Eagles 2024 Training Camp Preview: The Cornerbacks
![Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell poses after being selected by the Philadelphia Eagles as the No. 22 pick in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell poses after being selected by the Philadelphia Eagles as the No. 22 pick in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4242,h_2386,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/eagles_today/01j30srwf6bg744c9755.jpg)
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles have remade their cornerback room with a host of talented players, including two top-40 draft picks in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, along with a hungry lottery ticket in Isaiah Rodgers, who was a spring standout.
Add in emerging second-year player Kelee Ringo and you have four viable options to play opposite Darius Slay, the 33-year-old six-time Pro Bowl selection who often seemed like he was by himself last season when the group as a whole broke down due to injuries and inefficiency.
Coming off a career season in 2022, veteran James Bradberry, 30, may have had his worst in 2023 as the Eagles passing defense plummeted from No. 1 in the NFL to 31, a spot away from first to worst.
Head coach Nick Sirianni confirmed in the spring that the Eagles would be moving Bradberry to safety but an oblique injury scuttled that at minicamp.
The larger plan is to try to trade Bradberry but as long as he remains on the 90-man roster, presumably safety will be his home in Philadelphia and that opens up the starting slot opposite Slay.
Long-term that’s Mitchell’s destination. The No. 22 overall pick was the first cornerback selected this year and is the kind of high-level prospect not seen in years at cornerback for Philadelphia.
Mitchell’s a top-tier athlete who excels at off-coverage and finding the football.
DeJean, selected at No. 40, is also a gifted athlete and fast forward to 2025 and the plan might be to have both Micthell and DeJean outside the numbers.
Many scouting DeJean project him inside at the NFL and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he is the Day 1 starter in the slot ahead of the oft-injured Avonte Maddox or a meaningful contributor in Vic Fangio’s big-nickel and dime looks.
Ringo is also a high-level prospect the Eagles traded a future third-round pick to move up at the top of the fourth round in 2023. Had he stayed in college another year at Georgia, it’s conceivable that Ringo would have been vying with Mitchell and Detroit’s Terrion Arnold to be the first CB taken this past April.
Ringo is lengthy at 6-foot-2 with sub-4.4 speed and a willingness to stick his nose in run support.
Rodgers spent last season suspended for gambling sins in Indianapolis. The Eagles signed him and were content to wait for the ascending prospect.
If the spring was any indication, Howie Roseman may have hit a home tun with the gifted UMass product although new secondary coach Christian Parker mentioned there is a long way to go, perhaps a nod to the pads coming on and Rodgers’ history on run-support issues in Indy.
Other outside options include second-year player Eli Ricks, a natural cover CB who struggles with the physical aspect, and special teams standout Josh Jobe.
The slot was a revolving door last season after the Eagles lost Maddox in Week 2 to a torn pec after presumptive backup Zech McPhearson had already been lost to a torn Achilles in the preseason.
It was such a disaster that the Eagles overloaded with contingencies starting with DeJean, who got work in the slot during the spring, and Tyler Hall, a free-agent pickup from Las Vegas with some starting experience.
Maddox can play when healthy and McPhearson is finally ready to go but has an uphill battle to regain his standing while Mario Goodrich, the first replacement for Maddox when he went down is facing an untenable numbers game.
Despite those numbers, the Eagles added two more nickel types after tryouts. Shon Stephens opened enough eyes after arriving as a rookie camp tryout player and veteran Parry Nickerson, who was with Fangio in Miami last season earned a 90-man roster spot after solid work in minicamp.
If you count Bradberry, never mind safeties with CB roots like C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Mekhi Garner and Tristin McCollum, 14 of the 90 on Philadelphia’s offseason roster are CBs.
Depth Chart:
LC - Darius Slay; Kelee Ringo, Cooper DeJean
RC - Isaiah Rodgers; Quinyon Mitchell; James Bradberry; Eli Ricks; Josh Jobe
Slot - Avonte Maddox, Cooper DeJean; Tyler Hall; Parry Nickerson; Zech McPhearson; Mario Goodrich; Shon Stephens
WHAT’S CHANGED: The Eagles remade the room but the only exits are veteran Bradley Roby and practice-squader Josiah Scott.
Incoming are Mitchell, DeJean, Rodgers (on the suspended list last season), Hall, Nickerson, and Stephens while Mekhi Garner has moved from CB to safety full-time.
COACHING: Last season, the Eagles elevated D.K. McDonald, who had been Dennard Wilson’s assistant, to secondary coach and brought in Taver Johnson as his assistant with Ronell Williams being one of the few slot-specific coaches in the NFL.
The highly-regarded Wilson left to be Baltimore’s secondary coach after being passed over for a promotion to defensive coordinator in favor of outside hire Sean Desai.
It worked for Wilson who parlayed his one year with a great Ravens defense to the DC job in Tennessee while Desai was demoted in-season for Matt Patricia and is now out of Philadelphia.
The new secondary coach with an additional title of defensive passing game coordinator is Christian Parker, the DB coach in Denver from 2021 to 2023. The first of those three seasons with the Broncos was under Fangio, who was the head coach.
Fangio and Parker have set things up differently with a cornerbacks and safeties coach. Roy Anderson will be tutoring the CBs and Joe Kasper the safeties, the latter left Philadelphia for Miami last season to join Fangio and has returned with him. Anderson was with Fangio previously in Chicago.
THE LONGSHOT: Nickerson, 29, is a late arrival as a successful minicamp tryout player who has experience and a history with Fangio. He’s very fast and understands how to play the nickel spot at the NFL level. Head coach Nick Sirianni was visibly impressed with Nickerson’s abilities at the minicamp.
WHO STAYS/GOES: The plan would seem to go heavy at CB to keep as many young bodies as possible.
Slay, Mitchell, DeJean, Rodgers, and Ringo are locks. Maddox is close to a lock and special teams coach Michael Clay will be pounding the table for Jobe. The Eagles love the natural coverage skills of Ricks but the numbers game might be difficult for him. The others are all longshots for the 53.
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