DeJean has attracted attention\u00a0for\u00a0his “jack-of-all-trades” ability, playing nickel\u00a0and\u00a0safety\u00a0in the secondary.<\/p>\n
“Coop can play anything. Safety, corner, nickel,\u00a0linebacker,\u00a0D-lineman. He can do it all,” Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
Entering\u00a0Year 3\u00a0in Fangio’s defense, DeJean\u00a0speaks of the evolution the scheme and players experience every year. Fangio likes to switch it up. For DeJean, that means playing more safety this season in\u00a0base formation.<\/p>\n
“That’s what I love about Coach Vic.\u00a0He’s\u00a0always trying to add things and see what we can do,” DeJean\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“I feel a lot more comfortable (playing\u00a0safety) than I did in OTAs. Still trying to learn as much as I can about the position, be in the right spot on every play, but\u00a0that’ll\u00a0come over time\u00a0and\u00a0I’m\u00a0going to continue working at it during camp.”<\/p>\n
Even with the added responsibility, the former Iowa Hawkeye still\u00a0studies\u00a0the outside cornerback position \u2013 just in case.\u00a0Not only that, DeJean has still been practicing punt returns, staying ready if his name is called.<\/p>\n
Then, there is the addition of Riq Woolen who, like Mitchell and DeJean, was named to his respective All-Rookie\u00a0Team\u00a0and has earned Pro bowl honors.<\/p>\n
“I feel like\u00a0I’m\u00a0like the new guy in class.\u00a0I’m\u00a0like a\u00a0rookie\u00a0again,” Woolen said of joining the Eagles’ cornerback\u00a0corps. “At the end of the day,\u00a0I’ve\u00a0still got to be myself.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0still\u00a0got\u00a0to come here and work hard.<\/p>\n
“It’s\u00a0pretty cool\u00a0because now\u00a0it’s\u00a0just learning how to fit in with these guys. I know my personality. I get along well with everybody. I crack jokes with everybody on the\u00a0team,\u00a0they laugh. Just being able to become closer to these guys,\u00a0that’s\u00a0all I really care about because I got to be the best version of myself.”<\/p>\n
What does Woolen bring to the Eagles’ secondary alongside DeJean and Woolen? Speed and height,\u00a0according to DeJean.\u00a0It’s\u00a0not a\u00a0shocking\u00a0observation from the third-year\u00a0defensive back. Woolen ran a 4.26 40-yard dash at\u00a0the 2021 NFL Scouting\u00a0Combine and was only one of two corners in the entire NFL in 2025 to stand at least 6-foot-4.<\/p>\n
“He pushes me just like everybody else.\u00a0He’s\u00a0a big physical corner and\u00a0he’s\u00a0been\u00a0a great addition,” Mitchell\u00a0said of\u00a0his new teammate. “I got all the confidence in the world in him and all the other guys in that room. And we just keep getting better.”<\/p>\n
Woolen shared the same sentiment after practice\u00a0and is looking to continue to build trust, comfortability, and chemistry with Mitchell and DeJean.<\/p>\n
“I feel amazing, man. I feel like I got better from\u00a0Day 1.\u00a0As long as I continue to get better every day, I’ll be just fine,”\u00a0Woolen said.\u00a0“In nickel package, (DeJean) plays next to me and then he\u00a0was at safety. Being able to trust him and feeling where\u00a0he’s\u00a0at\u00a0builds chemistry.<\/p>\n
“Being able to build off those two guys is pretty fun.”<\/p>\n
Before\u00a0practice, Fangio said that\u00a0it’s\u00a0important in\u00a0Training\u00a0Camp for players\u00a0not to always play with the same player beside them.\u00a0Players\u00a0need to get familiar with the unfamiliar\u00a0\u2013 something necessary for Woolen and Mitchell in the\u00a0secondary\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a0player like DeJean\u00a0who\u00a0could\u00a0be\u00a0in a\u00a0different position play-by-play.<\/p>\n
With the changes to the defense this offseason, only Fangio and Head Coach Nick Sirianni may truly know what the Eagles’ secondary will look like this season. One thing is for sure though \u2013 Mitchell, DeJean, and Woolen know each other’s strengths and will continue to build more and more familiarity with each other as Training Camp progresses into the season. – Written by Caroline Connor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DeJean has attracted attention\u00a0for\u00a0his “jack-of-all-trades” ability, playing nickel\u00a0and\u00a0safety\u00a0in the secondary. “Coop can play anything. Safety, corner, nickel,\u00a0linebacker,\u00a0D-lineman. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[107590,1792,10981,2196,69,71,70,14928,66329,8353],"class_list":["post-257945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-2026-training-camp","tag-all-news-archived","tag-cooper-dejean","tag-nfl-com-feature","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-quinyon-mitchell","tag-riq-woolen","tag-vic-fangio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257945","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=257945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}