Larry Henry Jr
The Philadelphia Eagles were likely shocked that the No. 1 cornerback prospect in Thursday’s 2024 NFL Draft was still on the board at No. 22. and Howie Roseman wasn’t going to let him slip away.
Toledo University cornerback Quinyon Mitchell became the newest face of the Eagles franchise on Thursday after being selected by the Eagles. The 6-feet-0, 195 lb. cornerback was the first corner drafted by the Eagles since All-Pro Lito Sheppard was in 2002.
“I feel like, right now, I’m with the right fit,” said Mitchell in his first press conference as an Eagle. “I’m with the right organization, with the right players, right city, so I feel good about this draft pick right here. I feel like I can come in and play inside, outside. I got some vets in front of me that I can really learn from. [CB] Darius Slay, that’s somebody who I model my game after, and [CB] James Bradberry. It don’t matter where I play, I just want to help the team.”
A Florida native, Mitchell spent four seasons at Toldeo, playing in 46 games and making 40-straight starts. He totaled six interceptions (two returned for touchdowns), 122 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and 46 passes defended (most in Toledo history).
Mitchell enjoyed a memorable 2022 year, winning the MAC Championship with Toledo and the Boca Raton Bowl. The 22-year-old earned First-Team All-MAC honors twice, and was a Third-Team A.P. All-American in 2022 and a Second-Team A.P. All-American in 2023.
The Eagles had their choice on Thursday night with Mitchell, Cooper Dejean, Terrion Arnold, and Nate Wiggins all on the board, but ultimately decided to go with Mitchell.
“We think we have an extremely talented, hard-working outside corner,” Roseman said. “He’s got all the tools in his body, the right mentality. … To take a player like this from the MAC (Mid-American Conference), he has to be special and we think this is a special person.”
“We didn’t feel like we had to take a corner in the first round, but it was the highest-ranked player on our board at a position that we’d like to get some younger players here,” Roseman added. “We got some younger players last year. We like those younger players. We wanted to add some competition at the corner position and so we felt like based on those factors, but I think the most important thing is we didn’t jump the board. This guy was standing out on our board. He was the highest-ranked guy. It seems like a pretty easy pick, though the only reason that it was a hard pick was because there’s still a bunch of good players there that we liked that we would have been happy to select.”
The Eagles will continue their draft picks on Friday night in Detroit.
Photo: Getty Images
You can follow Larry Henry on Twitter (@lhenry019) and e-mail him at [email protected].
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