Eagles DC Offers Insight On Where Versatile Rookie Will Play

Vic Fangio likes to throw a lot at his players early.

Eagles DB Cooper DeJean / John McMullen/Eagles Today

PHILADELPHIA - Eagles rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean is the kind of top-tier prospect where the beholder may see the beauty at different spots.

Depending on the scout you may have in the contact list, Dejean may have been projected at cornerback where he starred at Iowa, the slot, safety, or even as a big nickel linebacker.

Eagles Today can report that the Eagles' scouting department looked at DeJean as an outside cornerback thanks to his athletic gifts and demonstrated performance there with the Hawkeyes.

Once the personnel department handed DeJean over to defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, DB coach Christian Parker, and cornerbacks mentor Roy Anderson, and things get whittled down from 90 players to 53, plans can change rapidly out of necessity.

And DeJean is the kind of player with the versatility that almost guarantees he will be playing more than one position while waiting for an outside CB job once six-time Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay has moved on.

“There's a lot of players that physically are capable of being versatile,” Fangio told Eagles Today. “Where a lot of them get eliminated from being versatile is they struggle to learn the assignments and the techniques and the execution at a couple different positions.

 “There's a lot of guys that are versatile physically but can't do it mentally. And I don't mean that -- they're not going to get -- your reps are watered down the more you're moving around -- and other guys it comes easier for them than others, if that makes sense.”

The process of figuring out how much a player can handle always starts the same way for Fangio, however.

“You start them out at a primary position, and then you start giving them the secondary position, and you go from there,” Fangio said.

For DeJean, the rookie was already tasked with two spots in the Eagles’ two-day rookie camp. The primary was cornerback and the secondary was the slot position.

The idea of starting slowly may seem logical but Fangio has learned through experience to throw the kitchen sink early and scale back from there. 

“I like to throw a lot at them early because I think one of the worst things you can do is come Week 3, Week 5, ‘Man, we could really use this scheme,’ but it hadn't been introduced to the players yet,” the veteran DC said. “Whereas if you introduced it to them in training camp and worked on it, when you pull it back out three, four weeks later, there's recall. 

“We'll throw a lot at them in training camp to see what best fits for them, what they're good at, and then try and whittle it down, but always keeping some stuff in the bank in case we need it at some point during the season.” 

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