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In Roob's Eagles Observations: How Cooper Dejean Turned Into Face Of A Franchise
In Roob's Eagles Observations: How Cooper DeJean turned into face of a franchise originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Cooper DeJean Effect, putting Jalyx Hunt’s improvement in perspective and ranking the 14 quarterbacks projected to face the Eagles this year.
We’re through free agency, the draft and the schedule release, so all we have to do now is count down the days till training camp.
Somewhere around 70. It’ll be here before you know it.
1. The unquestioned superstar at the Eagles Autism Challenge Saturday morning at the Linc wasn’t Jason Kelce, Jalen Hurts or Brandon Graham. Those guys all elicited their fair share of screams and squeals from the thousands of kids (and a good chunk of parents) who were a part of the largest Eagles Autism challenge ever. But the guy who got the most screams, the loudest screams, the guy who had a swarm of kids sprinting en masse with their cell phone cameras at the ready was clearly Cooper DeJean. When he appeared in the bicycle paddock before the 10-mile ride, it was like 1964 and the Beatles had just shown up. Total bananas. And you still see plenty of Dawkins 20 jerseys and 62 Kelces, but there just might be more DeJean 33s than anything. And it’s understandable. Here’s a kid who just turned 22 who fashioned one of the greatest plays in franchise history in a freaking Super Bowl off one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. It didn’t take DeJean long after taking over in the slot in Week 6 last year to become a true face of the franchise. He was always available for interviews, his quotes were thoughtful and insightful and since he was on TV all the time Eagles fans got to know him quickly and appreciate his personality. And on top of that his play was off the charts with the highest Pro Football Focus grade among 157 defensive backs who played at least 100 snaps. As a rookie. A big hitter, an engaging personality, a Super Bowl playmaker, a champion on his 22nd birthday. What else can you ask for? On top of that, he’s always around — front row at 76ers games, running a camp, interacting with kids at the Autism Challenge — and it seems like he’s truly enjoying being an Eagle and living in Philly. DeJean has it all. We’ve had some very popular defensive players in this city over the years, but like this? This soon? Jerome Brown was close, but remember he wasn’t even a full-time starter as a rookie and was on a bad team during a strike. Dawk was a promising d-back as a rookie but years away from this sort of adulation. Reggie White? Fans loved his game from the jump, but he was pretty guarded and technically wasn’t a rookie by the time he got here and wasn’t part of a playoff win until his eighth year here. DeJean is one of a kind, and for a team that’s been around for almost a century, that’s a heck of a statement.
2A. Thinking about DeJean’s Super Bowl birthday pick-6 off Patrick Mahomes, I started wondering how many pick-6’s the Eagles have had off Hall of Fame quarterbacks. There have been eight, most recently Bobby Taylor’s 23-yarder off Kurt Warner in the Eagles’ 10-3 win over the Rams in 2002 – the 2nd-to-last game ever played at the Vet. There have been two others in the last 50 years – the Troy Vincent/James Willis 104-yarder off Troy Aikman at Texas Stadium in 1996 and Jeremiah Trotter’s 27-yarder off Aikman on opening day 2000 – the Pickle Juice Game – also at Texas Stadium. Before that? Bibbles Bawel had two of them in 1955. He picked off Jim Finks of the Saints for a 42-yard TD in a loss to the Steelers at Forbes Field and had a 40-yarder a few weeks later off Otto Graham in a win over the Browns at Connie Mack Stadium (Finks is a Hall of Famer because of his front office career, not his playing career). The others were by Joe Muha off Sammy Baugh in 1950 (19 yards in a win over Washington at Shibe Park), Nate Ramsey off Johnny Unitas in 1969 (26 yards in a loss to the Colts at Memorial Stadium) and Bill Bradley off Roger Staubach in 1969 (56 yards in a loss to the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl).
2B. Eagles Pick-6’s off future Hall of Famers? Other than DeJean’s, the only lock is Malcolm Jenkins’ 99-yarder off Tom Brady in the Eagles’ win in Foxboro in 2015. Three Eagles had INT returns for touchdowns against Eli Manning, who shouldn’t get in but eventually will: Trent Cole in 2006, Nolan Carroll in 2015 and Jenkins in 2016. The Eagles never had pick-6’s against Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers or Russell Wilson (yet).
