Eagles draft CB Quinyon Mitchell in the first round with the 22nd overall pick

For the first time in Howie Roseman’s tenure as general manager, the Eagles have selected a cornerback in the first round of the draft.

The Eagles nabbed Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell with the No. 22 overall pick on Thursday night. He was the first cornerback to come off the board and just the sixth defensive player. The first 14 names called on the draft stage were offensive players, an NFL record.

Shortly after the Eagles selected Mitchell, he admitted that it was “a lot” to stand by and watch teams select a slew of offensive players ahead of him. Still, the outcome was worth his wait.

“I feel like right now, I’m with the right fit,” Mitchell said on a Zoom call with local media. “I’m with the right organization. With the right players, the right city. So I feel good about this draft pick right here.”

Mitchell, who turns 23 in July, was a three-year starter as an outside corner at Toledo. His star rose in the public eye with an impressive showing at the Senior Bowl back in February. The 6-foot, 195-pound Mitchell has a unique connection to the Eagles — he played for head coach Jason Candle and defensive coordinator Vince Kehres at Toledo, two coaches who began their careers with Nick Sirianni at Mount Union.

The Eagles head coach discussed his involvement in the team’s process of evaluating Mitchell, leaning on his connections to relay information to Roseman and his staff.

“At the end of the day with how good of a player he was, the thing that always kept coming up is how good of a person, how good of a teammate, how hard of a worker, how competitive, and those are things you want to hear,” Sirianni said.

» READ MORE: Why Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell is a slam-dunk pick for the Eagles

Over the course of four seasons at Toledo, Mitchell stood out as a fluid cornerback with strong instincts when it comes to route recognition. He played 46 games, racking up 52 pass breakups (a school record), six interceptions, and one sack. The vast majority of his snaps came on the outside, spending just 4.9% of his snaps in the slot, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Williston, Fla. native was one of the speediest players at the combine, running a 4.33-second 40-yard dash (tied for third). Although he mostly played in off coverage and zone at Toledo, he played more press-man at the Senior Bowl and showed that he was capable of playing in that alignment against top prospects. His performance at the Senior Bowl answered some of Roseman’s lingering questions about Mitchell.

“I think that really helped us see that he had a diverse array of skill sets there, because that was one of the concerns when you see him play, that he’s only playing a certain way, and he’s allowing his eyes to lead him to the ball,” Roseman said. “And so when he got in people’s faces at the Senior Bowl, we thought he was one of the best players at the Senior Bowl against really good competition. Against a really good receiving class.”

» READ MORE: Toledo CB Quinyon Mitchell has a common thread to Eagles’ Nick Sirianni

Mitchell joins an Eagles cornerbacks corps shrouded in uncertainty at starter in the immediate and long-term futures. James Bradberry, 30, saw his play decline last season. Darius Slay, 33, is coming off of a Pro Bowl season and hasn’t shown substantial signs of slowing down. Both players have two years remaining on their contracts.

When asked about the immediate futures of Bradberry and Slay, Roseman said that the Eagles have “a long time to go before [they] go to Brazil” to play the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, and thus a long time before they need to determine their starting duo on the outside. Mitchell figures to compete for one of those jobs in training camp.

“I think it’s our goal right now just to add as much competition as we can to this football team and let it all shake out,” Roseman said.

Roseman bucked a number of recent trends with his first-round selection of Mitchell, including the fact that he’s the first cornerback that the general manager has selected in the first round. Still, Roseman acknowledged that he didn’t “jump the board” with the pick.

“We didn’t feel like we had to take a corner in the first round but he was the highest-ranked player on our board at a position that we would like to get some younger players here,” Roseman said.

Thursday night also marked the first time that the Eagles have picked in their original slot in the first round since 2020 when they selected wide receiver Jalen Reagor No. 21 overall.

Additionally, Roseman has typically gravitated toward Power Five schools in the first round of the draft. The last time he took a non-Power Five player in the first round was Carson Wentz in 2016 out of North Dakota State with the No. 2 overall pick.

Mitchell was a three-star recruit coming out of Williston who said he had some “grade issues” in school. But Toledo stuck with him throughout the whole recruiting process, and Mitchell remained loyal throughout his college career, even in the transfer portal era.

Regardless of the logo on Mitchell’s helmet throughout college, Roseman said he believes that he has “all the tools in his body and the right mentality” to have success at the NFL level.

“He’s got a lot to prove, as a small-school player,” Roseman said of Mitchell. “The MAC is not the National Football League. We understand that. We’ve had tremendous success with big schools, so to take a player like this from the MAC, he has to be special, and we think he’s a special person.”