Sometimes the business of football can get in the way.
The Eagles have a little bit of time with Cooper DeJean, the dynamic young slot cornerback who put the punctuation on a brilliant rookie season with a pick-six off Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX.
DeJean was arguably the best nickel CB in the NFL last season as the No. 40 overall pick out of Iowa, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is already on record saying that he would prefer to keep the now second-year player inside for the 2025 season.
That may not seem like a problem until you realize what has gone down in Houston this offseason.
On Friday, the Texans made Jalen Pitre the highest-paid nickel back in the NFL, giving the fourth-year defensive back a three-year, $39 million extension.
Rewind to March 17, and Houston also set the market at outside CB with Derek Stingley, giving the first-team All-Pro a three-year, $90 million extension, the biggest ever for a CB.
For those who don’t know, DeJean played outside CB at Iowa, and that’s how the Eagles’ personnel department scouted the emerging star. More so, there was a strong belief in the organization that the uber-athletic DeJean could and would hold his own outside the numbers at the NFL level.
The $51M difference between the top-paid slot and the standard outside is the reality the Eagles have to face on the business side when it comes to DeJean.
For Fangio, part of his sentiment was about Kelee Ringo or Adoree’ Jackson being able to replace six-time Pro Bowl selection Darius Slay from a football perspective, but the veteran DC has also been around long enough to know when the business side of the game can get in the way.
For the Eagles, they have another year to play with in keeping DeJean inside before starting to think about what a DeJean extension might look like after the 2026 season.
If Philadelphia truly wants to keep DeJean in the slot long-term, the organization might have to blow up the conventional financial thinking when it comes to the slot. If the Eagles don’t want to be a trendsetter there, they will ultimately have to allow DeJean the opportunity to play outside.
