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Eagles narrow Cooper DeJean’s focus down to 1 position originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
When the Eagles drafted Cooper DeJean in the second round in April, they listed him as a defensive back — a nod to his versatility.
But now they’ve narrowed his focus.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio on Thursday confirmed that the Eagles are concentrating all of DeJean’s snaps at one position: Nickel cornerback.
“Yeah, right now he’s the backup nickel,” Fangio said. “We’re trying to focus him on the nickel position. For the first week, he was starting in dime, as the dime DB. So he was having to learn the dime and be the backup nickel. With all the time he’s lost, we’re going to focus him at nickel right now and see if he can make good enough progress there.”
In Week 1 in Brazil, as Fangio mentioned, it was DeJean who came on the field in the dime package and played six defensive snaps. But that role in Week 2 went to Kelee Ringo, who now finds himself buried on the depth chart at outside cornerback.
That meant that against the Falcons on Monday night, DeJean played just one single defensive snap and it came when Avonte Maddox got banged up and had to leave the field.
“It’s good to be able to focus on one spot, kind of get settled in there a little bit,” DeJean said on Thursday. “It’s been good for me. I’m feeling pretty comfortable at that position now that I’m just focusing on it. That’s been good.”
Eventually, there’s a good chance the DeJean wrestles away that starting nickel job from the veteran Maddox. Heck, had DeJean not missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, that job might already be his.
The news that C.J. Gardner-Johnson missed practice on Thursday with a foot injury could be big for DeJean. Because if Gardner-Johnson misses Sunday’s game in New Orleans, one of the Eagles’ options would be to play Maddox at safety and DeJean in the slot. Maddox was the Eagles’ top backup safety during the summer.
But if…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/eagles-narrow-cooper-dejeans-focus-130856148.html
Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia
Publish date : 2024-09-20 13:08:56
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