April 27, 2024
George Walker IV/USA TODAY NETWORK
Cooper DeJean, and a very excited coach in the background.
Heading into Day 2 of the draft after selecting CB Quinyon Mitchell in the first round, it felt a lot like the Philadelphia Eagles would address their offensive line, wide receiver, or maybe even linebacker with their two second-round picks at 50 and 53. However, just eight picks into Round 2, the Birds were suddenly on the clock at pick 40 after trading up with Washington. They then double dipped at defensive back, selecting Iowa's Cooper DeJean.
We'll get to DeJean in a moment, but first let's look at the trade, and the value of each pick according to the trade value chart:
| Eagles got | Commanders got |
| Pick 40 (500 points) | Pick 50 (400 points) |
| Pick 78 (200 points) | Pick 53 (370 points) |
| Pick 152 (31 points) | Pick 161 (27 points) |
| 731 points | 797 points |
The Eagles gave up 66 points of value to move up, or roughly the equivalent of a fourth-round pick. In other words, you could say that the Eagles paid a premium of a fourth-round pick to make that deal. They did it because they felt they were getting a player they had rated as a first-round player at pick 40.
"He was a first-round player for us," Howie Roseman said. "You know, Jeffrey [Lurie] said this tonight, you know, it's rare for us to be picking in the 20s and to get two first-round players. You know, both those guys were first-round players for us. We didn't have 32 first round guys, so when you get that opportunity to get two first-round guys, especially picking where we were, we felt like it was an opportunity and it was obviously an area we wanted to address. We felt like we addressed a lot of the areas of our football team through free agency, but that was one area we could address [in the draft]."
DeJean was thought of as a first-round prospect by a lot of draft analysts, not just the Eagles. He was Mel Kiper's 14th ranked player overall, Daniel Jeremiah's 24th ranked player, and Dane Brugler's 27th ranked player.
It's also probably noteworthy that the selection of DeJean kicked off a run on cornerbacks.
• Pick 40: Cooper DeJean, Eagles
• Pick 41: Kool-Aid McKinstry, Saints
• Pick 42: Kamari Lassiter, Texans
• Pick 43: Max Melton, Cardinals
If the Eagles had just sat tight, they might not have had another cornerback worth of a mid-second-round pick reach them. And personally speaking, while I liked McKinstry, Lassiter, and Melton, I found DeJean to be a much more intriguing prospect than any of them.
DeJean is an extremely versatile player who can play outside corner, slot corner, safety, or even some linebacker. He was also one of the best punt returners in college football, and he's an outstanding gunner. He is simply a ridiculous athlete and was a great college football player.
In 2022, DeJean had 75 tackles, 5 INTs (3 pick-sixes), and 8 pass breakups. Here are all five of those picks:
In 10 games in 2023, he had 41 tackles, 2 INTs, and 2 punt return TDs (one didn't count).
DeJean's 2023 season was cut short when he fractured his right fibula in practice. He missed most of the pre-draft process, and he likely slid in the draft as a result. It will be interesting to see what kind of plan the Eagles have for DeJean, who Vic Fangio can plug in wherever he sees fit.
Roseman wasn't very revealing about their specific plans for DeJean.
"He's such a good player," Roseman said. "You know, I think whatever he does he's going to do at a high level. Obviously we'll get him in here, and like everything else on this team, see how the pieces fit when [Fangio] and his staff get their hands on these guys."
The Eagles' secondary depth chart now looks something like this:
| Defense | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| CB | Darius Slay | Cooper DeJean | Josh Jobe | James Bradberry (likely cap casualty) | |
| S | Reed Blankenship | Sydney Brown | Mekhi Garner | ||
| S | Chauncey Gardner-Johnson | Tristin McCollum | |||
| CB | Quinyon Mitchell | Kelee Ringo | Isaiah Rodgers | Eli Ricks | |
| SCB | Avonte Maddox | Zech McPhearson | Tyler Hall | Mario Goodrich | Tiawan Mullen |
The Eagles' pass defense in 2023 was atrocious, and the Eagles have put significant resources toward fixing that, beginning with the addition of Chauncey Gardner-Johnson in free agency, and then the selection of a pair of highly-rated defensive backs in Mitchell and DeJean in the first two rounds of the draft. They also still employ Darius Slay, and they have other young players in the pipeline like Kelee Ringo, Isaiah Rodgers, Sydney Brown, and Reed Blankenship. This is a group that can grow and mature together.
