Eagles Rookie Appears To Be Leading Pack To Start, Earns Praise From Vic Fangio

The Eagles defensive coordinator said he will play his best players even if it's a rookie, which is good news for one in particular after two days of training camp.

Eagles rookie Quinyon Mitchell takes the field for practice during training camp. / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – Vic Fangio doesn’t care how long one of his defensive players has been in the NFL. If you’ve been in the league a dozen years, like Darius Slay has been, or just arrived in the draft this past April, if you’re good enough, and you’re the best at that position, you will play.

As the Eagles defensive coordinator so succinctly put it on Thursday's Day 2 of training camp: “I'm all for playing the best guys. I think if you looked at my history, when we've had rookies, we've played them, provided they're good enough. We aren’t playing somebody just because they're young.

“If we were an expansion team like I was in two places, we might just throw them out there to see what we got. We’ve got more serious business here. If they're worthy of playing, they will play.”

So now the ball is in the court of Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Jalyx Hunt, and Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. the four defensive players the Eagles drafted in April.

Mitchell, so far after two days of training camp, looks like he might be the best cornerback among a crop of about a dozen, after Darius Slay, which means he could be on the outside when the Eagles head to Brazil to open the season against quarterback Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers.

Fangio certainly had plenty of good things to say about Mitchell, the team’s first-round draft pick.

“He's a talented guy, he's smart, has a good football feel,” said the DC. “All of that really is more than I thought he had just from watching the college tape, so that's been a plus.”

Fangio has moved Mitchell into the slot on occasion, too. DeJean appeared ticketed for that spot, but the defensive back has a hamstring injury and won’t be able to do anything until probably mid-August, at the earliest, a setback that could hinder his progress toward starting opening day.

So maybe Mitchell opens in the slot, though it’s looking like he could win that outside job, besting candidates Kelee Ringo, who has been just OK so far in camp, and Isaiah Rodgers, who needs to show he can tackle better than his reputation for doing that was with the Colts.

“I think he's a guy we can move around anywhere in the coverage part,” said Fangio about Mitchell, adding that the plan to move Mitchel inside was to see how he could handle it, and he passed the test - for now.

“We just tried it,” said Fangio. “We just put him in there and tried it and it looked fine.”

It’s not just Mitchell Fangio has to make a decision on at cornerback. There are plenty of them and he will have some decisions to make on the final roster.

“Usually when you have battles going on and it's time to make a decision, the players make the decision for you, and everybody sees it,” he said. “It's rare that it's so tight that everybody is waiting for who the coaches pick.

"It becomes obvious. Hopefully, it will become obvious here - through somebody's really good play and not somebody's bad play. So, it will define itself out.”

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