The Most Crucial Eagles player heading into the start of the 2024 NFL season tasked with the job of improving an issue from last season

America’s sport is just a few weeks away from officially kicking off, and there’s something in the air. Excitement, nerves, hope, frustration; you can include just about every emotion or feeling to describe the state of NFL fans. Speaking of fans, let’s address the best fans in the world: Philadelphia Eagles fans.

Who do you think is the most pivotal player this season? If I were to go around and ask as many fans as possible to answer this question, I bet I would get a wide range of answers. I’m sure many will say Jalen Hurts due to his overall regression last season. But, respectfully, that’s a very lazy answer, in my opinion. The dual-threat QB was in the MVP race for 10 weeks and was a product of a poorly schemed offense the last 7 weeks. That will not be the case this season.

Quinyon Mitchell, the Eagles’ 22nd overall pick in the draft, is the most pivotal player this season.

Eagles rookie shows out in NFL debut

Quinyon Mitchell in his NFL debut:

🔒 14 coverage snaps
🔒 7 yards allowed
🔒 1 forced incompletion
🔒 58.3 passer rating allowed pic.twitter.com/OtYJzVTn58

— PFF PHI Eagles (@PFF_Eagles) August 11, 2024

Naturally, you’re probably asking yourself, “Why would a rookie be the most pivotal?”. The Eagles finished second to last in pass defense last season and finished in the bottom five in TD-INT ratio allowed. So, while everyone was ripping the offense last year for the team’s collapse, I was just as frustrated with our absolutely putrid pass defense.

So, while that statistic represents the Eagle’s defense as a whole last season; when you can land the NFL draft’s arguable best cornerback at pick 22, you should expect your pass defense to be much improved almost instantly. Sure, with a rookie, there will be some growing pains, especially at the defensive back position. However, Mitchell has star potential, and if you’ve been paying attention to what Vic Fangio has been saying about him, you should be ready for him to have an impact immediately.

The young cornerback is so talented that the Eagles have cross-trained him to play outside or inside. Here’s what their defensive coordinator had to say about Mitchell.

“I thought he did well. He played both nickel and outside corner. He’s a good player and he’s going to be a good player. We just have to be careful not to overload his plate too much because nickel is a full-time position as well as corner is, and he’s having to learn both right now and they are two drastically different positions.”

Playing him at Nickel is such a big deal due to Fangio’s scheme and the opportunity it presents him to deploy the best possible lineups.

“Nickel essentially is really a linebacker position. You know, if you go back to the traditional 4-3, if you stayed in a 4-3, a linebacker would be walked out on that slot. Well, the linebacker leaves the game, and now you’re in nickel, and the nickel is on that slot.

So essentially, when you pare it down, he’s playing linebacker-type zones that are more involved at the run than a corner. So, it’s a drastically different position.”

While I don’t claim to be an X’s & O’s guru, I believe Mitchell may be tasked with covering the opposing team’s best player in this scenario. They often match up inside instead of outside, whether it’s a wide receiver, tight end, or even a pass-catching running back. If you remember, this is where the Eagles got killed a lot last season.

Obviously, James Bradberry’s disaster of a season was highlighted all over the secondary, but simply having a player like Mitchell out there changes everything. It makes the lives of everyone in the secondary easier. And while he will be a rookie, it is absolutely crucial that they prioritize his development as much as they can.

Even at his age of 33, going on 34, Darius Slay is the team’s best outside corner. However, he is undoubtedly getting old, and the Eagles needed to find his successor as the team’s best corner of the future. I believe that guy is Quinyon Mitchell.

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