Eagles’ Quinyon Mitchell embraces battles with A.J. Brown while navigating slot position

Avonte Maddox enjoys poking fun at his new next-door neighbor in the Eagles locker room, Quinyon Mitchell.

The seventh-year defensive back, like other vets on the team, found the rookie cornerback to be relatively quiet when he first joined the group in the spring. Just over a week into training camp, Maddox noticed that Mitchell is warming up to the group, taking jabs in jest, and cracking jokes back.

“He don’t talk much, but when you look at him, he always looks sleepy,” Maddox said Monday. “So I always be cracking on him. Like, ‘Man, wake up. What time did you go to sleep?’ He’s like, ‘Man, I went to sleep early tonight. That’s just how I am.’

“So he’s been opening up, and that’s a good thing to show for the young guys.”

The No. 22 overall pick in April’s draft out of Toledo hasn’t been afraid to open up on the field, too. In the spring, Mitchell called a route ran by A.J. Brown “trash” to his face, much to the amusement of the three-time Pro Bowl receiver. (The route, Mitchell conceded later, was not actually “trash.”)

Brown encouraged him to “walk that walk” at the time if he was going to talk trash. Mitchell has carried that approach over to their training-camp battles as he vies for a prominent role in the defense.

During Tuesday’s first day of padded practice, Mitchell took a pair of reps against Brown in defensive back-receiver one-on-ones in the red zone. On the first rep, Mitchell had such tight coverage on Brown that Jalen Hurts didn’t throw the ball. The rookie cornerback stared the star receiver down after the play was blown dead. Later, Mitchell was all over Brown on a fade route to the back corner of the end zone. Brown managed to make a one-handed snag, but he stepped out of bounds in the process.

“Every day I come out and I go against A.J., I just try to compete,” Mitchell said after practice. “I mean, he’s one of the best in the game, so I know I’m going to get good work. So every chance I get to go against him, I’m just going to compete and try to raise the bar.”

Training camp has provided Mitchell with a crash-course in NFL-level competition, from his one-on-one matchups with Brown to the ongoing positional battle among the cornerbacks. Darius Slay, Kelee Ringo, and Isaiah Rodgers have split the majority of the starting reps on the outside. Mitchell mixed in the outside cornerback rotation on Monday with the starters.

But perhaps another position could offer Mitchell a chance to start come Week 1. On Tuesday, Mitchell took a number of the starting snaps at slot cornerback, where he had been working behind Maddox on the depth chart earlier in camp.

Mitchell said there wasn’t much of a conversation to be had about trying out the unfamiliar role — wherever defensive coordinator Vic Fangio wants him to play, he’ll do it. He’s also taken snaps in dime with the starters as an inside defender. On the second day of camp, Fangio spoke positively of Mitchell’s transition into the slot.

» READ MORE: Breaking down the Eagles’ (unofficial) depth chart at the start of training camp

“He’s a talented guy,” Fangio said. “He’s smart. Has a good football feel. All of that really is more than I thought he had just from watching the college tape, so that’s been a plus. And I think he’s a guy we can move around anywhere in the coverage part.”

When Maddox isn’t ribbing Mitchell, he’s fielding his questions. Maddox said Mitchell talks to him every day as he navigates the nuances of the slot. Maddox has played a variety of positions in the defensive backfield throughout his career, so he has an understanding of the challenges that face a young outside cornerback attempting to make the switch inside.

“I feel like the most challenging part is things are moving a lot faster when you’re in there,” Maddox said. “I know Q was on the outside at Toledo, and when he gets inside of there, a lot of things start moving faster with jet motions and slow motions.

“That’s the questions he asks me. [On Monday], when they went in motion, he was kind of like, ‘Hey. I didn’t go with it. Do you think that was right?’ I was like, ‘That was perfect.’ You’ve got a defense where you don’t have to always do it all the time and you just tempo out on the receiver and you don’t got to go. You just get your eyes in the right spot. That’s another big thing is eyes. Make sure his eyes’ right. So I tell him make sure his eyes’ right while he’s in there and then he’ll make less mistakes.”

Maddox isn’t his only mentor. Slay has provided Mitchell with an example of how to be a pro, from the way he carries himself to taking care of his body. Additionally, when Mitchell and Brown aren’t competing on the field, the rookie is peppering the vet with questions off of it.

Through five days of camp, Fangio has saddled Mitchell with a variety of responsibilities and matchups. The young cornerback is embracing the challenges as he competes for a starting role, all while bringing a subtle sense of confidence.

“I feel like I handled it well,” Mitchell said. “I’ve been at corner, nickel, and dime, so I’m just learning every spot. Learning every position. So I feel really good.”