Hard to believe Cooper DeJean – the youngest 1st-team all-pro in Eagles history and youngest player ever to score a Super Bowl return touchdown – has a tackling problem.

But according to Pro Football Focus, DeJean already has 12 missed tackles in just seven games, most in the NFL. 

And his 22.5 percent missed tackle percentage is 28th-highest of 222 defensive backs who’ve played at least 100 snaps so far this year.

Considering that DeJean was only charged with 11 missed tackles all last year in over 1,000 snaps and a missed tackle percentage of 10.9 – less than half what it is this year – it’s fair to wonder what the heck is going on with one of the NFL’s most talented young defensive backs.

DeJean revealed Wednesday that figuring out how to tackle as a safety is much different than tackling as a corner, and he admitted he’s been struggling with that adjustment.

“Yeah, it’s different,” he said at his locker after practice. “It’s more different than I thought it was going to be, especially in the run defense part of it. 

“Coming downhill, finding the right angles to be able to make a tackle, and when you’re in the middle of the field and guys running straight at you with the ball in their hand, that makes it even tougher. 

“So it’s been something I’ve been trying to grow into over the course of this year. It hasn’t been easy, it’s been a challenge, but I feel like we’ve got great coaches and been getting better at it each and every week.”

DeJean last year played only 13 percent of his snaps at safety. This year, that number has jumped to 42 percent as he’s transitioned to full-time safety when the Eagles play base, moving to slot corner when the Eagles are in nickel.

This is a guy who had an iconic pick-6 in the Super Bowl as a rookie and made 1st-team all-pro and the Pro Bowl in his second season. So it’s been surprising to see him struggling so much.

But safety and corner are completely different animals and ball carriers come at you from different angles. 

Vic Fangio said Wednesday he doesn’t think playing both safety and nickel has been a problem for DeJean.

“Cooper’s a good player,” Fangio said. “Trust him totally. … Last year he played corner and nickel. This year he’s playing safety and nickel, so it’s pretty equal.”

But DeJean said the adjustment has been challenging and the biggest difference is that at safety you’re meeting the ball carrier or receiver later in the play so the offensive player has more chances to adjust his direction, making it tougher to find the right angle to attack. 

“When I’m playing nickel and corner, you’re right up there on the line,” he said. “So there’s a lot less space a guy can work with and move off of, and it’s less of a bigger collision I guess a lot of the time.

“So when you’re coming downhill at safety you could be coming down, he could change his course and then you’ve got to get through the bodies to find out where the running back’s at and then you’ve got to figure out when you can shoot your gap if there is a gap to shoot through or when to play over the top.

“And when they’re running full speed through the hole you know you’ve got to understand that’s different and it’s going to be a bigger collision so you’ve got to kind of gather yourself when you’re coming downhill and running to make a tackle.”