“COOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!” – NBC Sports Philadelphia

When Cooper DeJean first heard it, he was pretty confused.

He was still a sophomore at Iowa when the fans in Iowa City started a chant that would follow him through the rest of his college career: “COOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!”

“The first time they did it in college, I thought they were going to boo me,” DeJean said this week, “and then I found out.”

When he heard the same chant at the Linc on Sunday, he knew immediately what it was. It was a recognition of the loyal Eagles fans who saw the 28-23 victory over the Jaguars.

“Yeah, it was cool,” DeJean said.

The Eagles fans started chanting his name on his first punt return, but it wasn’t very loud. Those chants grew louder with each punt after that and were very loud when he forced a turnover on downs with a pass breakup on 4th-and-1.

Safety Reed Blankenship grew up an Alabama Crimson Tide fan and remembers hearing “COOOP!!!” Chants for Amari Cooper. When asked if he heard those chants for DeJean, Blankenship said it was “fucking sick.”

“I thought they would enforce it eventually, but it was cool to see it,” Blankenship said. “It was quiet the first time and then they said, ‘Let’s keep going.’ It’s cool.”

DeJean, 21, was an impressive freshman. The 40th overall pick began the season as a backup, but has been the top corner for the last four games and also assumed punt return responsibility after Britain Covey suffered a shoulder injury in Week 3.

This season, DeJean had 9 punt returns for 102 yards (11.3) and was even better as a nickel corner. DeJean was targeted 18 times and picked up 12 passes for 74 yards. He also has stops at 4th and short in consecutive weeks.

That’s why he gives fans a reason to shout his name as loudly as possible.

DeJean was impressed by how in sync the fans were when they chanted his name for the first time. But many of those Eagles fans had plenty of training during Duce Staley’s long career in Philly. Staley also had a very singing name.

“I was a little surprised that it got so loud so quickly,” DeJean said. “I thought I heard a few, but I didn’t think I’d hear the whole stadium. But it was cool.”

Smitty’s No. 1 piece

DeVonta Smith has made many incredible catches throughout his career. So where does his 25-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone against the Jaguars rank start?

“It’s probably No. 1,” Smith said.

A few plays earlier, Smith caught a 46-yard pass to set up the touchdown and actually injured his hamstring. So that 25-yarder came as Smith was dealing with an injury that kept him out of practice the next week.

What made it his top catch?

“To be able to pull my feet, get to my back, all the basics of catching the ball when you’re close to the sideline,” Smith said.

There were some impressive elements in this piece and none of them happened by accident. Smith knows very well where he is on the field, which is why he said he knows with 100 percent certainty that he can get in with both feet.

As great as Smith’s catch was, even he could admit it wasn’t the Eagles’ best game of Week 9. That belonged to Saquon Barkley.

“Every week you see people catching one-handed,” Smith said. “You don’t see someone jumping backwards over someone.”

Speaking of the reverse hurdle…

The reaction to the reactions

Five days after completing this incredible backwards hurdle, Barkley had officially seen enough.

“I’m kind of over it,” Barkley said. “It was a great piece. 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 happens, you press play, move on and get ready for the next week.”

Barkley has said a few times that the coolest part of the whole thing is seeing the reactions of his teammates he works with every day.

Saquon Barkley had all the boys standing on the sidelines in disbelief 🤣🤯🎙️ pic.twitter.com/lJFuzbKN3T

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 5, 2024

Another cool thing: Tight ends coach Jason Michael told Barkley that his son set up a chair in front of a beanbag 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 ever attempting this step again. Hopefully this is a one-time thing and we don’t see anyone else try it. Everyone stay safe.”

Trust my eyes

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio deserves a lot of credit for finding Zack Baun and turning him into an off-ball linebacker. Even when the Eagles signed Baun in March, most thought he would be a situational pass rusher. But Fangio saw something in Baun that made him believe in him as an insider supporter.

And he was right.

Baun has been one of the Eagles’ best players on that side of the ball this season, leading the team with 79 tackles in eight games.

One of the benefits of being in the NFL as long as Fangio is is that he trusts his assessments even if others don’t see the same thing.

“No, I don’t think so at all,” Fangio said of other opinions. “I trust my own eyes, my own experience and go by it.

“There are a lot of people who want to know what the majority thinks and kind of make it easy for themselves, but I’ve never been that guy.”

And Fangio is particularly confident in his assessment of the linebackers. He has coached a number of really good players in the NFL and previously served as a linebacker position coach. It’s the position he’s most familiar with.

Their earliest bond

When Jalen Hurts released the football to Smith on that huge 25-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter on Sunday, he couldn’t actually see Smith.

But he trusted him.

Trust is an important element to any quarterback-receiver relationship, but for Hurts it seems particularly important. When asked this week about his connection to Smith, the Eagles’ QB1 answered way back.

“There was never a point where it just stops, it happens. You just build and build and build,” Hurts said. “We have been building for a very long time. It goes back to his recruiting visit to Alabama, where we didn’t party, didn’t do anything, and had no interest in doing anything other than ball. We threw routes on air.

“Those are the little stories that matter to me because those are the things that change trajectory and, honestly, those are the little things that help the team this year. “Those little connections and those little ones moments we had. It’s all about building.”

Shipley makes a play

The Eagles punt team currently has two really good Gunners in Sydney Brown (5-10, 211) and Kelee Ringo (6-2, 207). If you were to build a shooter in a lab, it would probably look like one of these two types. They are both big, strong and have incredible straight line speed.

Brown had a big play as a shooter last week to force a fumble that Ringo was able to recover.

“It’s just more confidence [Brown] “When you get it, you can just see it oozing out,” special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. “And that he’s out there setting the tone for the outside world, and we can’t withhold anything from Kelee. Kelee did an excellent job as a shooter and basically took on a full-time job as a shooter. These two guys out there are coming with some force. They come at a certain speed.”

Brown is so good at this that Clay thinks there’s a chance teams will double him with two jammers. But that’s exactly why it’s so important to have two good shooters. And then there’s Will Shipley, who made a big tackle on a punt as a personal guard last game. As a PP, Shipley has a later start but often comes downfield unhindered.

Shipley’s tackle last game shows the Eagles have a good backup plan in case teams start doubling their gunners.

“If people try to stop Kelee and Sydney, we have confidence in our internal protection,” Clay said. “First, to protect, and then to go out and cover it and try to mitigate big returns.”

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