Eagles notebook: “COOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!” originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The first time he heard it, Cooper DeJean was pretty confused.
He was still just a sophomore at Iowa when the fans in Iowa City began a chant that followed him the rest of his college career: “COOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!”
“The first time they did it in college, I thought they were booing me,” DeJean said this week, “and then I figured it out.”
So when he heard the same chant at the Linc on Sunday, he knew what it was immediately. It was an acknowledgement from the loyal Eagles fans watching the 28-23 win over the Jaguars.
“Yeah, it was cool,” DeJean said.
Eagles fans began chanting his name for his first punt return but it wasn’t very loud. Those chants got louder with each punt after and were very loud when he forced a turnover on downs with a pass breakup on 4th-and-1.
Safety Reed Blankenship grew up as a fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide, so he remembers hearing “COOOP!!!” chants for Amari Cooper. When asked about hearing those chants for DeJean, Blankenship said it was, “freaking sick.”
“I figured they would catch on eventually, but to see it was cool,” Blankenship said. “It was quiet the first time and then they said, ‘Let’s roll with it.’ It’s cool.”
DeJean, 21, has been an impressive rookie. The 40th overall pick began the season as a backup but has been the top nickel corner for the last four games in addition to picking up punt return responsibilities after Britain Covey suffered a shoulder injury in Week 3.
This season, DeJean has 9 punt returns for 102 yards (11.3) and has been even better as a nickel corner. DeJean has been targeted 18 times and has given up 12 passes for 74 yards. He also has stops on 4th-and-short in back-to-back weeks.
So he’s giving fans a reason to chant his name as loud as they can.
DeJean was impressed by how synched up fans were able to get when they chanted his name for the first few times. But many of those same Eagles fans had plenty of practice during Duce Staley’s long career in Philly. Staley had a very chant-able name as well.
“I was a little surprised that it got so loud that quick,” DeJean said. “I figured I would have heard a couple but I didn’t think I’d hear the whole stadium. It was cool, though.”
Smitty’s No. 1 play
DeVonta Smith has made a lot of incredible catches during his career. So where does his 25-yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone against the Jaguars rank?
“It’s probably No. 1,” Smith said.
A few plays before, Smith caught a 46-yard pass to set up the touchdown and actually injured his hamstring in the process. So that 25-yarder came as Smith was dealing with an injury that kept him out of practice to start the next week.
What made it his top catch?
“To be able to drag my feet, get to my back, all the fundamentals of catching the ball when you’re close to the sideline,” Smith said.
There were a few impressive elements of that play and none of them happened by accident. Smith is extremely aware of where he is on the field, which is why he said he knew with 100% certainty that he was able to get both feet in.
As great as Smith’s catch was, even he could admit it wasn’t the best Eagles play from Week 9. That belonged to Saquon Barkley.
“You see people make one-handed catches every week,” Smith said. “You don’t see somebody jump over somebody backwards.”
Speaking of that reverse hurdle …
The reaction to the reactions
Five days after pulling off that incredible backwards hurdle, Barkley had officially seen enough of it.
“I’m kind of over it,” Barkley said. “It was a great play. It’s cool to see the reactions. That’s probably my favorite part, seeing the reactions of my teammates and other people. At the end of the day, it happened, you hit play, you move on from it and you get ready for next week.”
Barkley said a couple times that seeing the reactions from his teammates, the guys he works with every day, was the coolest part of the whole thing.
Another cool thing: Tight ends coach Jason Michael told Barkley that his son set up a chair in front of a bean bag chair to practice the move.
Does Barkley have any advice for kids who want to try it?
“Be wise,” he said. “I don’t plan on trying that move ever again. Hopefully that’s a one time thing and we don’t see no one else try it. Everyone stays safe.”
Trust my eyes
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio deserves a ton of credit for finding Zack Baun and turning him into an off-ball linebacker. Even when the Eagles signed Baun in March, most thought it was to be a situational pass rusher. But Fangio saw something in Baun that made him believe in him as an inside ‘backer.
And he was right.
Baun has been one of the Eagles’ best players on that side of the ball this season and leads the team in tackles with 79 in eight games.
One of the advantages of being in the NFL for as long as Fangio is that he trusts his evaluations even when others don’t see the same thing.
“No, I don’t consider that at all,” Fangio said of other opinions. “I trust my own eyes, my own experience, and go by that.
“There are a lot of people that want to know what the majority are thinking and kind of take the easy way out, but I’ve never been that guy.”
And Fangio is especially confident in his evaluations of linebackers. He has coached a bunch of really good ones in the NFL and has been a linebackers position coach before. It’s the position with which he has the most familiarity.
Their earliest bond
When Jalen Hurts released the football on that huge 25-yard touchdown pass to Smith in the fourth quarter on Sunday, he couldn’t really see Smith.
But he trusted him.
Trust is an important element for any quarterback-receiver relationship but it seems especially important to Hurts. When he was asked about his connection with Smith this week, the Eagles’ QB1 took it way back.
“There was never a point where it just snaps, it happens. You just build and build and build,” Hurts said. “We’ve been building for a very long time. It dates back to his recruiting visit to Alabama, where we didn’t go party, we didn’t do anything, we had no interest in doing anything but ball. We threw routes on air.
“Those are the little stories that I hold near and dear because those are the things that change the trajectory and, honestly, those are the small things that help the team this year. Those small connections and those little pockets of moments that we’ve had. It’s all about building.”
Shipley make a play
The Eagles’ punt team has two really good gunners right now with Sydney Brown (5-10, 211) and Kelee Ringo (6-2, 207). If you were to build a gunner in a lab, he would probably look like one of these two guys. They’re both big, strong and have incredible straight-line speed.
Brown had a huge play last week as a gunner to force a fumble that Ringo recovered.
“It’s just the more confidence [Brown] gets, you could just see it’s oozing out,” special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. “And for him to be out there, and he sets the tone on the outside, and let’s not take anything way from Kelee. Kelee has been doing an outstanding job at gunner, kind of taking that full-time job as a gunner. Those two guys out there, they come with some force. They come with some speed.”
Brown is so good at this that Clay thinks there’s a chance teams will start to double him with two jammers. But that’s why it’s so important to have two good gunners. And then there’s Will Shipley, who made a big tackle on a punt in the last game as the personal protector. As the PP, Shipley is getting a later start but will often get down the field unblocked.
Shipley’s tackle in the last game shows that the Eagles have a good backup plan if teams start to double their gunners.
“If people try to stop Kelee and Sydney, we feel confident in our interior protection,” Clay said. ‘One, to protect, and then get out and cover it and try to mitigate any big returns.”
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