The Eagles may have themselves a dual threat in rookie Cooper DeJean.
The second-round pick finally made his first start on defense in Sunday’s 20-16 win over the Cleveland Browns at Lincoln Financial Field, and had the kind of game that had to make Eagles fans wonder what took so long to take off the wraps.
DeJean also showed some shiftiness in his second game as the full-time punt returner. He returned four punts for 51 yards for a 12.8-yard average. His final return went for 19 yards in the third quarter to set up the offense at their own 47. The Eagles capitalized on the good field position when Jake Elliott booted a 44-yard field goal to take the lead at 13-10 with 2:50 to play in the third quarter.
The Eagles took it slowly with DeJean through the first month-plus of the season after he missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, opting to start veteran Avonte Maddox. He had played just eight snaps on defense in that span.
Against the Browns, DeJean played 52 snaps (91 percent) to Maddox’s two, and his impact was felt, particularly as a biltzer from the slot.
“I felt prepared, going out there,” he said. “The biggest thing was I just had to go play with confidence. I feel like I worked up to this moment with all the help of the older guys and my teammates around me. They did a good job making sure if I was in the game, I’d be ready, and I felt prepared.”
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio blitzed DeJean three times. He recorded a half sack on one and pressured quarterback Deshaun Watson on another, nearly recording a sack that could have been a safety but couldn’t quite wrap him up.
“Just trying to heat him up,” said DeJean about the blitz, adding that he gets excited when he gets the opportunity to come off the edge.
“A lot of excitement,” he said. “I get amped up, sometimes too much. But my mindset is to just know my keys. If the running back is back there, I have to make sure I’m prepared for if the quarterback keeps it or hands it off. When I see him set up for the pass I gotta go get the ball.”
DeJean ended with six tackles, perhaps none bigger than the one he made during the Eagles’ late goal-line stand.
The Browns made it the 8-yard line with less than five minutes to play in the game and the Eagles protecting a 20-13 lead. On the first play from there, DeJean tracked down the speedy Elijah Moore after Watson found him in the slot.
DeJean is speedy in his own right and he ran down Moore from the backside, holding him to a 3-yard gain. A miss there and Moore probably scoots into the end zone.
“We were in man-to-man and that was my man,” he said. “Just doing my job, everybody doing their job and good things like that happen.”
Perhaps you could say that DeJean should have let the ball go and hope it bounced into the end zone on one punt rather than field it at the 4, but he wouldn’t say that. He returned it just seven yards.
“You’re always thinking about that, but it was a bomb, so I felt like I had a lot of space," he said. "Obviously, I didn’t get the yardage I wanted to. Sometimes you have to take your chances.
He would say, though, that he needs to get more vertical rather than run toward the sideline.
“I think there was a lot more space,” he said. “He (Browns punter Corey Bojorquez) was kicking some bombs, so it allows me more space to work. I feel like I left some yards out there still even. I have to try to get more vertical and not go so much side to side, get more yards back and put the offense in better position.”
He’ll learn that.
There’s no faulting his coverage skills were in display on one play when he didn’t give Watson a single crack in which to fit the ball on an endzone throw to Jerry Jeudy.
And DeJean, who is just 21-years-old, is just getting started.
“Great young player,” said safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. “I can’t wait ’til he gets his career started. Got his first one and can’t wait to see more.”
