In the NFL, all spring practices are non-padded. Players are in shorts and there\u2019s no contact allowed. We\u2019re a long way from real football, so feel free to take this with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n
But Riq Woolen is already standing out.<\/p>\n
A player that big (6-4, 210) shouldn\u2019t be this fast or quick or agile, but Woolen has been all of those things in OTAs.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnique skill set, I think,\u201d Cooper DeJean said. \u201cVery long and explosive and fast. Just watching him get in and out of breaks. It’s crazy to see how explosive he is and how he can catch up to routes when guys are getting out of their breaks. So it’ll be fun to watch this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woolen, 27, signed with the Eagles on a one-year, $12 million deal this offseason. There were reasons he was available after finishing off his rookie contract with the Seahawks, but he\u2019s a very talented cornerback.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen that in the couple OTA practices that have been open to reporters this spring. Woolen has looked sticky in coverage and has already broken up a couple passes.<\/p>\n
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio was pretty happy when the Eagles signed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was excited for him and kind of surprised that he was one of those guys that didn’t get a lot of action for a long-term deal,\u201d Fangio said this spring. \u201cI was thrilled to get him. I think he’s going to play good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what excited him about Woolen\u2019s game, Fangio mentioned that players at Woolen\u2019s size typically aren\u2019t able to move like he can, with the ability to mirror receivers in coverage. Woolen can do that.<\/p>\n
But because Woolen is unique. He needs to be coached differently. That\u2019s something new defensive passing game coordinator Joe Kasper understands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not too many guys that look like him playing that position,\u201d Kasper said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take advantage of it every way that we can schematically and from a technical standpoint. He\u2019s gotta be coached with a different technique that you coach Q with. They\u2019re two totally different body types so you do talk to them differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why you gotta be able to, when you work in the secondary, work on the different pitches. The pitches that Riq throws are going to be different than the pitches that Q (Quinyon Mitchell) throws. Just like Wheeler is going to throw a different game than Sanchez. It\u2019s very parallel to that, especially at the corner position. You want to be able to give those guys different tweaks and technical elements to be able to enhance their game. Riq has a nice fastball. The length is real, the speed is real. So we\u2019re really, really excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though they play the game differently because of their size difference, Mitchell said he and Woolen can still help each other from a mental aspect. They have been picking each other\u2019s brains all spring.<\/p>\n
The Eagles this season will add Woolen to the mix with Mitchell and DeJean, putting together what might be the best cornerback trio in the NFL. Both Mitchell and DeJean were All-Pros in 2025 in just their second NFL seasons. The Eagles got by with Adoree\u2019 Jackson last year but clearly tried throughout training camp and the season to upgrade.<\/p>\n
They hope they did that in a big way with Woolen.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, he’s a great player, great talent,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI’ve been watching him since his rookie year. He’s long, he’s athletic, but he wants to get better. Each and every day we have conversations about techniques, the receivers. So we both just wanna push each other to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the NFL, all spring practices are non-padded. Players are in shorts and there\u2019s no contact allowed. We\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6107,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-212414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eagles-blog","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}