Cornerback, safety or both? Cooper DeJean doesn’t care about labels. The new Eagle just wants to play.

Cooper DeJean wanted to play quarterback in college.

If he had lived anywhere other than Iowa, he might have pursued that goal. But DeJean knew that his likely best path to success, and possibly the NFL, was playing defensive back for his home state Hawkeyes.

“I think it was tough at the time,” Jason DeJean said of his son choosing Iowa over offers to play quarterback at smaller programs. “But with Phil Parker being the defensive coordinator there and being a defensive backs specialist … he called us and said, ‘I’ll have him for three years and he’ll go to the NFL.’

“So he saw something in him that even we didn’t see right away.”

Parker, of course, would be proven right. After three seasons in Iowa City, DeJean is in the NFL after the Eagles selected him 40th overall in the second round of the draft on Friday. He joins a long list of Hawkeyes defensive backs who played under Parker in the last 25 years and went on to be drafted.

DeJean might have slipped out of the first round, where some analysts predicted he’d be taken, but he still became the highest-drafted Iowa defensive back since 1997, when the Cardinals made Tom Knight the ninth overall selection.

Knight was used strictly as an outside cornerback, but DeJean’s future position remains unknown. He, too, played mostly near the boundary in college, but some NFL evaluators view him as a safety, or more likely a hybrid who can play multiple spots in the secondary.

The Eagles publicly declined to pigeonhole DeJean at this stage.

“I think whatever he does he’s going to do at a high level,” general manager Howie Roseman said late Friday night. “Obviously we’ll get him in here, and like everything else on this team, see how the pieces fit when Coach [Nick Sirianni] and his staff get their hands on these guys.”

» READ MORE: Eagles draft takeaways: Trades and more trades, as the new-look defense and O-line take shape

DeJean said that he embraces his versatility. In some corners of the NFL — but not as much as in years past — mastering many trades instead of one could be viewed as a strike against a prospect. But in the modern game, with passing predominant, defenses increasingly need adaptable pieces in the secondary.

The 21-year-old DeJean, who was also a returner at Iowa, said he doesn’t have a preference where he plays.

“I’m a football player,” he said Friday during a Zoom interview. “You put me on the field and I’m going to go play football, whether it’s inside, outside, at safety, wherever it is.”

While DeJean spent most of his time at outside corner at Iowa, Parker did move him inside occasionally in a hybrid safety-linebacker role.

“At Iowa we called it the ‘Cash’ position,” said Jason DeJean, who was at the NovaCare Complex with his wife, Katie, for their son’s introductory news conference on Saturday. “It’s more like a nickel. He can come down, tackle, and take on blocks. I think that would be a good spot for him. But I think he can play on the outside, too.”

Of five high-ranking personnel executives from other NFL teams contacted by The Inquirer, three said they projected DeJean at all three spots — cornerback, safety, and nickel. Two said they had him primarily as a safety.

The Eagles are keeping an open mind, but there is an internal expectation that he’ll eventually be a middle field defensive back, a team source said. One comparison made by several league scouts — and also voiced on air by NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah — was to Malcolm Jenkins.

Jenkins was drafted by the Saints as an outside cornerback and played there in his rookie season. But he moved to safety in his second season, and after the Eagles acquired him in his sixth season, he became one of the most versatile defensive backs in the NFL, capable of playing both safety spots, the nickel, and linebacker.

DeJean has experience in traditional safety roles.

“I came in [to Iowa] as a safety. Played safety in high school all four years,” he said Saturday. “At Iowa I got a lot of safety reps in practice, just coming in and playing that position. Did it all through my first camp, first spring ball. Then I continued to get reps at all three positions throughout my time there.”

» READ MORE: Eagles get the most versatile player in the NFL draft by trading up for Iowa DB Cooper DeJean

DeJean was a multisport athlete in high school. He also played basketball, baseball and ran track. He scored 1,832 points in hoops at Odebolt-Arthur-Battle Creek-Ida Grove High, some of which can be seen on the YouTube highlights package that fans were passing around on social media.

But it was football as a two-way quarterback-safety that made him a household name among Iowa sports fans. As a senior, he passed for 3,447 yards with 35 touchdowns and rushed for 1,235 yards and 24 touchdowns.

He visited Nebraska and had scheduled trips to Kansas State, Virginia, and other Power Five conference programs interested in him as a quarterback, according to his father. But COVID-19 cut into the recruiting process and only South Dakota State and North Dakota State made formal offers.

“I really wanted to play quarterback,” DeJean said, “but ultimately Iowa was my dream school growing up. That’s where I wanted to be.”

North Dakota State had sent Carson Wentz, Trey Lance, and Easton Stick to the NFL in recent years. But the 6-foot-1, 203-pound DeJean didn’t project to the pros. Iowa, meanwhile, has had nine defensive backs — Micah Hyde, Desmond King, Josh Jackson, Amani Hooker, Michael Ojemudia, Geno Stone, Dane Belton, Julius Brents, and Riley Moss — drafted in the last decade before DeJean.

“I think that was always in the back of his mind, too, and why he chose Iowa,” Katie DeJean said. “Because of their reputation.”

Moss played mostly special teams for the Broncos last season, but he did log three snaps at cornerback in the season finale. He’s trying to become the first white cornerback to start at the position in nearly 20 years — unless DeJean beats him to it.

Jason Sehorn was the last to regularly hold down the position with the New York Giants, but Kevin Kaesviharn was the last to earn a start in 2003 with the Bengals. There have been about a half dozen others who were reserves in the span since, but the white cornerback has become a novelty to some extent.

Jason Kelce, when the subject of the most difficult NFL position was broached on his New Heights podcast in 2022, suggested cornerback — perhaps with tongue partly in cheek — because “it’s so [hard] that white people can’t even do it.”

“They don’t even let white guys try to play cornerback anymore,” Kelce continued. “Like they just said, ‘You’re done.’”

No one, of course, is lamenting the plight of white cornerbacks. The NFL between the lines may be the closest America has to a meritocracy. But DeJean said he would love the opportunity to play on the outside.

“If they put me out there, I’ll be excited to play out there on the edge at the corner position,” DeJean said on Friday. “If I don’t, there’s no hard feelings.”

As for his drop into the second round, DeJean admitted that there was “a little frustration” after the first night. Roseman claimed that the Eagles had a first-round grade on him. But they went with Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell with the No. 22 overall pick.

» READ MORE: Quinyon Mitchell gives Howie Roseman his first 1st-round CB. Can Mitchell also become the GM’s first stud at the position?

DeJean suffered a leg injury that ended his season in November, so maybe medical concerns affected his draft stock with some teams. But he said, “If there’s a game played today, I’d be ready to go.”

He repeated several times how difficult it was having last season cut short and his desire to finally return to the field.

“He’s a determined guy. He is all ball all the time,” Roseman said. “When he came in here, it’s like you see him and it’s one-track mind: ‘How am I going to improve football, work at football?’ I think our fans are going to love this guy.”

No matter what position he plays.