Eagles' Cox plans to stay humble and harass quarterbacks after signing record contract
Fletcher Cox received a message this week from a teacher in his hometown of Yazoo City, Miss. The teacher assigned her students to write what they wanted to be when they were older.
Fletcher Cox received a message this week from a teacher in his hometown of Yazoo City, Miss. The teacher assigned her students to write what they wanted to be when they were older.
Six wrote "Fletcher Cox."
"You get a lot of kids back home that's like that, and it's a lot of kids that look up to me," Cox said. "I look at it as this is where I came from. And I try to put it through so many young kids' heads that you can make it out of Yazoo City. I tell them if you have the 'want to.' You have to have a plan. You can't do nothing if you don't have a plan."
Even the most ambitious plans probably don't include what happened Thursday, when Cox put pen to paper on a new six-year, $103 million contract that guarantees him $63 million. He called the terms of the deal "mind-blowing" and expressed excitement about the pact.
The money might be life-changing, but Cox said little about his personality would change. During a quiet moment after his news conference, he lit up at the mention of Jonestown, a rough section of Yazoo City where he was raised.
Cox stressed the need to maintain the soft-spoken humility that the Eagles liked about him when they selected him in the first round of the 2012 draft.
That's why the Eagles invested in him in the first place. Cox received more total guaranteed money than any non-quarterback in the NFL. Howie Roseman said the Eagles put Cox in that category not just because of his level of production during his four seasons in Philadelphia but because of the knowledge that came from drafting and developing him.
"We can build around Fletcher Cox," said Roseman, the Eagles' executive vice president of football operations. "And the market is what the market is. You can try to distinguish this guy or that guy, but it's hard to do that when there's more than one guy. We feel like it's just going to go up for him and that we're never letting him leave the building, and these are all his prime years.
"It's also hard to find players that can change the game on either side of the ball and then represent what you are about. When I talked to Fletch when we did this, he's got a chance to be a great player in the history of this franchise, and our responsibility is keeping as many great players as we can."
The contract comes with expectations. Cox said he also has standards for himself. But he must remember, "All I can be is Fletcher Cox." He is only 25, and the Eagles think he is still ascending. Changing to an attacking, 4-3 defense could be one part of the improvements. Cox said Thursday that "you can expect me to be in the quarterback's face a lot," and that he knows what to do from his experience in a similar scheme as a rookie in 2012.
After missing much of the offseason program, Cox did not have time to learn the system this spring. He reported to mandatory minicamp last week, but Cox said he did not attend because a deal was close. Rather, he wanted to be with his teammates for the week. He said that he was never concerned that the two sides would not agree, and that he just needed to be patient. The Eagles also made it clear to Cox how they felt about him.
"It wasn't a leverage game here because we understood that at some point we had to get him under contract long term to build the kind of team that we want to build here," Roseman said. "I feel like we fought the good fight, and we really tried to do the best we could so we can keep more players around here. But at the end of the day, we need Fletcher Cox going forward."
Cox learned about the deal while working on a race car. He discussed the terms with his agents before signing off, and then he called his mother to share the news with her.
It's fitting Cox was at home working on a car when the deal was finalized. That's what he likes to do in his free time. It was also how his brother, Shaddrick, made a living. Shaddrick died last year.
Cox pointed to an empty spot next to him on a bench at the team's facility Thursday and said Shaddrick would be sitting right next to him if he were alive to see Cox sign the deal.
"He'd tell me the No. 1 thing is stay humble," Cox said, "and don't forget where you come from."
Extra points
Both Roseman and Cox declined to comment when asked about the investigation into Nelson Agholor over an alleged sexual assault last week. Roseman said he cannot discuss an investigation, and Cox referred to a statement he released last week when he said he was at the establishment but "had no involvement in the alleged incident."
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