Alabama’s Terrion Arnold and a deep group of CB prospects can help the Eagles in the NFL draft

INDIANAPOLIS — Terrion Arnold has been telling everyone about his “Michael Jordan moment.”

As the Alabama cornerback prospect and first-round hopeful meets with team executives and coaches at the NFL scouting combine, a story with him and Eagles cornerback Eli Ricks as the main characters has come up often.

College teammates in 2022, Arnold earned a starting cornerback spot going into his redshirt freshman season but was benched midway through the year in favor of Ricks, who joined the Eagles as an undrafted free agent last April.

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During a Thursday news conference between meetings with teams and preparation for Friday’s athletic testing, Arnold said the experience with Ricks turned out to be an inflection point for his career.

“I’ve been telling all the NFL teams, that right there, it kind of changed everything for me,” Arnold said. “I kind of like to say, ‘I had my Michael Jordan moment.’ I write it down every day. Eli Ricks, that’s my brother, but when I got benched and replaced by him, that motivated me.

“I write it down every day and say I refuse to ever let that happen again. That’s what is going to lead me to getting that gold jacket, and that’s the Hall of Fame, the gold jacket, I ain’t talking about the one you can buy.”

Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry from Alabama are part of a deep group of cornerback prospects expected to go in the first few rounds of thisApril’s NFL draft.

NFL Network analyst and former Eagles scout Daniel Jeremiah said he has about 15 cornerbacks with grades worthy of the first three rounds of the draft. Although Arnold is likely to be selected well before the Eagles pick at No. 22, the depth in general is good news for the Eagles, who need an infusion of young talent at the position.

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Eagles general manager Howie Roseman earlier this week acknowledged the pressing needs to rebuild multiple levels of the defense, but the team’s positional valuation would suggest that cornerback may be ahead of linebacker or safety in the early rounds.

“I don’t think there’s an area that we wouldn’t be open to addressing,” Roseman said. “Now, if you look at our defense and you’re just kind of honest with it, we have a lot of young players at defensive tackle. Is that as big a priority as other areas, just being honest? Probably not.

“But that’s also an important position, so we’re also not going to be in a position where we turn down a guy because the resources are already there, because we believe in the D-line so much,” Roseman said.

With the top 10 picks expected to skew heavily toward quarterback and wide receiver, a delayed run on cornerbacks could benefit the Eagles. Arnold, Clemson cornerback Nate Wiggins, and Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell are among the names expected to go early, with McKinstry, Missouri’s Ennis Rakestraw, and Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean also in the mix as potential first-rounders available for the Eagles.

“When you look at what’s going to be there, I think the value is probably going to be at the corner position,” Jeremiah said last week. “I think there will be some good corners there.”

» READ MORE: Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell, a Senior Bowl practice standout, has a common thread to Eagles’ Nick Sirianni

Jeremiah said the next tier of cornerbacks expected to go on Day 2 are primarily slot specialists rather than outside guys capable of lining up in press man coverage against No. 1 receivers, but even the first-round prospects have some variety.

Iowa’s DeJean in particular played mostly outside corner in college but also has experience playing as a nickel in high-leverage situations against tight ends. DeJean, who is 6-foot-1 and 207 pounds, said he’d be open to moving to either safety or slot cornerback in the NFL, although he’s shown enough to suggest he could stick on the outside as well.

“I’ve talked to a few teams about just moving around,” DeJean said. “Being able to play multiple different positions, I think that’s an advantage coming into this league. Just being able to play wherever they put me, it doesn’t matter to me to be honest. I’ll play anywhere, I just want to play ball.”

DeJean was featured on the Freaks List compiled by the Athletic reporter Bruce Feldman, but won’t go through combine drills because of a fractured fibula suffered at the end of the college football season. DeJean said that he was cleared to run full speed about a week ago but that he didn’t have the chance to prepare enough to participate.

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Neither DeJean nor Arnold said he met formally with the Eagles, but Arnold mentioned that he met with Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, whose team has the No. 4 pick. Gannon, who spent two seasons as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator before joining the Cardinals last offseason, requested the Alabama corner to line up across from him to demonstrate his physicality in press coverage, Arnold said.

“He wanted to see my press technique,” Arnold said. “I said, ‘Coach, do you want me to hit you for real?’ He said, ‘Yeah, hit me for real.’ So I hit him. Yeah, I jammed him.”