NFL Draft 2024: Why Cooper DeJean is underrated
Generally speaking, Terrion Arnold of Alabama, Quniyon Mitchell of Toledo, and Nate Wiggins of Clemson have been mocked ahead of fellow defensive back Cooper DeJean in the lead-up to the 2024 NFL Draft. To a point, I get it. All of those players are very good and I’d be happy to have any of them as Green Bay Packers, but I’d put DeJean above all of them.
Before we get into why that is, let me provide a quick reminder that I’m bad at draft analysis, especially tape study, and what I’m about to write is entirely based on a guy who has…let’s see…17 Google Sheets open at this very moment watching game film. And not fancy All-22 game film either, just the normal kind, shot from the sideline where the receivers all run off screen and it’s impossible to tell what’s happening before replay. So take this with a huge grain of salt.
When I’m looking at various players, I always like to make a note of who I think can be a Hall-of-Famer. This is a silly but fun exercise, and I recommend trying it, because while you will be wrong a lot (and I will likely be wrong here for a number of reasons), it’s still a useful exercise. Hall of Fame level players tend to have a little something extra. They’re true unicorns athletically like Calvin Johnson, or they blew the doors off of everyone in college even against high level competition. Or they’re extremely large but move like a small person, like Julius Peppers or Derrick Henry. Davante Adams’ release. Barry Sanders’ ability to change direction. They all have something.
For me, DeJean has that. He’s a great athlete, yes, having posted a 9.85 RAS based on his pro day, but the way he reads the entire field, from the QB’s eyes to the receiver’s position is almost supernatural. Take this interception here.
It’s one highlight-reel example, but even routine coverage from DeJean involves him knowing where the ball is going well in advance of every other defender on the field. It’s easy to scout his speed and agility. The vision though, is off the charts. You see it in highlights like the above, in his punt returns where he reads blocks better than most running backs, and on any run play where he’s fighting through blocks to make a tackle.
The rumor is that most teams project him as a safety, but I think that projection has created some dissonance when discussing his value. DeJean would be, I think, a better safety than corner at the next level, because he’s at his absolute best when he can see everything in front of him. He’s a ball-hawk, he’s disciplined, and he understands the play in front of him in a microsecond. I think of all the times I’ve seen Darnell Savage rocketing out of position to leave poor Adrian Amos alone in the back, and I just don’t think that happens with DeJean.
It’s also true, broadly, that safeties are not as valuable as corners. It’s very difficult to find a shut-down outside corner, and they’re worth their weight in gold. But the math here is different because while DeJean can, I think, be a phenomenal safety, he can also simultaneously be a good corner and a very good slot corner. When your defense has to go heavy or light, you can count on DeJean’s versatility keeping you out of bad personnel situations, because he can cover everything and tackle anything. The lack of an exploitable weakness and the ability to cover from box safety to outside corner make DeJean insanely valuable to a defense. All of that, plus an uncanny ability to make splash plays out of the back and serve as an elite special teams gunner AND elite punt returner make him, for my money, the best defensive prospect in the entire draft.
When I first went to watch Cooper DeJean, I was extremely skeptical, and assumed he was overrated for a number of reasons. It did not take long to completely turn around on him, as his talent pops immediately. DeJean is, of course, not a secret and he’s been mocked to the Packers thousands of times at this point, but while the conventional wisdom can be boring, in this instance I hope it is correct.
