Not many things can make the Eagles depart from their usual roster-building philosophy of pouring resources into the trenches on both sides of the ball. Through his decisions financially or with draft capital, Howie Roseman has made it well known what he values when constructing an NFL roster.
With the future of veterans like EDGE Brandon Graham and RT Lane Johnson in question, the recent retirement of Jason Kelce, and the recent departure of Haason Reddick, the common thought was that Roseman would look to move up for one of the many talented offensive linemen in the class or select the best available pass rusher.
This is why, in the months leading up to the draft, most fans, local beat writers, and media alike scoffed at the idea of Philadelphia potentially targeting and selecting a cornerback on Day 1 of the NFL Draft. In a word, it could’ve been considered a pipedream.
Until it happened.
The Eagles (for the first time since 2002 and for the first time in the Howie Roseman era) drafted a cornerback in the first round of the NFL draft, selecting Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell at No. 22 overall.
But why? What about Mitchell makes him an outlier? What about Mitchell could cause an organizational pivot in philosophy?
Here’s why.
1) The way the board fell
As the first round trudged along, Roseman realized something.
There were no defensive players selected in the first 14 picks. Six quarterbacks went off the board in the first 12. Offensive linemen and wide receivers filled out the rest of the board.
For the first time in what feels like ages, the Eagles draft room on Day one was quiet.
“I think it was unusual to not have action in that room,” Roseman said following the selection of Mitchell. “We contemplated—there were some really good players still left. We contemplated going up, but we kept going back to the fact that we felt like we had a really good chance to get a first-round player at a position of need where we were picking.”
The first defensive player wasn’t selected until the Indianapolis Colts selected UCLA pass rusher Laiatu Latu (I let out a hugely depressed sigh typing that out).
The Seahawks selected Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II. Followed up by the Vikings (who traded up with the Jaguars), who could’ve opted to take a corner but selected Dallas Turner.
The next four picks all featured teams who could’ve easily taken corners.
The Bengals selected Georgia OT Amarius Mims; the Rams opted to take the powerful pass rusher out of Florida State, Jared Verse; Pittsburgh took a player many thought the Eagles could’ve moved up for in versatile offensive lineman Troy Fautanu; and the Dolphins opted to select Penn State’s Chop Robinson.
This cleared the way for Philadelphia to select Mitchell.
It almost felt like fate. 21 picks, no cornerbacks taken. And you didn’t even have to trade up.
“We had gone through scenarios where four quarterbacks went, five quarterbacks went, six quarterbacks went, which really affected us a lot,” Roseman said. “Like I said, we go through the worst-case scenario first and work back from there.”
“From our perspective, maybe a little surprising how late it took for the first defensive player to go. Probably didn’t expect that.”
2) The player Mitchell is (and can become).
Once the board fell the way it did, the Eagles were left with two choices: Alabama’s Terrion Arnold or Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell.
“I think that for us, as the board kind of came off, and a lot of offensive players came off, we felt like we were in a good position,” Roseman said. “At 22, the way it fell for us and the players that were left on the board, we had a hard decision based on the guys that were left on the board, but we felt based on the player, based on the totality of the circumstance of the player—his talent, his character, and the position—we felt like it was the right pick for us.”
In recent years, much has been made about Roseman’s proclivity for selecting players out of the SEC. Philadelphia practically drafted the entire Georgia Bulldogs defense in 2022 and 2023.
And the SEC option was there. Terrion Arnold. An SEC defensive back who was the number one corner for one of the greatest football minds of all time, Nick Saban, at one of the biggest college football programs in America. Arnold’s ceiling is high as any player in the 2024 draft.
But Roseman opted to go with Mitchell. Why?
Roseman alluded to the fact that it was a close decision, but for the Eagles’ situation and their ranking of Mitchell vs. Arnold, Mitchell was the right decision.
So who is Quinyon Mitchell?
Our very own Mar’Quell Fripp-Owens goes into much greater detail than I will here, but simply put, Mitchell is a star.
