It was just another low-key spring OTA practice, but to Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean it was another reason to compete at an extreme level.<\/p>\n
Mitchell and DeJean are already elite, already the first cornerback tandem in NFL history to make 1st-team all-pros by their second seasons. But it\u2019s not enough, and both are obsessed with getting better every day.<\/p>\n
Among 73 corners targeted at least 50 times last year, Mitchell was second with a 44.3 percent opposing completion percentage and fifth in yards allowed per target. Even in an off year, Woolen was 15th\u00a0in opposing completion percentage and second in yards per target. DeJean, a Super Bowl hero as a rookie,\u00a0was the 6th-rated corner in the league among 50 corners who played at least 750 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n
Throw Riq Woolen into the mix and the Eagles have a uniquely talented and versatile cornerback trio. Potentially the best in franchise\u00a0history.<\/p>\n
Nick Sirianni spoke recently about watching DeJean and Mitchell battle each other at OTAs and what it says about them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes the hardest thing is when people are competing against each other for that same spot,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, Quinyon and Coop. I was watching them do a competition drill together against each other (during OTAs) and they’re going so hard not to lose to each other.<\/p>\n
“You can just see (how) these two are making each other better because of how hard they’re going and because of how competitive they are and because they’re both really good and taking that to another level. Like Q dives – like it\u2019s May 28 or whatever day it was \u2013 and Q is trying to finish this drill and dives for the ball to win the drill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I’m like, \u2018Man, that is good to see right there.\u2019 \u2026 I know they’ve already broken out, you know, Coop and Quinyon, but I really liked how those guys (competed).\u201d<\/p>\n
Now add to that duo Woolen, who the Eagles signed to a one-year, $12 million contract in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woolen, who\u00a0made a Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2022 and won a Super Bowl with the Seahawks last year, gives the Eagles three cornerbacks who have made a Pro Bowl and won a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Corner was a strength before the Eagles added Woolen. Now 3rd-year defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has virtually boundless flexibility and versatility at the slot and outside corner positions, as well as safety.<\/p>\n
This is the first time in franchise history the Eagles have had three cornerbacks who are former Pro Bowlers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2009, Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown were still here and Asante Samuel was in his first year with the Eagles. But Brown hadn\u2019t made a Pro Bowl despite playing several years at a Pro Bowl level. Darius Slay had one year with Mitchell and DeJean, but that was when they were rookies. From 1998 through 2002, Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent were joined by Al Harris, but he didn\u2019t make a Pro Bowl until he left Philly and joined the Packers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m really excited adding Riq to that group,\u201d Sirianni said. \u201cAnd I feel like every day I’m like, \u2018Wow, that was an impressive play.\u2019 And we can get so caught up in wild plays. What wins is consistency. But the wild plays are fun to watch. He has a lot of wild plays and he is consistent \u2026 and so I’m really really looking forward to him and Quinyon and Coop kind of roaming back there and what those guys can do there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the (summer) that they’ve had so far, man, there we talked a lot about you know this this togetherness and like when you have like we talked about iron and sharpening iron right, and that’s really easy to see when it’s like, well, Devonta is going to make Q better and Q is going to make Devonta better. Really easy to see when it’s on that side of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woolen looked great in spring practices, but the reality is that the Seahawks thought he was expendable after he lost his starting job last year and saw his snaps drop from 91 percent in his first three seasons to 78 percent last year and 68 percent over the last 11 games.<\/p>\n
Woolen had six interceptions as a rookie but only six the last three years and just one last year. So he is trying to resurrect his career at 27 with a new team.<\/p>\n
You couldn\u2019t find a better team to do it with.<\/p>\n
At 6-4, Woolen was tied with Nahshon Wright as the tallest starting corner in the NFL last year. He\u2019ll be the Eagles\u2019 tallest corner since 6-4 Joe Lavender in the mid 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRiq works his butt off and, man, you’re not supposed to look like that when you play corner,\u201d Sirianni said. \u201cLike he just looks the part. You look at somebody \u2026 like I remember I used to think that way when I saw Calvin Johnson as a receiver.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always thought that of Julio (Jones). You ain’t supposed to look like that. And I feel like that with Riq. You ain’t supposed to look like that at that position. He’s freaky.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was just another low-key spring OTA practice, but to Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean it was another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6107,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-251025","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\/251025","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=251025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}