It would make sense for the Eagles to give first-round pick Quinyon Mitchell an opportunity to cover their resident Pro Bowl receiver A.J. Brown in 1-on-1s at training camp.
But that hasn’t been a directive from the team.
It has actually been Brown’s doing.
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“That’s not by design,” Brown said. “That’s me kind of picking a fight with him, trying to get him going. He likes to talk trash at me. But I’m just picking a fight with him to make practices very interesting. But he’s not fazed, he’s not fazed.”
Brown isn’t much of a trash talker but Mitchell is and Brown seems to enjoy the competitiveness with which Mitchell plays. It started way back in the spring when Mitchell told Brown he ran a “trash” route on their first rep against each other.
Back then it surprised Brown. Now? He’s used to it.
And it’s leading to battles like the one we saw in this 1-on-1 rep from the other day.
NFL
On this play, Brown pulls down the one-handed catch in the end zone but just gets just one foot in bounds. Mitchell had extremely tight coverage.
Whenever Brown challenges Mitchell, he’s gauging the response of the young cornerback.
“For sure, for sure,” Brown said. “I know these are camp battles but ultimately I’m just trying to get him prepared for when we play in September and that can carry on. Like I said, he doesn’t back down, he hasn’t backed down not one time and that’s what I want to see.
“And, also, like I said, for me, it makes practice very interesting when somebody’s over there chirping. It gets me going. Because these days are long, these days are long and you don’t just want to go through practice if you didn’t catch a ball or whatever. You want some competitors on the other side too. Not saying the other guys doesn’t do that but you all know (Darius) Slay like I know Slay. Not too much is going to get to him. He’s going to laugh everything off. But Q, he’s going to be locked in and he’s going to talk his talk.”
Most of the reps between Brown and Mitchell right now are coming in 1-on-1s and a bit in 7-on-7. Because through the first six practices of training camp, Mitchell hasn’t gotten many reps in 11-on-11 as a first-team outside cornerback. Those, for now, are going to Kelee Ringo and Isaiah Rodgers, while Mitchell is working in at the nickel corner and dime linebacker spots.
But, eventually, Mitchell will probably get some legitimate first-team reps at cornerback and should be given a legitimate chance to win a starting job. Then he’ll get to see Brown in a team setting.
You can bet when that happens, Mitchell will be letting Brown hear about it.
Because as much as we’ve heard about Mitchell’s being a soft-spoken young rookie, Brown has been seeing the other side of him both on the field and off.
“I think I’m kind of building a relationship with him because I don’t think he’s soft-spoken anymore,” Brown said. “Me and his relationship, it’s a lot of going back and forth. I think just seeing him outside of football, he’s quiet, he’s kind of to himself and that’s not a bad thing. But you see if you continue to talk to him and spend time with him, he’ll open up to you as he has with me.”
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