These Eagles Have Positioned Themselves for A Super Bowl Run Thanks to A Couple of Rookies.
The Eagles are currently playing so well, that they are becoming — well — kinda predictable. Saquon Barkley is going to gash your defense for another record on the ground. You are going to see the brotherly-shoving-tush-push. Multiple times. And in the second half when you need it most, Cooper DeJean is going to knock you into next week. Maybe even next year.
Don’t adjust your TV set. You didn’t dream it. That really was Eagles rookie Cooper DeJean submarining Ravens running back Derrick Henry last week during the second half of the Ravens Game. Six foot two, 247 pound Henry against six foot, 198 pounds Cooper DeJean. You could hear the Baltimore collision from a NASA space station.
Three weeks earlier, when the Eagles played the Ravens rival Cincinnati Bengals at the Linc — on a Bengals 4th and 4 — a Joe Burrow pass to Ja’Marr Chase was immediately wrapped up by DeJean.
Earlier this season against Cleveland, DeJean started his first game for the Eagles. With the high draft pick that the Eagles had to spend to get DeJean — they needed to start him. To put him into the lineup prepared to live with the growing pains. But there were no growing pains.
Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell have been NFL rookies playing like NFL All-Pros in 2024. They understand that with a team as good as the Eagles, when the opportunity to win an NFL Championship — you must take advantage.
But in a league of weekly irony — this season is no longer about the Eagles needing opportunity with the Eagles — but it is the Eagles who need DeJean and Mitchell to continue to play dominant for this season to end in a Super Bowl Parade down Broad Street. The NFC Playoffs will no doubt be a sea of NFL receiver talent including potential matchups with Detroit Lions Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Seahawks D.K. Metcalf and J. Smith-Njigba, the Buccaneers Mike Evans, of course the Minnesota Vikings Justin Jefferson.
Each week, NFL teams have tried to exploit the Eagles rookies with little success. It usually is followed by a bone-crushing hit courtesy of Cooper DeJean. He doesn’t care how big you are.
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