Riq Woolen was a standout during OTAs and minicamp. Can he help the Eagles have the ‘best secondary?’

Riq Woolen needed just two plays to turn the tide of Wednesday’s practice.

It was the last day of mandatory minicamp for the Eagles, and the new-look, first-team offense scored a rare win against Vic Fangio’s defense during the first period of plays. But then Woolen, the Eagles’ new outside corner opposite Quinyon Mitchell, continued his standout spring.

First, Woolen was sent on a blitz and got into the backfield for a “sack” on Jalen Hurts. Quotation marks are necessary because there is no tackling. There was no ambiguity on the next play, though. Blame it on the install of Sean Mannion’s new offense. Blame it on a miscommunication between Hurts and tight end Dallas Goedert. Either way, Hurts made a terrible throw into the waiting hands of Woolen on a route to the right sideline.

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The highlight plays capped off a strong few weeks for Woolen. Reporters were only permitted to watch two of the Eagles’ six organized team activities sessions, and then both mandatory minicamp workouts this week, but Woolen has been among a handful of Eagles who have stood out, and not just because he is a rare bird as a 6-foot-4 cornerback.

“I feel like I’ve been doing pretty well,” Woolen said Tuesday. “I’m still picking up on new things, I still got to get more into the playbook, certain plays, just got to learn and buy in even more. But I feel like I’ve been doing well. I feel like my teammates trust me a little bit.”

The Eagles invested $12 million in guaranteed money for Woolen, who played last season with the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. Fangio was surprised Woolen didn’t command more money and term, he said last month. Woolen was, too.

“When you’ve got confidence in yourself and you put in a great body of work, you feel like you deserve some type of fruit for your labor,” he said. “Sometimes things don’t go your way, but there’s always a better plan. God’s plan was to put me here with a great team and give me another chance to win a Super Bowl and be successful here.”

The Eagles did some scouting work on Woolen last season when it became clear that he potentially could be made available before the trade deadline. Woolen was having one of the best seasons in recent years in man coverage — according to Next Gen Stats, his 27.6% completion percentage allowed in man coverage was the lowest by any defender to face 20-plus targets in man since at least 2018 — but the Seahawks, according to Sharp Analytics, deployed man coverages on 15.2% of their defensive snaps, sixth-fewest in the NFL.

The emergence of former Eagle Josh Jobe made Woolen expendable. Fangio was a bit detached from the process during the deadline last season, but “watched him thoroughly” during the free agency process.

“I was thrilled to get him,” Fangio said. “He’s a rare guy in that you don’t see many corners in the league that are 6-4. You don’t see many that are 6-2 or even 6-1 and there’s a reason for that. It’s hard to find guys at those heights that can move and mirror receivers that are hard to cover. He can do that for a guy his height. He can get in and out of breaks. He obviously has good downfield speed and his length is more of an asset than a detriment in his case.”

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Woolen’s size and cover skills were on display earlier during OTAs when he blanketed DeVonta Smith on multiple plays and ran in stride with Hollywood Brown on a go ball. Woolen wagged his finger after that rep.

A finger wag won’t likely result in a flag, but Woolen got in his own way a few times last season with Seattle with his taunting. He said Tuesday that the lessons learned were to focus on celebrating with his own teammates.

Given the makeup of the Eagles’ defensive backfield, there could be plenty of celebrating to do. As it stands, Cooper DeJean will play safety in base, but the Eagles spend most of their time in nickel. In those sets, the Eagles will have one All-Pro on the outside in Mitchell, and All-Pro at nickel in DeJean, and then Woolen. The back line will be manned by second-year safety Drew Mukuba and, as of now, Marcus Epps.

“I feel like we can be one of the best secondary groups in the league and we all are confident about that,” Woolen said.

Time will tell how the secondary stacks up. Woolen has had some issues in zone coverage. The Eagles ran more man — 24.5% vs. 15.2% — than Seattle did last season, and maybe Fangio uses it a little more this season to play to his players’ strengths.

“Being in [Fangio’s] defense you’re going to grow a lot,” Woolen said. “Especially working off-technique is one of the things in my game — I know I’m a press corner, but I got to play off-technique sometimes, too.”

The second outside corner spot opposite Mitchell was a major talking point at this time last year, through training camp, and even into the early portion of the regular season. Adoree’ Jackson eventually claimed the job, and while Jackson played well at times, the Eagles also struggled to cover No. 2 receivers in certain games. According to NFL analytics writer Dan Pizzuta, the Eagles were 24th in DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) vs. No. 2 receivers and ranked second in DVOA vs. No. 1 receivers.

Investing in Woolen on a one-year deal was an effort to rectify that. Early returns have been positive; just ask Hurts. But, as is the caveat for most analysis this time of year, it’s June, and more than 90 days separate the Eagles from a game that matters.