Cooper DeJean has turned the Eagles defense around

Good football players make for good football

We are eight games through the 2024 Eagles season, the team having played four, had a bye, then played four more. This gives us a nice even sample on either side of the bye. In the Eagles second set of four games, there’s been a big and positive shift in the performance of the defense. It should be noted that the defense played two of the worst offenses in the league in their second set of four games. But hey, good news is good news.

One reason for the improvement has been the player usage adjustments the coaching staff has made to the defensive tackles and edge rushers, with potentially more on the way.

Jalen Carter and Josh Sweat are playing significantly more snaps per game, and Nolan Smith and Moro Ojomo are playing a little bit more as well. More importantly, their production is way up. In their first four games, Carter, Sweat, and Smith combined for 1 sack, 4 tackles for loss, and 6 QB hits. In the last four games, that trio has 9.5 sacks, 9 TFL, and 15 QB hits.

Their increases in playing have primarily come at the expense of Jordan Davis, Bryce Huff, Brandon Graham, and Thomas Booker. Graham’s drop playing time isn’t a cause for concern, at 36 years old he’s going to be more effective the less he’s used. But Davis’s reduced role to only seeing the field on running downs and Huff’s entry into the dog house have been deserved.

This feeds into what we’ve said before the season started: Vic Fangio doesn’t care if you’re a rookie or a veteran, doesn’t care if you make the league minimum or were a big free agent signing. If you can play, you will play.

Of course, there is one other change that was made, and the results are stark. Before the bye, Cooper DeJean, who missed nearly all of training camp, played a total of eight snaps on defense. Avonte Maddox played 81% of snaps in the first four games as the nickel corner. DeJean replaced him out of the bye and has played 85% of snaps, while Maddox has played 21 snaps total, 18 of which were in blowouts. The results are night and day.

The dramatic turn around on run defense isn’t by coincidence. Maddox had just one solo tackle against the run, DeJean had three. Maddox also had just three total solo tackles and no tackles for loss or sacks. DeJean had 13 solo tackles, two tackles for a loss, and half a sack.

Don’t read too much into this part, but Maddox was on the field for 8 TDs, with one against GB scored directly on him. DeJean has been on the field for only 2 TDs, both were rushing TDs away from him.

Cooper DeJean has been as advertised when they traded up to draft him: he’s a good football player. And the Eagles defense needed good football players. It’s no surprise that taking out a player who is no longer NFL caliber in Avonte Maddox and replacing him with one who can contribute in all phases of the game in DeJean makes everything better. If you’re only as strong as your weakest link, the Eagles just turned slot corner from a negative to a positive.