3. Pete Pihos had such an unusual career. The Eagles’ 5th-round pick out of Indiana in 1947, he averaged 31 catches for 472 yards and 5 ½ touchdowns in his first six seasons. Not bad. The next three years? He blew up, averaging 62 catches, 928 yards and 9.0 touchdowns in 12-game seasons. All were the most in the NFL during that three-year period. After a monster 1955 season, where he led the NFL in receptions for a third straight year and yards for the second time in three years, he abruptly retired at the age of 32. Pihos remains one of only three players in NFL history with 180 catches, 2,700 yards and 27 touchdowns in his final three seasons. Calvin Johnson and Sterling Sharpe are the others. Pihos was a fascinating guy. He fought at Normandy, earning five combat medals. He was the first Eagle ever with 1,000 receiving yards. And he retired at his best. To this day, 70 years after he retired, he still ranks third in Eagles history in touchdown catches, sixth in receiving yards and seventh in catches. Pihos retired to spend more time with his family and to accept a sales job that back then was more lucrative than playing in the NFL, and he was also frustrated with all the losing. Pihos was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970. Along with Chuck Bednarik and Steve Van Buren, he’s one of only three Hall of Famers who spent his entire career with the Eagles.
4. I don’t know if I’ve done a good enough job expressing just how far Jalyx Hunt progressed last year from opening day through the Super Bowl. Hunt was quietly a remarkable story for the 2024 Eagles, a 3rd-round project who started out his college career as an Ivy League safety and finished as a promising NFL edge rusher. Hunt was a healthy scratch in the 2024 opener in São Paulo and then got just a handful of snaps the first half of the season – just 17 on defense through Week 9, most of them in mop-up duty at the end of a blowout win over the Giants. He was a non-factor as the Eagles began gaining steam after the bye week. But then he started showing up. He didn’t get many chances, but he made the most of the ones he got, and he gradually elbowed his way into the rotation. And when B.G.’s regular season ended against the Rams in Week 12, Hunt was ready to go. Over the last six weeks of the regular season he averaged nearly 30 snaps per game and began generating steady pressure. He played only 30 fewer snaps than Josh Sweat during that six-game stretch, and this is a guy who was inactive when the season began playing for the No. 1 defense in the NFL in a run for the No. 1 seed. More of the same in the postseason. With big-ticket free agent Bryce Huff banished from the rotation, Hunt averaged 26 snaps per game in the postseason on the way to a Super Bowl championship and picked up 1 ½ sacks along the way – most ever by an Eagles rookie in the postseason. Out of 151 edge rushers who played at least 100 snaps last year , his 69.0 Pro Football Focus grade ranked 46th , which is awfully impressive. That increased to 74.0 in the playoffs, 11th-best out of 52 edges who played at least 10 snaps. With B.G. retired, Sweat off in Arizona and Huff’s future uncertain, Hunt now projects as edge rusher No. 2 alongside Nolan Smith. Azeez Ojulari will be in the mix if he can stay healthy. But ask yourself if any Eagle has ever progressed this much during his rookie season? From healthy scratch to key member of a Super Bowl unit in five months? And there’s no reason to think that kind of growth is going to stop. Hunt could be really, really good. He already is.
5. Dak Prescott has won more than eight games only twice in the last six seasons.
6A. The Eagles had two fumble recovery return touchdowns of at least 70 yards in their 44-6 playoff-clinching win over the Cowboys at the Linc on the final day of the 2008 season – Chris Clemons’ 73-yarder after Dawk forced a Tony Romo fumble and Joselio Hanson’s 96-yarder after Dawk forced a Marion Barber fumble three minutes later. They have two fumble recovery return TD of 70 or more yards in 281 games since: Walter Thurmond’s 83-yarder against the Giants in 2016 and Slay’s 83-yarder in Denver in 2021.
6B. The Eagles’ last seven fumble recovery touchdowns of 70 or more yards have all come in the third quarter: A 70-yarder Reggie White TD in Washington in 1987, an 80-yarder by Sheldon Brown in Dallas in 2005, Mike Patterson’s 98-yarder in San Francisco in 2006, both TDs vs. Dallas in 2008, Thurmond’s 83-yarder at MetLife vs. the Giants in 2016 and Slay’s 83-yarder in Denver in 2021. Their last fumble recovery touchdown of 70 or more yards that wasn’t in a third quarter is Will Wynn’s 87-yarder in the second quarter of a win over the Packers at the Vet in 1974. Now you know.
6C. The Eagles aren’t just the only team with two 70-yard fumble recovery return TDs in the same game over the last 25 years, they’re the only team with two in the same season. The last team with more than one in a season was the 1998 Jaguars. Donovin Darius from Wilson High in Camden had an 83-yarder against the Ravens and Aaron Beasley had a 90-yarder against the Bengals.
