Earlier this week, the Philadelphia Eagles made their first major move since winning Super Bowl 59, releasing veteran six-time Pro Bowl CB Darius Slay. Slay was the elder statesman of a secondary revitalized with youthful energy in 2024 and a key cog in Philly’s No. 1 pass defense. However, they had some quality depth behind Slay, which made the move possible.
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After finishing 31st in total passing defense in 2023, the Eagles knew they had to focus on revamping their back end. They promptly spent their top two draft picks on two of the top five CB prospects in the class. Quinyon Mitchell was grabbed in the 1st round, and Cooper DeJean luckily fell to them in the 2nd round. One would assume that DeJean will now slide out from his nickel spot into the other outside corner position opposite Mitchell.
However, FS1’s Emmanuel Acho believes that Slay’s departure will create more issues for the Eagles’ secondary than they might have thought when they pulled the trigger. Acho thinks the secondary will sink back down into mediocrity without Slay there to “stabilize” that back end.
“The Eagles’ most consistently inconsistent position has been cornerback… Finally, you get a person like Darius Slay. And he stabilizes the most consistently inconsistent position on the Eagles defense over the last two decades at CB,” Acho started.
The release of 34-year-old Slay to allow their highly drafted youngsters to step into bigger roles would seem to be a logical next step for general manager Howie Roseman in that area of the field. Slay is still a solid player and leader. But there’s a reason he was not named to the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2020 this year.
Acho may say that Slay “stabilized” the secondary, but let’s not forget “Big Play Slay” was a part of that 31st-ranked pass defense last year. In 2020, 2021, and 2023, the Eagles pass defense was mediocre at best.
It seems Acho is giving Slay a little bit more credit than he deserves. No doubt he was a great mentor for these guys. He can still play, but with all the other younger players Roseman needs to look at extending, Slay seemed like one of the most likely cap casualties.
However, Slay’s departure also means that Cooper DeJean is likely to slide out to the wide corner spot. In Acho’s estimation, that means they’re “losing two starters.” We’re not sure that really makes sense, since DeJean will remain a starter, just at a different position. His point seems to be perhaps that displacing a starter is essentially like removing them?
“Now, you might end up losing two starters on defense. Because if you lose Slay, that’s one starter at cornerback, if you take Cooper DeJean and move him from nickel to cornerback, now you’ve lost your starting nickel. And please keep in mind, nickel and corner are two completely different positions. That requires two completely skill sets… Leave DeJean where he’s at.”
.@EmmanuelAcho says Eagles losing CB Darius Slay is a GIGANTIC deal:
“He stabilized the most consistently inconsistent position on the Eagles defense for the past 2 decades.” pic.twitter.com/i7YnfDYPzG
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) March 4, 2025
There’s no doubt DeJean had an excellent rookie season playing out of the slot on 99 percent of his snaps. However, Acho hasn’t done his homework here. When asked if DeJean could play outside corner, he said “Maybe.” He obviously didn’t watch any DeJean tape from his college days at Iowa. For the Hawkeyes, DeJean played about 150 snaps from the slot, and just under 1,200 as an outside corner.
Clearly, he knows how to play on the outside. His shift to the nickel spot as a rookie with the Eagles was due to the fact that he had a proven veteran in Slay and a 1st-round pick in Mitchell sitting ahead of him. No doubt DeJean will prefer playing on the outside as well: outside corners get paid twice as much as their nickel brethren.
Last year, the Buffalo Bills signed nickel Taron Johnson to a three-year, $31 million deal, a record for a slot corner. Johnson is the t-17th highest-paid corner in the league, which means there are 17 wide corners making as much or more than the highest-paid nickel corner. 11 of those are making over $19 million a year.
Keeping DeJean at nickel would be wrong for two reasons. One, you drafted him in the 2nd round after he impressed as an outside corner in college. Roseman likely would not have spent so much draft capital on him if he saw him strictly as a nickel. Second, the team would be intentionally capping his earning potential, which the player likely wouldn’t take well.
It’s out with the old, and in with the new in Philly’s secondary, and that’s okay. Besides, Slay now has a chance to return to the team that drafted him, the Detroit Lions, for his swan song. Not to mention he could whip Detroit’s young secondary into shape, much like he did with DeJean and Mitchell.
