How close is Cooper DeJean to being ready for full-time slot duty?

Cooper DeJean is going to be the Eagles’ full-time slot at some point. It seems inevitable. It’s just a matter of when.

There were a lot of moving pieces in the secondary Friday night in the Eagles’ opener in São Paulo. With Isaiah Rodgers inactive with a hand injury, rookie 1^st-round pick Quinyon Mitchell played virtually the entire game at outside corner – 63 of 67 snaps – and Avonte Maddox, who has been mainly a backup safety in training camp, was back in the slot, where he played 60 of 67 snaps.

DeJean, the Eagles’ other rookie corner and the heir apparent to Maddox in the slot, got his first taste of the NFL with six snaps on defense and 23 on special teams. 

Rodgers returned to practice Thursday, so now you have Rodgers, Mitchell, Maddox and DeJean and three cornerback positions.

What happens next?

We’ll start with Maddox, who had a rough day in what was only his 14^th game over the last three years. 

Among 48 defensive backs league-wide who were targeted at least five times in Week 1, his 104.2 defensive passer rating ranked 36^th. He committed a 13-yard pass interference on Dontayvion Wicks at the Eagles’ 2-yard-line a play before Jordan Love’s touchdown pass to Christian Watson with Maddox slipping in coverage.

The field was clearly an issue for everybody, but it seemed to affect Maddox in particular. 

But he refused to use it as an excuse.

“I could be better in certain areas, but I'm not going to blame the field,” he said. … “The field was a little bit terrible but that's not an excuse. I'm always critical of myself. I watch film and see what I could have done better, what I could have done more effectively and see what things I could fix.

“I never really blame (anything) on a field, but you know, it was slick. It was a hard surface to play on. But it’s football. It’s never going to be perfect when you’re out there.” 

Maddox, now in his seventh year with the Eagles, practiced almost exclusively at safety during the preseason. He got one series in the slot in the first two preseason games, but Rodgers’ injury did force him to move to a position he hadn’t been practicing at very much.

“It's not necessarily like an adjustment, but it's kind of just more like you’ve just got to get the reps there so you can see it and get back used to it,” he said. 

“Just like anything, the more reps you get in certain spots, you get more comfortable you (are) in that area. Even though I've been playing it for a while and I know the position, I know what to do and where to be, everything's moving fast and you've got to see it.”

The Eagles seem to prefer Maddox in that role backing up slot and safety – he can play outside corner as well in an emergency – but Vic Fangio felt like DeJean wasn’t ready for full-time slot duty after missing three weeks of training camp with a hamstring injury, and he felt Mitchell needed to stay outside the entire game.

"With Isaiah out, our next best combination," Fangio said.

DeJean got six snaps in dime and also played 23 snaps on special teams. Will there be a time where Fangio’s strongest secondary is Mitchell and Darius Slay outside and DeJean inside?

“Possibly,” he said. “We've just got to keep practicing him a bunch, get him comfortable. He basically missed all of training camp except the Minnesota week, so he's behind. But we're trying to catch him up.”

DeJean wasn’t targeted on any of his six reps Friday night and while Fangio didn’t say it, it seems likely he’ll increase DeJean’s workload each week until he feels he’s ready to play the 50 or 60 snaps that a slot has to be ready for.

“I've been feeling better and better each week,” DeJean said. “That's probably the best I've felt since the injury. So we'll see what happens. I've just got to be ready to go. 

“It was good to be back out there. I got a couple of reps under my belt. I know what to expect now.”

DeJean missed the end of last season at Iowa with a broken fibula he suffered during a practice. So the Packers game was his first live action since an Iowa win over Rutgers in Iowa City last Nov. 11.

“The biggest challenge was just really sitting there and watching, not being able to be out there,” he said. “Having this injury come into camp, it was a little frustrating, but I had to do what I could. I think anybody sitting out would be frustrated if they didn't get those reps. So I just had to stay positive and continue to learn coming into a new defensive system.”

Is he ready for more?

“I feel good physically after obviously missing all those reps while I was out,” he said. “I’m still getting back closer to where I was toward the end of OTAs. So I feel like I'm feeling pretty good on the field. I just have to continue to learn.”

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