Eagles acquire CB Jakorian Bennett from the Raiders in exchange for DT Thomas Booker
Bennett, the Raiders’ fourth-rounder in the 2023 draft, started 11 games in two seasons with Las Vegas. The majority of his career snaps have come at outside cornerback.
The Eagles increased their options at cornerback, acquiring Jakorian Bennett from the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for defensive tackle Thomas Booker on Monday night.
Bennett became the newest member of an Eagles secondary that is seeking a starting outside cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell. Bennett, the Raiders’ fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft out of Maryland, will presumably have a chance to contend for the gig, having started 11 games in two seasons with Las Vegas.
However, Nick Sirianni was not ready to thrust him into the starting conversation right away on Tuesday morning, as he has a lot to learn within Vic Fangio’s scheme. Bennett was present on the sideline at practice, but he did not participate in any capacity given the trade did not become official until later in the day.
“We’ll get him going and we’ll see how that goes,” Sirianni said before practice. “Obviously, there’s a lot of meeting times that we have to make up. We’re getting him early in camp, though, and so we’ll catch him up in some off time, catch him up during the meetings, and have some other things to get him ready to go.”
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Seven of Bennett’s 11 career starts came in the first 11 weeks of the 2024 season. But he was playing through a torn labrum in his shoulder and ultimately decided to undergo season-ending surgery after the Raiders’ mid-November loss to the Miami Dolphins. Bennett said earlier this offseason that he has dealt with shoulder ailments since he was in college.
Bennett has taken the majority of his defensive snaps at the outside cornerback position despite being relatively undersized at 5-foot-10, 200 pounds. According to Pro Football Focus, Bennett has played 712 snaps over two seasons at outside corner and just 28 in the slot.
Last season, Bennett was targeted 37 times in coverage and allowed 18 receptions for 176 yards, according to PFF. His 48.6% targets-caught rate was the third lowest among cornerbacks with at least 250 coverage snaps. His tackling left something to be desired, though — he had a 29.2% missed-tackle rate on pass plays in 2024, which was the highest among that same group.
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Two weeks into training camp, Bennett joins a cornerbacks corps that is in the thick of the competition on the outside. Adoree’ Jackson and Kelee Ringo, who was drafted one pick after Bennett, are contending for the job. Fangio said Monday that the competition is “close” between Ringo and Jackson, with neither standing out yet.
Sirianni insisted that bringing Bennett into the fold just adds “depth to that position.” He said that both Jackson and Ringo have “done an outstanding job” as they vie for the starting role in camp.
“You love having battles and I think you can look out there and see Adoree’ make a play and you see Kelee make a play, and you guys have seen it,” Sirianni said. “They’re doing a really nice job and [we’re] excited about how they worked and how they worked all offseason, how they worked all summer and came in here ready to compete.”
Meanwhile, the Eagles parted ways with Booker, who had made the initial 53-man roster out of training camp last season and was a rotational player on the Eagles’ defensive line. With other depth interior linemen such as Gabe Hall emerging in camp, Booker became expendable given the Eagles’ needs at cornerback.
“Obviously, we’ll miss Book and wish him the best,” Sirianni said. “We feel good about our depth at defensive tackle, but just a way to add some depth there at corner.”