August 10, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Darius Cooper has come a long way in just a year.
Practice No. 9 of Eagles training camp kept some persistent standouts in the spotlight, all as the first preseason game nears and the scope of the roster begins to really narrow down.
Here were the camp heroes and zeroes from Monday morning down at the Jefferson Health Training Complex...
• WR Darius Cooper: Jalen Hurts kept feeding Cooper the ball, and most of the time it felt like the former undrafted free agent was catching it and doing something with it.
Cooper had a handful of receptions with the first team in full 11-on-11 drills. The clutchest of them probably came late in a situational two-minute drill, where coming up on the red zone and with the clock ticking, Cooper hauled in a quick and low throw from Hurts to the right sideline, while Cooper DeJean was on him in coverage.
Cooper fell in bounds, but the play inched the Eagles' offense up just a bit further to line up for the spike, and then set up for Hurts to throw a touchdown pass on the next play – though it was a very slightly controversial one.
The best catch of Cooper's day was made earlier, when after dragging across the field and to the right sideline with Riq Woolen covering him, Cooper made a break up the line, which led Hurts to toss a ball up.
One extra defender closed in, but Cooper leaped up and grabbed the pass that just sailed above them to come down with it with two feet in, then signal forward for a first down in what was a clear chunk gain.
That was probably the best catch of Monday in general, and at this rate, it's getting really hard to argue that Cooper shouldn't have an expanded role within the Eagles' first-team offense, especially since Hurts keeps seeming to find him.
• WR Elijah Moore: The same goes for Moore, who just keeps finding his way open and making a play ever since he made a bad mental lapse on a route early last week.
Just like Cooper, Moore caught a handful of passes on Monday, with two big ones that really stood out.
The first was a Hurts loft over the middle that Moore caught in stride, then turned into space down the right sideline with thanks to an excellent block from running back Tank Bigsby ahead of him, which would've turned Moore loose for a massive gain and maybe even a touchdown in a live game.
The second was that "controversial" touchdown at the end of practice. Moore picked up on a broken and long-running play, so he made himself open at the goal line over the middle of the field.
Hurts, waiting and scrambling around, eventually saw Moore and fired the pass straight into the receiver's chest for the catch and score, but the caveat of the whole sequence was that the Eagles' defense only rushed three, and after a while, the pass rushers stood around looking confused and like they were wondering if they were supposed to book it after Hurts or let him go.
Jalyx Hunt, after a pause, just made a decision to sprint in after Hurts, which flushed him out of the pocket and forced the throw in to Moore.
It was weird, but Moore probably gets points there for not quitting on the play, and for continuing to stand out in the absence of first-round rookie Makai Lemon, who remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Moore seems very much on track right now to end up with a role potentially much larger than he bargained for when he originally signed back in the spring.
Tank Bigsby could help balance out the Eagles' rushing attack this season.
• RB Tank Bigsby: He made that block that freed Moore up to run down the sideline with the pass, and also had his own big run up the middle at another point during 11-on-11 reps, when a massive gap opened up, which gave the running back the cue to take off with it. Bigsby got touched up somewhere higher up in the secondary, which would've been an easy first down, but he got told on the fly to run it out toward the end zone in a race that came down to him and Quinyon Mitchell to try and stop him.
Bigsby made a few cuts to try and fake Mitchell out, then pulled up around the 1 after the All-Pro corner didn't bite. Still, if that play goes that far like the coaches called out for it to, that's a huge play from someone in Bigsby that they are going to need more of to balance out the rushing attack in order to keep Saquon Barkley fresh.
• CB Quinyon Mitchell: Yeah, Mitchell is still the Eagles' best corner. On the first play of the first-team's two-minute drill, he dove right at a ball that Hurts threw into no-man's land over the middle on a brutal miscommunication and scooped it up before it hit the grass for the interception.
Then, after the 1s returned to the field from that, Mitchell tracked Hurts' eyes on a play the QB was scrambling to extend, then hovered over to Cooper by the left sideline and swatted a pass away that Hurts tried to force through.
The third-year corner looks sharper than ever.
• Second-team offense: The reserve offense, led mostly by Andy Dalton, in the two-minute drill, had a pretty rough go of it.
Routes were sloppy, guys couldn't get open, and Dalton tried to force passes through that just weren't there, or in one case, tried to throw a ball away in the flat that bounced right off tight end Cam Latu's back, who was totally unaware it was headed his way.
They didn't get very far in their reps.
• WR Quez Watkins: But on the last play, Dalton did try to air out a throw downfield for Watkins, who is now a practice squad receiver.
Dalton had the right read of the route, seemed to make a good throw, and Watkins seemed to have the step ahead of his defender on it, but then he tripped up and couldn't get to it.
It was a brutal look. That 2022 bomb from Hurts that Watkins chased way downfield against the Vikings feels like forever ago anymore.
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
