It was a little ugly, and it was a little sloppy. But that really didn’t matter because after 9 ½ months, Cooper DeJean was playing football again.
“I was almost a little too excited going out there,” he said Saturday. “A lot of heavy breathing because my adrenaline was running so much. But it was good to get out there, hit people and knock the rust off.”
DeJean missed the first three weeks of training camp with a hamstring injury he suffered before camp began. He didn’t do anything until joint practice with the Patriots on Aug. 13, and he wasn’t a full participant until last Tuesday.
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So after just two practices, there he was playing 47 snaps on defense and eight more on special teams in the preseason finale against the Vikings.
“It was all right,” the rookie 2nd-round pick said. “A lot of things to learn from. You go back and watch the tape. Just a couple missed tackles I remember. So I’ve just got to be better, got to stick on the guys better, as well. But it's a blast to learn. We've got a great group of guys that I'm going to learn from.”
The game Saturday afternoon was DeJean’s first since last Nov. 11, when Iowa beat Rutgers 22-0 in Iowa City. DeJean suffered a broken left fibula a few days after that game, so he hadn’t played a live snap since mid-November of 2023.
“So good to be back out there,” DeJean said. “I was excited, a lot of adrenaline rolling. A lot of things to learn from.
Philadelphia Eagles
“It was fun. Fun to play blocks and kind of have that contact and competitiveness again. A few times I got too caught up in that, where I need to fit things better. But that's part of the learning process. So it'll be fun to learn from that.”
It was a frustrating summer for DeJean. He took mental reps day after day, but it’s not the same. And especially for a rookie, missing three weeks is a lot. Especially after he missed the end of the college season.
Had he been healthy, he very well could have projected as the first nickel going into the regular season. Now Quinyon Mitchell is in that spot, with the likelihood that he’ll move outside when the Eagles are in base.
For now, DeJean will probably start out as the backup slot, but he’s also learning safety and outside corner as the season approaches. There’s a good chance at some point he’ll find his way into a regular role on defense.
“Not having played in so long, you've got to train your eyes a little bit back to where they were before,” he said. “I'm still learning.
“I feel like I executed the calls. I knew what I was doing out there. I’ve just got to be in a better position sometimes on a few of those plays. Be able to make a better play on those.”
A little bit of rust isn’t surprising or cause for concern for a 21-year-old rookie coming off a long layoff with just two practices under his belt.
A couple missed tackles notwithstanding, it was a positive debut for the youngest player on the roster – DeJean turned 21 in February. You could see the athleticism, speed and physicality.
“I saw him make a couple of really good plays,” Nick Sirianni said. “I thought he looked fast and physical out there, made a couple of tackles that I thought were really good. Had a penalty that we're going to want back that negated an interception (by Tristin McCollum) on the first drive.
“But it was good to get him out there playing meaningful snaps, seeing that he hadn’t played this preseason. … It was good to have him out there because he's talented and we're excited about his potential.”
Realistically, DeJean may not be ready to play until a week or two into the regular season. It all depends how he does the next week or two mentally and physically.
But with opening day less than two weeks away, he said he’s ready for anything:
“If I'm out there, if my name is called, I'm ready to go, no matter what position that is.”