The Eagles were without two of their promising young defensive backs as training camp began Wednesday morning at the NovaCare Complex.
Second-year safety Sydney Brown and rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean were both placed on reserve lists with injuries to open the preseason.
For DeJean, missing the first chunk of his rookie training camp isn’t ideal, and he’ll have to find other ways to stay on top of the playbook so he’s not too far behind when he does return.
“Yeah we're bummed, you know, that's our second round pick, we want to see him out here on the first day,” General Manager Howie Roseman said before practice Wednesday.
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“But we also think that this guy is going to be with us for a long time and so we have tremendous confidence in his ability to pick things up and to come back and kind of keep running and obviously it's a long season and we're counting on it.”
As expected, the Eagles on Wednesday placed Brown on the Physically Unable to Perform list as he continues to recover from a torn anterior cruciate ligament placed DeJean on the Non-Football Injury list with a hamstring injury he suffered while working out between OTAs and training camp.
Brown suffered the knee injury in the Eagles’ regular-season finale against the Giants in East Rutherford.
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If either one remains on those lists beyond final roster cuts on Aug. 30, they’ll have to miss at least the first four games of the regular season.
DeJean was expected to compete for the starting slot corner position. Head coach Nick Sirianni said the Eagles expect DeJean to miss about three weeks.
“Obviously, it sets him back to not be out here the first three weeks,” he said Wednesday. “But we were excited about him when we drafted him, we were excited about the things that he did during OTAs and the offseason work, and we're still excited about him.
“He's going to have to get a lot of mental reps these next couple weeks that he'll be out rehabbing that injury. And he'll do that. I'm confident in the person that he'll do that. He's going to have to work hard at that and then be able to come back when it's his time to come back, when that injury's healed itself up, and then get those physical reps.”
As for Brown, his timetable is a little less clear.
He was out at practice going through solo reps about 15 yards behind the defense during OTAs in the spring and looked fast and healthy running in a straight line.
Brown told NBC Sports’ Rob Kuestner at an Eagles Autism Challenge event in April he was encouraged by where he was just three months after surgery on Jan. 25.
“I feel amazing,” he said. “I can start working out for you right now if you want to. I feel like I’m miles ahead of where I should really be. I will be ready for when the season comes around.”
The Eagles drafted Brown out of Illinois in the third round in 2023. After playing sparingly early in the season – he got just 16 snaps the first three games, then missed the next three with a hamstring – he averaged 32 snaps per game until he got hurt vs. the Giants. He started six games as a rookie and finished the season with 335 defensive snaps split about evenly between the slot and safety.
His 99-yard interception return against Kyler Murray in the loss to the Cards was the 2nd-longest in the NFL last year, 6th-longest ever by a rookie and 3rd-longest in Eagles history, behind 101- and 102-yarders by Lito Sheppard vs. the Cowboys in 2004 and 2006.
Along with 2023 4th-round pick Kelee Ringo, 2023 1st- and 2nd-round picks Quinyon Mitchell as well as Isaiah Rodgers and Eli Ricks, DeJean and Brown are part of what the Eagles believe is a young rebuilt secondary a year after they ranked 31st in the NFL in pass defense.
The NFI and PUP lists are identical aside from the fact that NFI is for players with injuries that occur outside of practice or a game and PUP is for players who have practice- or game-related injuries before participating in practice.
The Eagles also placed offensive tackle Gottlieb Ayedze and wide receiver Shaq Davis on PUP with undisclosed injuries. Ayedze is an undrafted rookie from Maryland and Davis is a 1st-year pro from South Carolina State.
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