great experience, and now to be teaming up with these guys, going against these greats in practice, it's only iron sharpens iron. I want to do dirty work, I want to go against the best of the best."

Spadaro: Sports culture, I'm sure it was great in Houston, great in Minnesota, for sure, you've gotten a taste of what it's like here, how would you describe it?

Greenard: "It's insane in a good way. They want the same things we want, and they're almost, I feel like the energy is like, 'Bro, we wish you could be in your shoes to actually go do the things that we want to do,' and I think that's a good part too to have, knowing that, because it makes you stay on your P's and Q's, it makes sure that you're not taking this game for granted. This can be taken away from us in a split second. The supporters, they literally are, listen, we want what's best for you, but we also want a championship, and if that's not what you're already thinking already as an NFL player, I mean, in this league, you're already behind the eight ball."

Spadaro: You see the Lombardi Trophies at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, did that move you at all?

Greenard: "It moved me so much. I was in Minnesota, I didn't see any hardware there. I was in Houston, didn't see any hardware. So I actually see it and hear guys talk about it, you know, Jalen (Hurts, quarterback) texted me and was like, 'We're gonna get one,' and it's not just talk. This is how everybody carries themselves around the building. It's the standard, the standard is the standard. This team already had everything they need to get to that point, so bringing me here, I just feel like I can just add to that what's already being built here and I can just be myself truly, and just play ball and everything else will work itself out."

Spadaro: You won the Good Guy Award in Houston with the media there. Did that mean something to you?

Greenard: "Heck yeah, I mean, because I understand, like, y'all have a job to do, and ultimately, you have to respect these things, when they're asking these questions. Some people have their own motives, I get that, I'm not going to negate that, however, they want to know the truth, they want to understand what is, what are you thinking, what do you guys think when you're in this privileged position of being in the NFL. I'm just going to give you respect the same way you give me. Nobody's said anything disrespectful to me, so I'm going to give you all the love and respect that you do."

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