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Eagles UDFA 'Has This Ability' That Helped Him Win Spot On 53-Man Roster

Originally posted on Philadelphia Eagles on SI
By Ed Kracz | Last updated Aug 26, 2025 10:07 PM ET

Howie Roseman saw Darius Cooper on cutdown day in a pair of shorts and T-shirt and marveled.

“You're looking at him and you're going, ‘this guy has so much developmental qualities for us and what a great kid,’” said the Eagles general manager. “Obviously, it starts now, we tell all these guys, there's no scholarships in the NFL, they got to keep earning it, but he's done everything up to this point to earn the opportunity.”

Yes, Cooper, who is a solid 5-11, 210 pounds, is one of the Eagles’ feel-good stories of summer. From undrafted free agent out of Tarleton State in Texas, to the 53-man roster.

Head coach Nick Sirianni is a former college receiver who logged some time as a receivers coach in the NFL before climbing the coaching ranks, so it stands to reason he knows a thing or two about players who play the position. He sees something in Cooper.

What Nick Sirianni Sees In Darius Cooper

“As far as his potential, one thing I think about him is he has this ability,” said the coach. “Not everybody has an ability to win one-on-one, and I think he's shown that through camp that he has tools in his body to be able to win. He's big, he's strong, he's quick.

“My take on receivers always is the best guys have good body quickness and good play strength, and he has those things. The other thing I think is he's tough.”

If Johnny Wilson was healthy, maybe Cooper isn’t on the 53-man roster, because Wilson was the Eagles’ “dirty work” receiver, the player who did the little things to get on the field, like run block.

It doesn’t matter how it happened, though. It happened. He knows his role, with Sirianni reiterating that the offense runs through A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, and Saquon Barkley in the pass game.

“Some guys have to come up a different way,” said Sirianni. “They have to come up with doing some of the dirty work. I think that this guy is a really strong football player who can do some of the dirty work stuff for us as far as our blocking, as far as special teams, as far as good speed to be able to clear things out.

“And really when you have a guy like that, there's opportunities for him as well in the pass game that mesh off of some of those things. I'm looking forward to watching him continue to develop.”

This article first appeared on Philadelphia Eagles on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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