Darius Cooper Turning Heads at Eagles Camp: Is the Undrafted Playmaker for Real?

With star receiver DeVonta Smith and first-round pick Makai Lemon sidelined with hamstring issues, plenty of first-team reps have been available, and Cooper had done exceptional work with the opportunity to step up.

WR Darius Cooper gets some extra work in after practive on Aug. 5, 2026. | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

PHILADELPHIA — Is it real?

Second-year receiver Darius Cooper is turning heads at Eagles training camp, building on a productive rookie season as an undrafted player and flashing the explosive playmaking ability that made him a standout at Tarleton State.

With star receiver DeVonta Smith and first-round pick Makai Lemon sidelined with hamstring issues, plenty of first-team reps have been available, and both Cooper and free-agent pickup Elijah Moore have done exceptional work with the opportunity to step up. 

Cooper was spectacular on Monday at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, catching several passes and putting talented cornerback Riq Woolen in a blender with significant separation on a sharp out pattern and a savvy stop-and-go route down the seam. 

Quarterback Jalen Hurts seems to be gaining trust in Cooper, 24, and often looks for the St. Louis native when extending plays.

What’s most impressive is that Cooper has done his damage in multiple ways from working the intermediate and sideline areas, and converting contested catches while showing up in Nick Sirianni’s all-important situational drills. 

Cooper’s work has more than a few observers arguing for an expanded offensive role even when Smith and Lemon return to the lineup.

That’s probably skipping steps, and the offensive plan is for Smith, Dontayvion Wicks, Lemon, and Hollywood Brown to be the main pieces at the WR position.

Cooper, though, may have risen from bubble player to a guy he can’t cut.

From there. he’s an injury away from getting an opportunity when it counts. 

There is something to being a playmaker, even at a small school like Tarleton State where Cooper snared 76 receptions for 1,450 yards and 14 touchdowns during his senior season, ranking near the top of Division I in receiving yards and earning first-team FCS All-America honors. 

Cooper is comfortable with the football coming in his direction, and can create yards after the catch.

Woolen had a close-up of what Cooper could do on Monday and has already taken the stance that it is real.

“Coop is a great receiver,” Woolen said after practice. “I felt like just that whole room, they feed off each other. And he continues to grow. 

“When I got here in OTAs till now, every rep I’ve gone against him, there’s no shortage of hard work. He always 100%. Whenever you go against him, you know you’re going to get a great look. Coop is a great receiver. So to be able to go against him and battle with him, and see him grow throughout training camp, is a lot of fun.”

The difficulty for undrafted players is often overcoming that stigma.

Meritocracy Vs. Reputation

Makai Lemon takes questions after training camp practice on Aug. 1, 2026. | Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

At WR in Philadelphia, Smith is a legitimate star, Wicks was traded for and received a significant extension, and Lemon was picked 20th in the draft less than four months ago.

Sirianni was asked how players can expand beyond their designated roles into bigger contributors. 

“Roles don't have to stay the same,” Sirianni said. “There's different reasons of why guys switch out of roles, but we're going to need every role filled that we need to play offense, play defense, play special teams, leadership, and everything like that. 

“Just because you're the dirty work guy (something Cooper was previously labeled with) doesn't necessarily mean that the ball can't come to you on third down or whatever it may be. That kind of plays itself out as the training camp progresses. We'll talk through that as a team at some particular point in training camp.”

For now, Cooper has made some noise and gotten himself noticed. Now he has to finish the job through the rest of camp and into the preseason.

“You graduate by trust and by consistently doing what you're supposed to do and say, 'Man, okay, we look at him as this dirty-work guy, but man, he's had opportunities in training camp to win on third down, and he has done that. Let's give him those opportunities,'” Sirianni said. 

“Everything that we do is built on trust and you get that through practice, you get that through meeting films, you get that through walkthroughs that you consistently do. I keep saying that word -- consistently do what you're supposed to do.”