Eagles
NFL Honors: Two Eagles Named Among Five Defensive Rookie of the Year Finalists
Penn State Great Valley MBA, Penn State Berks Undergrad, Eagle Scout and Vigil Honor, IT Service Manager. I joined Sports Talk Philly in 2017 and root for all the Philly teams (as well as their minor league counter parts).
All posts by Paul BowmanPublished23 Jan 2025
The Eagles took a chance in the draft this year, taking two corners with their top two pick – even trading away other picks to move up to do so.
It has turned out quite well for the team, though.
On Thursday, the league announced their finalists for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year and both Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean found themselves on the list.
The finalists for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year! #NFLHonors pic.twitter.com/sULpgAsMsO
— NFL (@NFL) January 23, 2025
Mitchell, the Eagles first-round pick out of Toledo, has been a starter since game one and played most of the snaps. He has been a lockdown corner and the only regular season game he didn’t appear in was the meaningless game where the Eagles rested their starters at the end of the season.
DeJean, meanwhile, suffered an injury and started the preseason on NFI. That left him behind the eight ball and he ultimately didn’t crack the lineup for the first few weeks. Once he was put into the starting lineup, however, the Eagles defense turned around and became the top unit in the league.
Neither player has the gaudy stats that’d make them likely to win in such a stat-driven league, but that’s actually a reason they should win. When someone flexes something like a high amount of tackles for a corner, that’s a bad thing because it means the ball is getting to the receivers in their area consistently and neither of the Birds rookies have that problem.
DeJean was named a PFF second-team All-Pro and a Pro Bowl snub but otherwise he and Mitchell have not received any other accolades so far this season.
Penn State product Chop Robinson (Miami Dolphins) is also one of the five finalists for the award.
Jared Verse is considered the favorite given he plays the position that can put up the gaudy stats that many “analysts” look for in these types of awards.
Eagles linebacker Zack Baun was also named a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year and Vic Fangio is up for Assistant Coach of the Year. Saquon Barkley was also named a finalist for MVP and Offensive Player of the Year.
