Darius Cooper was the training camp darling.
“That’s what they call it?” Cooper asked with a smile Thursday, four months after he dazzled as an undrafted Eagles free agent during practices and preseason games.
The wide receiver out of FCS Tarleton State benefited from a few injuries during camp, but he forced his way onto the 53-man roster with his work ethic and all-around game. A converted high school quarterback, Cooper was second in all of Division I (FBS included) last season in receiving yards with 1,450 on a school-record 76 catches. He also holds Tarleton State’s career receiving yards record.
He was, in simplest terms, the man. But life in the NFL, on a team with one of the best wide receiver tandems in the sport, sometimes means taking a back seat.
“I kind of think about it like my transition from high school to college,” Cooper said. “The first couple of years, I was a big special teams guy. Then, boom, you get your opportunity. It’s kind of the same mindset. I’ve been here before.”
Cooper has played 158 offensive snaps so far during his rookie season, and 138 of those were after Week 7. His role has increased as the season has progressed, but he has been targeted just six times and has six catches for 59 yards.
Life behind A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Jahan Dotson means a lesser role than Cooper has been used to in his team’s offensive game planning. Cooper’s best play this season isn’t a catch, it is a block from Week 14. The Eagles lined up in the Tush Push formation and instead ran a toss to Saquon Barkley to the left side of the alignment. Cooper worked his way into the second level and got a body on Los Angeles Chargers safety R.J. Mickens. The broadcast camera picked up the sound of the hit.
“That was a big one,” Cooper said. “I think that was the most I got excited on the field for sure.”
Sunday offers an opportunity for Cooper to get excited about plays on which the ball is in his hands. It certainly will come his way more than it has in a game this season. He may match or exceed his season-long targets in Sunday’s game alone. The Eagles are resting regulars for their season finale vs. Washington, and Cooper likely will start on the other side of Dotson with Tanner McKee doing the quarterbacking.
Cooper’s rookie season has been a whirlwind. The 24-year-old found out he made the team on cutdown day in a meeting with Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman. He left that meeting and called his wife, Kennady, a relationship that began when they attended Missouri’s Hazelwood West High School. Their professional lives would start in a big NFL market, thanks to his performance at camp.
Cooper changed his number from No. 41 to No. 80, a more reasonable number for a receiver, not one handed to a player near the bottom of the 90-man camp roster. Then he got to work on his development. He learned tips and tricks from Brown, Smith, and Dotson, “so many small things you don’t even think about that I never got taught,” Cooper said.
“He’s another guy that works really hard, and I think that’s a product of the guys that he’s around,” Sirianni said. “He works hard because he has that in him, and that’s the standard of our guys. He continues to get better because you got no choice when you work that way, when you love football, when you’re tough, like all of those things that Darius is.”
Cooper is like most backups in that he tries to prepare every week like he’s going to have a big role because anything can happen. This week, then, was about sticking to that process, even though he knew his role was going to be bigger from the outset of the practice week.
“If you change your mindset and change your preparation, you’re making it bigger than what it is,” Cooper said. “At that point, I feel like you’re not just out there free and playing. You’re kind of overthinking it. You don’t ever want to overthink, especially in this game. You just want to fly around and have fun and make plays.”
But Cooper is cognizant of the fact that he’s still a rookie making first impressions and trying to put good film out there. He won training camp in 2025, but 2026 is another year.
“When your number is called, you got to step up to the plate,” Cooper said. “This week is a very big week, but you can’t overthink it. You just got to have fun. It’s still a game, at the end of the day.”
Injury report
The Eagles ruled out Jalen Carter (hip), Nakobe Dean (hamstring), Marcus Epps (concussion), Dallas Goedert (knee), Lane Johnson (foot), and Jaelan Phillips (ankle) for Sunday’s game vs. Washington. Most of them were not expected to play anyway.
Carter’s hip injury is new this week. He said it happened during the game vs. the Buffalo Bills, but it’s not something to worry about keeping him out of next week’s playoff opener.
Washington will start Josh Johnson at quarterback after ruling out Marcus Mariota (hand/quad). Star left tackle Laremy Tunsil (oblique) is out, too.