At 6-foot-195 pounds with true 4.3 speed, it’s understandable why Philadelphia was enamored with Mitchell. In his three years as a full-time starter for the Toledo Rockets, Mitchell amassed six interceptions and a whopping 52 pass breakups.
He’s a physical defensive back whose athleticism and click-and-close ability are otherworldly. At times, Mitchell can flat-out erase receivers. His instincts and IQ are off the charts.
That begs the question: Where can Mitchell improve? From a technical standpoint, he can improve a bit in terms of his hip fluidity, flexibility, and understanding of leverage, but it’s obvious that the tools and potential are there.
And the Eagles have the staff to bring it out of him and develop him into an even more well-rounded corner than he is currently, with defensive backs coach Christian Parker and cornerbacks coach Roy Anderson.
Both Parker (Patrick Surtain and Jaire Alexander) and Anderson (Devon Witherspoon and Xavier Woods) have histories they can point to in terms of the development of players.
3) The person Mitchell is and his connection to the franchise
During ESPN’s live coverage of the draft, Nick Saban told a story about Mitchell. Remember, this is the same Nick Saban who coached the other defensive back the Eagles debated taking over Mitchell, Terrion Arnold.
“He was our No. 1 in guy in the portal last year to try to get him to come out of the portal and he didn’t ever get in the portal,” Saban said.
Alabama wanted Mitchell. This is despite having Arnold (who was a first-round pick) and second-round pick Kool-Aid McKinstry in their secondary.
Mitchell wouldn’t leave Toledo because, in his words, “I had a great situation; everybody went away, so I stayed loyal to them.” Mitchell said.
In the current age of NIL deals and college athletes becoming multi-millionaires before stepping foot on a professional field, Mitchell elected to value connection over compensation.
“Money and other opportunities are just not bigger than relationships,” Mitchell said shortly after he was drafted.
Having a person, independent of him as a player, with those types of morals in your building is invaluable.
“Power Five programs offered six-figure NIL deals for him to transfer, but he declined because the relationships he established with coaches and teammates at Toledo were priceless,” Mitchell’s mother MaShonda, said.
But the Eagles likely already had been predisposed to not only the type of player Mitchell was but the person as well.
Philadelphia’s brass likes to refer to what they call the ‘co-habitation matrix’ around draft season. Essentially, it’s a system that emphasizes past relationships with players when it comes to roster construction and whether those players fit within the culture of the organization. Mitchell checked that box too.
Mitchell’s college coach, Jason Candle, was Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni’s college roommate. But that isn’t the only connection.
Toledo defensive coordinator, Vince Kehres, is the son of Sirianni and Candle’s college coach, Larry Kehres.
Sirianni and Candle were in the same wide receiver room while playing together at the University of Mount Union and were also on the coaching staff together from 2004–05 under Kehres.
“I always knew they was close,” Mitchell said after being drafted. “Coach [Sirianni] is really close with our coaching staff. They come from that Mount Union tree, so I knew he was close with everybody at Toledo.”
This connection gave Philadelphia not only an inside look at the player Mitchell is, but also the person.
“You get the information on guys,” Sirianni said. “I was able to get some of the information there, just with my ties there. At the end of the day, with how good of a player he was, the thing that always coming up was how good of a teammate, how good of a person, and how hard of a worker, and how competitive (he is). And those are things you want to hear.”
In 2023, the Eagles defense gave up 253 yards per game through the air, the 2nd worst mark in the league. Darius Slay missed considerable time with injury. James Bradberry’s play took a significant step back. A change desperately needed to be made.
Enter Mitchell.
Everything seemingly broke right for the Eagles with the selection of Quinyon Mitchell. They had an inside track in terms of his evaluation throughout the draft process and the board fell in an almost perfect fashion.
The Eagles are betting on the standout Toledo corner from the Mid-American Conference to be an outlier. They need him to be special.
“The MAC is not the National Football League,” Howie Roseman said. “We understand that. We’ve had tremendous success with (players from) big schools. So to take a player like this from the MAC, he has to be special.”
Cover Image Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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