Eagles Turn CB Room From Perceived Weakness to Strength In One Offseason

The Eagles’ defense was a disaster last season with dueling defensive minds in Sean Desai and Matt Patricia leading an undisciplined unit where the bottom dropped out.

The raw numbers were dismal: 26th overall and even worse in pass defense (No. 31), points per game (No. 30), third-down defense (No. 31), and red-zone defense (No. 30).

There were issues at all three levels but perhaps the most glaring was at cornerback where veteran James Bradberry had a steep regression from his 2022 second-team All-Pro season and the slot became a revolving door of horrors after Avonte Maddox went down with a torn pec in Week 2. Even the venerable Darius Slay missed four games due to a troublesome knee that required surgery.

GM Howie Roseman didn’t enter the 2024 draft with the idea of carpet-bombing the CB position but the board fell the way it fell with six quarterbacks going in the top 12 and a record 14 offensive players chosen to start the process. That means, the best defenders were pushed down the board and the Eagles were able to get two of the top corners in the class over the first 40 picks, Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell and Iowa’s Cooper DeJean,

Mitchell was the CB1 of the class and DeJean was CB4 behind his new teammate, Alabama’s Terrion Arnold to Detroit at No. 24, and Clemson’s Nate Wiggins at No. 30 to Baltimore.

The Eagles traded up from 50 to 40 to get DeJean, a domino that started a mini-CB run with Kool-Aid McKinstry of Alabama (41 to New Orleans), Georgia’s Kamari Lassiter (42 to Houston) and Rutgers’ Max Melton (43 to Arizona) quickly following.

Prior to the draft Roseman added potential slot option Tyler Hall in free agency and got news that Isaiah Rodgers, a one-time emerging player while In Indianapolis, was reinstated from a one-year gambling suspension.

Add a healthy Maddox returning on a reduced deal and Zech McPhearson back in the mix from a preseason Achilles tear last summer for the final year of his rookie deal and you have a position of need that has quickly moped into a surplus of potential options.

The raw numbers are 13 cornerbacks on the 90-man offseason roster with the news breaking that the Eagles plan to sign undrafted rookie Shon Stephens, an athletic playmaker at the Division II level who is the cousin of Joey Porter, Jr. and the skill to play in the Big Ten had it not been for some health issues and financial difficulties with his family.

When looking forward to project the final 53, the only players with 100 percent guarantees to be there barring injury for Week 1 are Slay, Mitchell, DeJean, and emerging second-year prospect Kelee Ringo, who hit the ground running as a special teams player and has tremendous upside outside the numbers.

From there, Maddox has proven his ability in the slot and needs to overcome persistent injury issues to stay relevant. Rodgers is believed to have inside/outside versatility and kick return skills if he can knock the rust off, and second-year CB Eli Ricks is valued for his natural coverage skills.

Josh Jobe, like Ringo, has proven to be a top-tier special-teamer but doesn’t have the same kind of upside as Ringo at CB, and McPherson’s Achilles injury has knocked him from penciled-in backup to a longshot on a list that also includes Hall, Mario Goodrich, and Stephens.

Bradberry, meanwhile, remains a wild card in that the Eagles don’t have to do anything right now but it’s unlikely he will be on the roster by Week 1.

The state of the position for new defensive backs coach Christian Parker and CB mentor Roy Anderson is a testament to both Roseman’s work in rebuilding it, along with the idea of how quickly things can move in the NFL.

In one offseason, the CB room in Philadelphia went from acknowledged weakness to one that will have to release multiple NFL-level players at the cut to 53.

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