6D. The only other team with two fumble recovery TDs of 70 or more yards in the same game? That would be the 1938 Eagles. In a 14-10 win over the Giants at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium – the future JFK – the Eagles scored all their points on fumble recovery returns. Bob Pylman had an 88-yarder in the second quarter and Joe Carter a 92-yarder in the fourth quarter. Here’s how the Inquirer’s Cy Peterman saw the two touchdowns:
Bob Pylman 88 yards: “The Eagles took the lead in the second period when Bob Pylman, 6 foot, 4 inch tackle, seized a bobbling ball from the arms of Dale Burnett as he wheeled toward the home goal. No mercury afoot, Pylman nonetheless broke clear and started for touchdownland as if fleeing a prairie fire in his native South Dakota.”
Joe Carter 92 yards: “Kink Richards was about to make a lateral and thrust the ball forward. As he did so, Carter, Eagles end, also reached out and in the twinkling of an eye the ball changed hands. Nobody in the crowd saw him get the ball. … Carter ran a lot faster and with more blockers than Pylman, but the route was nearly identical. He crossed amid much cheering, no Giant to restrain him.”
7. A highlight of the Eagles Autism Challenge 5K was Tanner McKee, who spent more time signing autographs and taking pictures with fans than actually running. McKee and his wife Lauren were jogging along at probably nine-minute-per-mile pace, which should have had him at the finish line in about 28 minutes. But his official chip time was 59 minutes, 13 seconds. That means he spent about 31 minutes accommodating autograph and photo requests. I was cruising along near McKee for a little while and he was unbelievably gracious, generous and patient as wave after wave of fans stopped him with their requests. At one point a couple guys near me who were clearly from out of town started Googling Tanner because they had no clue who he was. “Sixth-round pick in 2023 from Stanford,” one said to the other as he looked at his phone. Then they jogged over to where McKee was getting his picture taken with three kids and just as he was about to start jogging again, they interrupted him. “Excuse me, Mr. McKee. Can we get a picture?”
8. On Thursday’s Eagle Eye podcast, Dave Zangaro and I ranked the 14 projected quarterbacks the Eagles will face this year from best to worst. It was a fun little exercise, and although we had a few guys in the same or similar spots, we differed greatly on others. You can find Dave’s list here. Here’s mine: 1. Patrick Mahomes, 2. Josh Allen, 3. Jayden Daniels, 4. Baker Mayfield, 5. Jared Goff, 6. Justin Herbert, 7. Matt Stafford, 8. Jordan Love, 9. Dak Prescott, 10. Bo Nix, 11. Caleb Williams, 12. J.J. McCarthy, 13. Russell Wilson, 14. Geno Smith.
9. Recent Eagles head coach W-L records vs. the Giants: Nick Sirianni (7-2), Doug Pederson (8-2), Chip Kelly (5-1), Andy Reid (17-14), Ray Rhodes (4-4), Rich Kotite (4-4), Buddy Ryan (5-5). The last Eagles head coach with a losing record against the Giants was Marion Campbell, whose teams were 2-4 from 1983 through 1985.
10A. With two Thursday games, a Friday, a Saturday and two Mondays, the Eagles have 11 scheduled Sunday games, which would be their fewest ever in a 16- or 17-game season and their fewest in any season not shortened by a strike since 1957, when 10 of their 12 games were played on Sunday (with two on Saturdays). In franchise history, the Eagles are 42-33 on Mondays, 3-3 on Tuesdays, 20-7 on Thursdays, 3-5-1 on Fridays, 17-25 on Saturdays and 550-564-26 on Sundays. They’ve never played on a Wednesday.
10B. Before last year’s opener against the Packers in São Paulo, the Eagles hadn’t played a Friday game since a 27-25 win over the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl in 1960. Now, with the Black Friday game against the Bears at the Linc, they’ll play two years in a row on a Friday. Last time they did that was 1937 and 1938, losing to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in 1937 and beating the Steelers at Buffalo Civic Center in 1938.The last NFL team to play consecutive seasons on a Friday was the Rams in 1966 and 1967.
10C. Why was an Eagles-Steelers game played in Buffalo? Eagles owner Bert Bell and Steelers owner Art Rooney scheduled the game to see whether Buffalo sports fans would support an NFL game as a precursor to bringing an NFL team to Buffalo.
10D. A non-bylined article in the Sept. 13, 1938, Inquirer, on the Eagles’ trip to Buffalo, reads: “Bell and his squad of play-for-pay gridiron gladiators will board the rattlers at 9:35 o’clock this morning and arrive at Buffalo at 8:15 tonight.” And I have no idea what “board the rattlers” means. Taking a train, maybe? I’m going to make sure to use it in a story this year.
