Eagles rookie corners Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean have their first NFL crash course

Quinyon Mitchell has been pretty quiet during his first weeks at the NovaCare Complex, according to his teammates. But the first time the Eagles’ first-round pick got matched up against star receiver A.J. Brown, the young cornerback got the better of him, and Mitchell opened his mouth.

“That route was trash,” Mitchell told Brown, according to the receiver.

“I told him, ‘You took the first step, now you have to walk that walk,’” Brown said.

The route “was actually a good route,” said Mitchell, who signed his rookie deal Thursday, so every draft pick is now under contract.

“I finally got a rep against A.J., so I wanted to talk a little trash to him.”

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The last few weeks have offered Mitchell and second-round pick Cooper DeJean their first chances to walk the NFL walk after the Eagles selected them with their first two picks in April’s draft, highlighting just how weak the secondary was for a team that collapsed down the stretch and offered little resistance in a playoff loss in Tampa.

The Eagles have used their young corners in multiple positions, in multiple units, and against multiple players during organized team activities and at this week’s minicamp.

They are admittedly not the loudest presences in a defensive backfield that features talkers like Darius Slay and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, but both rookie corners have spent the last few weeks asking veterans like those two for advice, studying their habits, and taking in everything they could during their first workouts as professionals.

Up next is a six-week break, followed by Mitchell and DeJean’s first NFL training camp. What was a position of weakness last season for the Eagles might actually be a position of strength in 2024. It’s unclear where exactly either fits into the puzzle at the moment and Eagles coaches are still figuring out where they might fit best. Both have taken snaps at nickel and on the outside.

DeJean had a nice pass breakup Thursday, a day after he had a clear line on an interception of Jalen Hurts but didn’t haul it in — which led to Gardner-Johnson giving him an earful.

Defensive backs coach Christian Parker pointed to DeJean’s versatility, vision, and ball skills as reasons why the team is taking a look at him at multiple cornerback spots.

“We’re kind of in that process now,” Parker said this week. “We’ve moved him around a little bit. He can handle it mentally. I think as we move through this phase right now and going into training camp, he’ll have a home. He’s playing corner, he’s playing nickel, and he’s handling those things well. We’ll continue to put more on his plate and see how he handles it.”

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Is there a risk of overloading a rookie?

“You don’t want to take advantage of an intelligent football player because you do want him to play fast,” Parker said. “We’re never going to put him in a situation where he has to learn a million jobs and he can’t be good at one.

“You’re playing ‘multiple positions,’ but really the job descriptions are very similar down in and down out depending on what we’re doing. It’s really simple for him, and he has a really good football mind,” Parker said.

“I’m just trying to take in and learn as much as possible right now, whether that’s inside or outside,” DeJean said. “I don’t have a problem with having a lot on my plate. I’m here to play football and learn football. The more positions I can learn, I feel like it helps me out on the field when I’m at one of those positions.”

As for Mitchell, the challenges of the last few weeks have been welcomed ones. He wants all the reps he can get against Brown and DeVonta Smith. He has routinely gone over to veterans like Slay, Avonte Maddox, and Reed Blankenship to ask “as many questions as I can” about what they’re seeing.

The Eagles brought in Isaiah Rodgers last year, and he sat out the 2023 season because of a gambling suspension. But Rodgers has returned in great shape and has taken plenty of first-team reps opposite Slay. Second-year corner Kelee Ringo has been in that spot, too, and Maddox has gotten looks at first-team nickel and second-team safety. Both Mitchell and DeJean are in the mix, too, having taken reps with the first team.

The Eagles even showed a dime look Tuesday that had Mitchell essentially roaming the middle of the field while Slay, Ringo, and Maddox were also out there.

“Whatever they need me to do I’m willing to do it,” Mitchell said.

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Vic Fangio’s scheme demands that nimbleness. The Eagles have dotted their defense with players who can do multiple things, and Fangio mentioned throwing a lot at the players early. For Mitchell and DeJean, this first stretch has been a valuable crash course.

“At the end of the day, you want to get your best 11 on the field,” Parker said. “Whatever combination we can put together with guys that understand their job — whether it be a corner to nickel or nickel to safety or the dime position — the more guys you know that have an overall knowledge of what we’re doing, the better you can be.”