From a 3-stoplight Florida town to the NFL draft’s first round, Quinyon Mitchell is the Eagles’ big get

When Quinyon Mitchell strolled across the draft stage on Thursday night as the newest member of the Eagles, the cornerback exuded an even-keeled energy. Calm and collected, the No. 22 overall pick pointed out a cluster of exuberant Eagles fans in the Detroit crowd, dapped up Roger Goodell, then cracked a smile when the commissioner unfurled his “Mitchell”-emblazoned Eagles jersey for a photo op.

Justin Wentworth, his former high school coach at Williston, watched the moment unfold on television from nearly a thousand miles away in Madison, Fla. The 22-year-old Mitchell he observed was the same kid who made the jump to his varsity program as a sophomore back in 2017.

“That’s genuine,” said Wentworth, who is now an assistant coach at Madison County. “That’s not him putting on a show. He didn’t have his arms up in the air, yelling and screaming, jumping around. That’s just him. That’s what you’re gonna get, day in and day out.”

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From the beginning of their relationship, Wentworth recalled that Mitchell was as loud as he was big. Mitchell arrived at Williston measuring somewhere around 5-6 or 5-7. He was as “skinny as a rail.” He was also the type of kid, Wentworth said, that might have gone unnoticed in any given room unless he walked up to someone and tapped them on the shoulder.

But for what Mitchell lacked in size, he made up for in speed as a cornerback, running back, and slot back. Even as a sophomore, he could run with anybody. He could track receivers down and avoid getting beat over the top. With the help of then-assistant coaches Ric Whittington and David May in the weight room — and a five-to-six-inch growth spurt — Mitchell worked to combine length and strength with his blazing speed between his sophomore and junior seasons.

“Consistency, that’s the key,” Wentworth said. “He went from 5-6, 5-7 to about 6-foot. And then he went from lifting 139-pound weight class or 129, I don’t remember which one, to lifting 169, almost moving up to 183. That was a huge thing. It was something he could see. When you start seeing yourself, and you’ve got these muscles and you’re seeing yourself in the mirror, you start seeing those results [of] the hard work.”

Wentworth refers to Williston as a “map dot.” It’s a small town of less than three thousand people with three stoplights. Even though Mitchell came from what Wentworth called “just a place” between Gainesville and the Gulf of Mexico, the cornerback put himself on the map with his high caliber of play during his final two seasons of high school.

In 2018 against neighboring Dunnellon, Wentworth recalled a trap play in which Mitchell, at running back, beat star safety Ja’Quavion Fraziars, who now plays at Florida as a receiver, to the sideline. Price Harris, the former head coach at Dunnellon who now holds the same position at Madison County, later expressed his shock to Wentworth when the player nicknamed “Baby J” watched as Mitchell ran by him.

“He goes, ‘Coach, you have an antelope on that team,’” Wentworth said.

That identity of being a small-town player stuck with Mitchell, putting a chip on his shoulder as he began to draw interest from college teams.

“Just having that underdog mentality,” Mitchell said at his introductory news conference on Friday. “Just demanding respect wherever I go. That’s what it taught me.”

In June 2018, Mitchell attended a camp at the University of Florida, where Wentworth said he ran 4.36- and 4.37-second 40-yard dashes for the college coaches in attendance. He held his own in one-on-ones at cornerback against bigger, stronger receivers.

After that showing, Wentworth said his phone didn’t stop ringing. South Alabama, Toledo, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Arizona State all came calling.

“I don’t think I taught a class the entire fall when the recruiting period opened up,” Wentworth said. “I was either doing film breaking down stuff or I was dealing with Quinyon Mitchell stuff.”

But Mitchell had issues with his grades and ultimately committed to Toledo, which stood by him throughout the process from the beginning. Over the course of four years with the Rockets, Mitchell continued his ascent. He established himself as a consistent, shutdown cornerback in defensive coordinator Vince Kehres’ scheme while primarily playing off coverage.

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

Mitchell collected a total of 52 passes defensed, a school record, including 44 in just the last two seasons alone. Even in the transfer portal and NIL era, Mitchell showed loyalty to Toledo and remained a fixture on defense.

“Just be those for those who are there for you,” Mitchell explained.

Wentworth tried to steal a couple of hours on Tuesday nights to watch Toledo’s games when he could. Even when Mitchell didn’t have his best performance — Wentworth used last year’s game against Bowling Green as an example — the young cornerback still approached every play with the sense of levelheadedness that his coach became so familiar with at Williston.

Mitchell never let the mistakes overwhelm him. He learned from them, and then he moved on, Wentworth said.

“You ain’t gonna win every rep,” Wentworth said. “You can try and you want to. But you can’t play looking in the rearview mirror. And that’s something that from Day 1 that we had him on the field was that we always said that the butt-pats are going to be just as good as the butt-chewings.”

Now, Mitchell is poised to compete for a starting role at outside corner when Eagles training camp begins in July. Wentworth is prepared to watch more Eagles football than he has ever watched before.

Even though Mitchell refrained from effusive celebration on the draft stage, his high school coach plans on doing the opposite this upcoming season.

“I’m just excited for him,” Wentworth said. “The amount of people texting and just saying, ‘Congrats.’ I’m like, ‘It ain’t me. Make sure you tell him.’ I’m just happy to be here to cheer him on. Give me my pom-poms.”