Cooper DeJean Has Been Eagles' Missing Piece

As the 2024 calendar turned to early October, all hell appeared to be breaking loose in the city of Brotherly Love. While Philadelphia’s baseball team was eliminated in the MLB playoffs by the rival New York Mets, the Eagles were also failing to provide the city with much hope. A 2-2 record and a blowout loss in Tampa will do that, especially a season removed from a crushing collapse that already put head coach Nick Sirianni’s future with the organization in serious jeopardy. Remember, this is the same franchise that once fired Andy Reid despite him guiding them to a winning record in 11 of his 14 seasons as head coach; patience is not something to expect.

Well, as the calendar has now turned to December, the script has been inexplicably reversed. The Eagles have won their last eight games, are cruising to an NFC East title, and are well within driving distance of potentially securing the top seed in the NFC. During this eight-game winning streak, they are outscoring their opponents by a whopping margin of two touchdowns per game (14), are allowing just 15.25 points per game, and have not let up more than 222 passing yards in a single contest. These are utterly ridiculous numbers, to say the least, and an accurate reflection of the dominant behemoth they have become.

For good reason, a lot of attention will go to other star players, such as MVP candidate Saquon Barkley. Nevertheless, if we wanted to look at the player whose success most correlates with the Eagles’ turn of fate, it all starts with rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean.

Considered to be amongst the best cornerback prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft, DeJean easily could have found his way into being a first-round pick. Alas, he wasn’t, and even after drafting cornerback Quinyon Mitchell with their first pick, Philadelphia did not hesitate to take advantage of DeJean’s slight fall; they traded up to the 40th overall selection to add him to their secondary. 

Unfortunately, after being limited with a hamstring injury, DeJean played just eight total snaps in his first four games. However, the Eagles’ Week 5 bye allowed them to bring the rookie cornerback along. By their Week 6 matchup against the Cleveland Browns, the Iowa product played 91.2% of the available defensive snaps and has since been a consistent starter. In other words, being inserted into the starting lineup completely coincides with Philadelphia’s defensive surge:

The difference is striking, and not simply a matter of strength of schedule. During this eight-game winning streak, the Eagles have had to take on offenses such as the Bengals, Ravens, Commanders, and Rams, yet allowed no more than 20 points to any of them. Furthermore, while it would be one thing to credit DeJean with making an impact simply by association, his individual performance has been tremendous as well. In fact, he leads Philadelphia’s starting cornerbacks in passer rating allowed (78.5) and yards per target allowed (5.3). Mind you, this is a secondary that is starting a cornerback drafted higher than DeJean (Mitchell) as well as an All-Pro cornerback in Darius Slay Jr. Working from the nickel, his 35 tackles in this eight-game stretch are also impressive, and he wasn’t afraid to show his aggressiveness against Derrick Henry this past Sunday.

To be fair, DeJean’s ferocious style of playing working from the inside as a zone defender should not come as a surprise. In fact, it simply fits with our report from last December.

New defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is notorious for running a defense that relies on a plethora of zone coverage principles and preventing explosive passes through the air. DeJean’s skill set doing just that makes him a perfect fit. The rookie cornerback is allowing a very low average depth of target (5.4 yards) and has thus allowed just 65 air yards in total during his early pro career. If you are going to win against the Eagles, it is going to have to come through a methodical effort—DeJean has proven to be the missing piece.

As the report alludes to, DeJean is an extremely quality athlete and had unsurprisingly served as the Eagles’ top punt returner this season as well. Among punt returners with at least 10 returns, he is tied for sixth with 11.8 yards/return, though as he has become such a valuable commodity on defense, Philadelphia has chosen not to risk his health in that line of duty. Altogether, though, he has proven to be a swiss-army knife capable of affecting a game in a multitude of ways and has certainly put himself in a strong position to be named this year’s recipient of the Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

Accolades aside, what matters most right now is simple: Cooper DeJean is a star in the making and has consequently proven to be the linchpin in the Eagles’ dramatic turnaround. Right now, many other front offices have to be second-guessing themselves, but the city of Philadelphia is not complaining. Sometimes, a hero does not have to be the main character, yet is the one who is missed in plain sight. For every Batman, there is an Alfred. DeJean has proven to be Philadelphia’s Alfred.