Cooper DeJean’s first game in his new role with the Eagles ‘wasn’t good enough’

Cooper DeJean stood at his locker stall and gave a straightforward answer when asked to summarize his performance Sunday.

“It wasn’t good enough, obviously,” DeJean said after the Eagles escaped their season opener with a 24-22 win over Washington. “I just got to be better. It’s that simple.”

DeJean, an All-Pro in his second NFL season last year, had one of his worst games of his young NFL career on Sunday. He was targeted eight times and allowed six receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown, according to Next Gen Stats. He also was twice called for illegal contact, though even Tom Brady noted on the broadcast that at least one of the calls was “ticky tack.”

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“I’ll have to watch the tape, see what happened there, see what I can fix in my technique,” he said when asked what went wrong. “Sometimes my eyes get bad and that gets me in trouble. Just got to be better with that. The good thing is it’s Week 1. We got a lot of games ahead of us and I got to continue to get better for our defense.”

That last part is important. It was one game, and DeJean has otherwise been one of the best players at his position since the Eagles selected him with the 40th pick in the 2024 draft.

But DeJean’s position this year is a little bit different. Sunday marked the first game in his new role with the Eagles. He’s moving back to safety in the rarely used base defense and playing nickel in the rest of the defensive packages. The Eagles were in base on just 13 of their 70 defensive snaps (18.6%). Pro Football Focus tracked DeJean’s alignment on all 70 snaps as follows: 52 in the slot; 9 in the box; 8 at free safety; and 1 on the defensive line.

All eight of DeJean’s targets came when he was lined up at nickel.

He allowed a 13-yard completion to Stefon Diggs — and was called for the first of his two penalties — on a third-and-10 from near midfield on Washington’s opening drive that eventually resulted in a field goal. Diggs later got DeJean again over the middle for a 15-yard gain in the second quarter to push Washington into Eagles territory. Later in the same drive, Antonio Williams worked through DeJean to get free in the middle of the field for a 16-yard gain to the Eagles’ 1-yard line. The Commanders scored on the next play.

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Diggs again proved to be a problem for DeJean in the second half. The veteran receiver ran a perfect route to burn DeJean at the goal line on a third-and-6 from the 10-yard line. Diggs was wide open for Jayden Daniels to complete an easy touchdown, and the game could have been tied with a two-point conversion if Diggs hadn’t celebrated slipping past DeJean by jumping on the goal post, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

On Washington’s final drive, Diggs once again beat DeJean for a 17-yard gain on a second-and-6 play from near midfield.

DeJean’s passer rating allowed Sunday was a whopping 143.2. He had only one worse career game, last season’s road loss to Dallas, though DeJean was asked to play outside corner for much of that game after the Eagles lost Adoree’ Jackson to injury. DeJean’s passer rating allowed was below 80 in each of his first two seasons.

The third-year defensive back did appear to get up slow and was wincing in the second quarter. He did not mention an injury after the game and did not think moving around the defensive backfield for the first time impacted his performance.

“I feel like I’ve played nickel long enough that I can understand the difference between that,” he said. “I just got to clean it up, my footwork, things like that, top of routes, and trusting the preparation to what we’ve seen on tape and being able to apply it out there.”

DeJean said he didn’t plan to change his approach heading into Week 2 and had no plans to overreact. The defense on Sunday held Washington to under 300 yards, their 19th game holding an opponent under 300 since they hired Vic Fangio in 2024, the same year they drafted DeJean.

Plus, it wasn’t all bad for him. The drive did eventually end in a touchdown, but a few plays earlier, DeJean helped thwart a pass in the end zone to John Bates. Zack Baun got a hand on it, but DeJean was in tight on Bates if the ball had gotten past his linebacker.

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He also was sent on a blitz at one point and got to Daniels, who had to force an errant throw.

“If you win it hurts a little less,” DeJean said. “It feels great to win. You’re going to win some of those one-on-one battles and you’re going to lose some of those one-on-one battles. It’s a team game and we came out with the win in the end.”