Grade: A-
In chart form:
| Eagles got | Texans got |
| Pick 86 (160 points) | Pick 78 (200 points) |
| Pick 123 (49 points) | |
| 209 points | 200 points |
The players who were selected in that range:
• Pick 78: Calen Bullock, S, Texans
• Pick 79: Matt Goncalves, OT, Pittsburgh
• Pick 80: Jermaine Burton, WR, Alabama
• Pick 81: Christian Haynes, OG, UConn
• Pick 82: Tip Reiman, TE, Illinois
• Pick 83: Blake Corum, RB, Michigan
• Pick 84: Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan
• Pick 85: Zak Zinter, OG, Michigan
I thought Wilson and Zinter would have made some sense for the the Eagles, but otherwise... meh. So I think that trade back worked out fine.
In chart form:
| Eagles got | 49ers got |
| Pick 94 (124 points) | Pick 86 (160 points) |
| Pick 132 (40 points) | |
| 164 points | 160 points |
The players who were selected in that range:
• Pick 86: Dominick Puni, OG, Kansas
• Pick 87: Marist Liufau, LB, Cowboys
• Pick 88: MarShawn Lloyd, RB, Packers
• Pick 89: Tykee Smith, S, Georgia
• Pick 90: Elijah Jones, CB, Boston College
• Pick 91: Ty'Ron Hopper, LB, Missouri
• Pick 92: Jalen McMillan, WR, Washington
• Pick 93: Adisa Isaac, EDGE, Ravens
Among that group of players, I thought that Puni, Lloyd, and Isaac would have all made sense for the Eagles at that juncture. Smith and Jones would too, if the Eagles hadn't already drafted two defensive backs.
Side note: The Eagles traded what became "Pick 86" to the Texans last year for a fourth-round pick that was used to select Kelee Ringo. They then re-acquired it, and traded it away again.
Hunt was a safety at Cornell who transferred to Houston Christian and became an edge rusher. The Eagles announced him as a linebacker. He'll likely play the SAM position.
The last two seasons (21 games) at Houston Christian, Hunt had 13.5 sacks and 5 forced fumbles. He had an impressive Combine performance.
I won't pretend to have watched Houston Christian games, so we'll let Lance Zierlein of NFL Network do the heavy lifting on the scouting report here:
Hunt is a small-school edge defender possessing notable athletic traits and the potential to get bigger and stronger. He currently lacks the lower-body anchor and general play strength to go up against NFL opponents, but the team drafting him is likely to view him as a developmental prospect in need of time to build his frame and his game. Hunt's speed is obvious as a pass rusher and in run pursuit, but proving he can survive against a downhill running attack could be the difference between challenging for a rotational role or hoping to become a designated pass rusher.
The Eagles have plenty of short-term depth on the edges in Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham, and Zack Baun. Hunt is developmental prospect and likely won't get much playing time as a rookie. The Eagles will hope that they can get the most out of his raw athletic ability long-term.
"He's got freaky tools in his body," Roseman said. "He's an explosive guy. If you watch his best plays, he's doing things that are unique. He can bend. He can close. He can finish. He's long. He's an extremely smart kid obviously coming from Cornell.
"You know, we feel like we got a good edge rush group. He doesn't have to come in here – we're going to develop him like we talk about. This is a perfect developmental guy for us because of the tools in his body and his character and work ethic, and we think we can really find something with him. That's on us. That's on how he's going to work.
"You know, you can say, well, that's the third round and you're a good team, why are you doing that? Because these guys are hard to find. We believe in edge rushers and we just felt like there was a tremendous buy-in from our staff about this player. Obviously from the coaching staff, from the front office we thought this guy had tremendous tools. When you get guys like that it's exciting to see what they can become. Again, we feel like we like our edge group. We didn't have to add there, but it's exciting to get a guy like this."
Because Houston Christian games aren't exactly easy to find, I can really only have so much of an opinion on this player.
The pessimistic view is that the Eagles have had their share of third-round developmental types who have busted in the past, like Davion Taylor, Curtis Marsh, Bryan Smith, etc.
The optimistic view is that two of the three draft analysts we mentioned above in the DeJean section had Hunt rated at least 24 spots higher than where he was drafted.
| Kiper | Jeremiah | Brugler |
| 70 | 64 | 139 |
Grade: C+
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