The Cooper DeJean Effect, putting Jalyx Hunt\u2019s improvement in perspective and ranking the 14 quarterbacks projected to face the Eagles this year.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re through free agency, the draft and the schedule release, so all we have to do now is count down the days till training camp.<\/p>\n
Somewhere around 70. It’ll be here before you know it.<\/p>\n
1. The unquestioned superstar at the Eagles Autism Challenge Saturday morning at the Linc wasn\u2019t Jason Kelce, Jalen Hurts or Brandon Graham. Those guys all elicited their fair share of screams and squeals from the thousands of kids (and a good chunk of parents) who were a part of the largest Eagles Autism challenge ever. But the guy who got the most screams, the loudest screams, the guy who had a swarm of kids sprinting en masse with their cell phone cameras at the ready was clearly Cooper DeJean. When he appeared in the bicycle paddock before the 10-mile ride, it was like 1964 and the Beatles had just shown up. Total bananas. And you still see plenty of Dawkins 20 jerseys and 62 Kelces, but there just might be more DeJean 33s than anything. And it\u2019s understandable. Here\u2019s a kid who just turned 22 who fashioned one of the greatest plays in franchise history in a freaking Super Bowl off one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. It didn\u2019t take DeJean long after taking over in the slot in Week 6 last year to become a true face of the franchise. He was always available for interviews, his quotes were thoughtful and insightful and since he was on TV all the time Eagles fans got to know him quickly and appreciate his personality. And on top of that his play was off the charts with the highest Pro Football Focus grade among 157 defensive backs who played at least 100 snaps. As a rookie. A big hitter, an engaging personality, a Super Bowl playmaker, a champion on his 22nd birthday. What else can you ask for? On top of that, he’s always around \u2014 front row at 76ers games, running a camp, interacting with kids at the Autism Challenge \u2014 and it seems like he\u2019s truly enjoying being an Eagle and living in Philly. DeJean has it all. We\u2019ve had some very popular defensive players in this city over the years, but like this? This soon? Jerome Brown was close, but remember he wasn\u2019t even a full-time starter as a rookie and was on a bad team during a strike. Dawk was a promising d-back as a rookie but years away from this sort of adulation. Reggie White? Fans loved his game from the jump, but he was pretty guarded and technically wasn\u2019t a rookie by the time he got here and wasn\u2019t part of a playoff win until his eighth year here. DeJean is one of a kind, and for a team that\u2019s been around for almost a century, that\u2019s a heck of a statement.<\/p>\n
2A. Thinking about DeJean\u2019s Super Bowl birthday pick-6 off Patrick Mahomes, I started wondering how many pick-6\u2019s the Eagles have had off Hall of Fame quarterbacks. There have been eight, most recently Bobby Taylor\u2019s 23-yarder off Kurt Warner in the Eagles\u2019 10-3 win over the Rams in 2002 \u2013 the 2nd-to-last game ever played at the Vet. There have been two others in the last 50 years \u2013 the Troy Vincent\/James Willis 104-yarder off Troy Aikman at Texas Stadium in 1996 and Jeremiah Trotter\u2019s 27-yarder off Aikman on opening day 2000 \u2013 the Pickle Juice Game \u2013 also at Texas Stadium. Before that? Bibbles Bawel had two of them in 1955. He picked off Jim Finks of the Saints for a 42-yard TD in a loss to the Steelers at Forbes Field and had a 40-yarder a few weeks later off Otto Graham in a win over the Browns at Connie Mack Stadium (Finks is a Hall of Famer because of his front office career, not his playing career). The others were by Joe Muha off Sammy Baugh in 1950 (19 yards in a win over Washington at Shibe Park), Nate Ramsey off Johnny Unitas in 1969 (26 yards in a loss to the Colts at Memorial Stadium) and Bill Bradley off Roger Staubach in 1969 (56 yards in a loss to the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl).<\/p>\n
2B. Eagles Pick-6\u2019s off future Hall of Famers? Other than DeJean\u2019s, the only lock is Malcolm Jenkins\u2019 99-yarder off Tom Brady in the Eagles\u2019 win in Foxboro in 2015. Three Eagles had INT returns for touchdowns against Eli Manning, who shouldn\u2019t get in but eventually will: Trent Cole in 2006, Nolan Carroll in 2015 and Jenkins in 2016. The Eagles never had pick-6\u2019s against Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers or Russell Wilson (yet).<\/p>\n
3. Pete Pihos had such an unusual career. The Eagles\u2019 5th-round pick out of Indiana in 1947, he averaged 31 catches for 472 yards and 5 \u00bd touchdowns in his first six seasons. Not bad. The next three years? He blew up, averaging 62 catches, 928 yards and 9.0 touchdowns in 12-game seasons. All were the most in the NFL during that three-year period. After a monster 1955 season, where he led the NFL in receptions for a third straight year and yards for the second time in three years, he abruptly retired at the age of 32. Pihos remains one of only three players in NFL history with 180 catches, 2,700 yards and 27 touchdowns in his final three seasons. Calvin Johnson and Sterling Sharpe are the others. Pihos was a fascinating guy. He fought at Normandy, earning five combat medals. He was the first Eagle ever with 1,000 receiving yards. And he retired at his best. To this day, 70 years after he retired, he still ranks third in Eagles history in touchdown catches, sixth in receiving yards and seventh in catches. Pihos retired to spend more time with his family and to accept a sales job that back then was more lucrative than playing in the NFL, and he was also frustrated with all the losing. Pihos was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970. Along with Chuck Bednarik and Steve Van Buren, he\u2019s one of only three Hall of Famers who spent his entire career with the Eagles.<\/p>\n
4. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve done a good enough job expressing just how far Jalyx Hunt progressed last year from opening day through the Super Bowl. Hunt was quietly a remarkable story for the 2024 Eagles, a 3rd-round project who started out his college career as an Ivy League safety and finished as a promising NFL edge rusher. Hunt was a healthy scratch in the 2024 opener in S\u00e3o Paulo and then got just a handful of snaps the first half of the season \u2013 just 17 on defense through Week 9, most of them in mop-up duty at the end of a blowout win over the Giants. He was a non-factor as the Eagles began gaining steam after the bye week. But then he started showing up. He didn\u2019t get many chances, but he made the most of the ones he got, and he gradually elbowed his way into the rotation. And when B.G.\u2019s regular season ended against the Rams in Week 12, Hunt was ready to go. Over the last six weeks of the regular season he averaged nearly 30 snaps per game and began generating steady pressure. He played only 30 fewer snaps than Josh Sweat during that six-game stretch, and this is a guy who was inactive when the season began playing for the No. 1 defense in the NFL in a run for the No. 1 seed. More of the same in the postseason. With big-ticket free agent Bryce Huff banished from the rotation, Hunt averaged 26 snaps per game in the postseason on the way to a Super Bowl championship and picked up 1 \u00bd sacks along the way \u2013 most ever by an Eagles rookie in the postseason. Out of 151 edge rushers who played at least 100 snaps last year , his 69.0 Pro Football Focus grade ranked 46th , which is awfully impressive. That increased to 74.0 in the playoffs, 11th-best out of 52 edges who played at least 10 snaps. With B.G. retired, Sweat off in Arizona and Huff\u2019s future uncertain, Hunt now projects as edge rusher No. 2 alongside Nolan Smith. Azeez Ojulari will be in the mix if he can stay healthy. But ask yourself if any Eagle has ever progressed this much during his rookie season? From healthy scratch to key member of a Super Bowl unit in five months? And there\u2019s no reason to think that kind of growth is going to stop. Hunt could be really, really good. He already is.<\/p>\n
5. Dak Prescott has won more than eight games only twice in the last six seasons.<\/p>\n
6A. The Eagles had two fumble recovery return touchdowns of at least 70 yards in their 44-6 playoff-clinching win over the Cowboys at the Linc on the final day of the 2008 season \u2013 Chris Clemons\u2019 73-yarder after Dawk forced a Tony Romo fumble and Joselio Hanson\u2019s 96-yarder after Dawk forced a Marion Barber fumble three minutes later. They have two fumble recovery return TD of 70 or more yards in 281 games since: Walter Thurmond\u2019s 83-yarder against the Giants in 2016 and Slay\u2019s 83-yarder in Denver in 2021.<\/p>\n
6B. The Eagles\u2019 last seven fumble recovery touchdowns of 70 or more yards have all come in the third quarter: A 70-yarder Reggie White TD in Washington in 1987, an 80-yarder by Sheldon Brown in Dallas in 2005, Mike Patterson\u2019s 98-yarder in San Francisco in 2006, both TDs vs. Dallas in 2008, Thurmond\u2019s 83-yarder at MetLife vs. the Giants in 2016 and Slay\u2019s 83-yarder in Denver in 2021. Their last fumble recovery touchdown of 70 or more yards that wasn\u2019t in a third quarter is Will Wynn\u2019s 87-yarder in the second quarter of a win over the Packers at the Vet in 1974. Now you know.<\/p>\n
6C. The Eagles aren\u2019t just the only team with two 70-yard fumble recovery return TDs in the same game over the last 25 years, they\u2019re the only team with two in the same season. The last team with more than one in a season was the 1998 Jaguars. Donovin Darius from Wilson High in Camden had an 83-yarder against the Ravens and Aaron Beasley had a 90-yarder against the Bengals.<\/p>\n
6D. The only other team with two fumble recovery TDs of 70 or more yards in the same game? That would be the 1938 Eagles. In a 14-10 win over the Giants at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium \u2013 the future JFK \u2013 the Eagles scored all their points on fumble recovery returns. Bob Pylman had an 88-yarder in the second quarter and Joe Carter a 92-yarder in the fourth quarter. Here\u2019s how the Inquirer\u2019s Cy Peterman saw the two touchdowns:<\/p>\n
Bob Pylman 88 yards: \u201cThe Eagles took the lead in the second period when Bob Pylman, 6 foot, 4 inch tackle, seized a bobbling ball from the arms of Dale Burnett as he wheeled toward the home goal. No mercury afoot, Pylman nonetheless broke clear and started for touchdownland as if fleeing a prairie fire in his native South Dakota.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Carter 92 yards: \u201cKink Richards was about to make a lateral and thrust the ball forward. As he did so, Carter, Eagles end, also reached out and in the twinkling of an eye the ball changed hands. Nobody in the crowd saw him get the ball. \u2026 Carter ran a lot faster and with more blockers than Pylman, but the route was nearly identical. He crossed amid much cheering, no Giant to restrain him.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. A highlight of the Eagles Autism Challenge 5K was Tanner McKee, who spent more time signing autographs and taking pictures with fans than actually running. McKee and his wife Lauren were jogging along at probably nine-minute-per-mile pace, which should have had him at the finish line in about 28 minutes. But his official chip time was 59 minutes, 13 seconds. That means he spent about 31 minutes accommodating autograph and photo requests. I was cruising along near McKee for a little while and he was unbelievably gracious, generous and patient as wave after wave of fans stopped him with their requests. At one point a couple guys near me who were clearly from out of town started Googling Tanner because they had no clue who he was. \u201cSixth-round pick in 2023 from Stanford,\u201d one said to the other as he looked at his phone. Then they jogged over to where McKee was getting his picture taken with three kids and just as he was about to start jogging again, they interrupted him. \u201cExcuse me, Mr. McKee. Can we get a picture?\u201d<\/p>\n