Eagles Position Gamble With Cooper DeJean and Kenny Moore is Paying Off

The same mistake won't be made twice inside the Jefferson Health Training Complex.

The Philadelphia Eagles won't be moving Cooper DeJean to another position with Kenny Moore officially in the building. Moore was one of the game's top slot cornerbacks for a long time with the Indianapolis Colts prior to signing with the Eagles this week.

It would make sense if the Eagles used Moore as a slot cornerback right? That would be the case if the Eagles didn't have an All-Pro slot cornerback in DeJean.

DeJean does move to safety in a base defense so the Eagles can keep him on the field at all times. There was a possibility the Eagles could move DeJean to safety in a full-time role to accomodate Moore, but Vic Fangio shot that down with a simple no.

The Eagles do have a problem at safety, on ethat they addressed with the Moore signing. Moore is going to play the slot and safety, even if Fangio admitted he's never seen him play.

Why are the Eagles correct in what the plan is with DeJean and Moore going forward? Fangio won't make the same mistake the offense did once they lost Landon Dickerson.

Not changing two positions is a good thing

The Eagles have arguably the league's best slot cornerback in Cooper DeJean, who has been essentially a shutdown corberback there since he arrive din the NFL. DeJean still has scored as many touchdown passes in the slot as he's allowed in his career (1) and revented back to his All-Pro self by allowing 1 catch for 5 yards against the Titans on Sunday,

This is another mention DeJean is an All-Pro at his position. Hard to justify moving DeJean to another position when he's already elite at one of them. If the Eagles moved DeJena to safety, they would improve at safety but would be weaker in the slot with Kenny Moore, Jonathan Jones, or whoever would play there.

Sound familiar to another move the Eagles made in the past week right?

The Eagles decided to move Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens to left guard and started Drew Kendall at center, instead of playing Kendall at left guard (Kendall played guard all summer). Moving Jurgens to left guard hurt Jurgens' performance -- and he never played left guard -- while impacting the entire left side of the offensive line.

Kendall was fine at center, but struggled at times as well. It wa sKendall's first start with the firts team offensive line, but why play Kendall at guard all summer if he was just going to move back to center anyway?

The Eagles changed two positions on the offensive line for Week 2 and the results weren't great. Fangio didn't want to make the same gamble on his side of the ball.

So what's the Eagles plan at safety?

The Eagles have seen enough from the Andrew Mukuba-Marcus Epps combination to make some changes. Epps is the player on watch, as Mukuba is a second-round pick just in his second season.

There's a grace period for Mukuba. For Epps, there isn't.

Epps won the job over Michael Carter during the summer and was fine in training camp. he earne dthe starting job at safety, and the Eagles were hoping he would be consistent on the back end.

That transpired in Week 1, but three missed tackles in Week 2 (including a whiff on a 3rd-and-22 run that led to a first down), put Epps on notice. That's why Moore is in Philadelphia, as teh Eagles will transition him to safety and give him a chance to be a playmaker in the defense.

Will Moore be ready by Week 3? Probably not, but the Eagles have enough games prior to the trade deadline to see what he has before deciding if they will acquire more help at safety.

Michael Carter should see an uptick in snaps too, as the Eagles could try him out at safety this week. Epps is likely to start, but playing time could be diminished if he continues to struggle.

The Eagles spend the fewest cash at safety in the NFL at $2.7 million. With Moore's deal (which goes up to $3 million), they still would only be 31st in the league. They have $12.9 million in available salary cap space (per Over The Cap), so there's room to make a move by the trade deadline if necessary.

Right now, Moore appears to be the short-term answer at safety whenever he's ready to go. Of course, that's up to Epps and how he performs this week.

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