Why Eagles aren't surprised Quinyon Mitchell is becoming one of NFL's best CBs

Why Eagles aren't surprised Quinyon Mitchell is becoming one of NFL's best CBs originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Ask Quinyon Mitchell's teammates about his hot start to the 2025 season and you'll hear the same answer over and over again.

They're not surprised. Why would they be?

It's been a lot of fun to watch him do his thing," fellow cornerback Cooper DeJean said. I don't think it comes as a surprise to anybody in this building the way he's been able to do it this season."

Through four games, the Eagles' second-year star cornerback is playing at an All-Pro level. Mitchell doesn't have an interception yet this season but he has been extraordinarily sticky in coverage and has been traveling with some of the top receivers in the NFL. After his lockdown performance on Bucs first-round pick Emeka Egbuka, Mitchell was named the NFC's Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career.

And this is just the beginning.

I thought he played very well the other day," defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. I told him I think it was his best game since he's been here."

With the Broncos and Patrick Surtain II coming to town, we might be watching the two best cornerbacks in the world on Sunday afternoon. If Mitchell isn't there quite yet, he's not far behind.

And the reason Mitchell's teammates and coaches aren't surprised is because they have seen all the work that goes into it.

I think that he just understands that there's nothing too small and you can't skip steps," Eagles defensive backs coach Christian Parker said. I think that when you play as much as he did last year for a team that had as much success as we did as a whole team, and you have the examples that he has in the building, you're not going to skip those steps in terms of what it takes to continue to improve."

All that work, Parker explained, is what has gotten Mitchell this far: From gray-shirting early in his college career, to becoming a star at Toledo, to getting drafted in the NFL, to earning a starting spot as a rookie.

Mitchell's teammates see him taking the extra steps between practice periods, in the film room and in the weight room. And all that work is paying off.

I'm not surprised by anything," safety Sydney Brown said. I'm just excited for him. I'm excited to see him do it week in and week out."

The art of traveling

The Eagles are asking a lot of Mitchell in Year 2.

Not only are they relying on him to be a shutdown cornerback, but they're relying on him to travel from side to side to match up with some of the best receivers in the NFL.

The expectation is that he shuts them down.

It's amazing because he does it at a high level," practice squad corner Ambry Thomas said. This is a base-man defense, honestly, and he's following those No. 1 receivers and he's wiping them out. He's eliminating them from the game. Everyone knows that's a tough job in this league and he's just done it at such a high level."

After Mitchell lined up exclusively on the right side last season, the Eagles began to prepare him to travel during training camp by flipping him from side to side and asking him to stick with A.J. Brown. On those days he was covering Brown, Mitchell tried to treat practice like a game.

And when the possibility of traveling was first brought up in the summer, Mitchell was excited about it.

Yes sir, I would love to take on that challenge," Mitchell said in late July. But whatever they ask of me, I'm going to do it.

There's a lot that goes into traveling and it starts with realizing that each play has to live on its own as Mitchell flips from side to side. Parker admitted that the badge of honor that comes with being a traveling corner is real" but he also fought back against those who talk down on corners who don't travel in systems that aren't conducive with it.

The Eagles happen to run a system where traveling is on the menu. And Mitchell has been great at it already.

You have to really live in each play, wipe it clean, get your breath, stand in the middle of the field and go do it again," Parker said.

Mitchell has a quiet confidence that sometimes becomes louder on the field when he trash talks. Some of his confidence stems from his play but some of it has always been inside him.

That has been apparent from Day 1 in Philly.

He goes out there and he's fearless," Parker said. He wants to compete against the best anytime he can. He knows he put in the work to earn the right to do that. When you have that, you can pretty much be unshakable. But I think a lot of credit goes to him in terms of who he is as a person to handle whatever comes with that."

In the last two weeks, he has been tasked with matching up against Davante Adams and Egbuka, and Mitchell had two of the best games of his young career. So far this season, Mitchell has allowed just 12 catches for 129 yards on 27 targets, per NFL NextGen Stats.

His opposing catch percentage of 44.4% is second in the NFL among CBs who have seen at least 20 targets and his average separation per target of 1.6 yards is also second among the same qualified corners.

He's grown a lot," DeJean said. A lot more confident as you guys can probably see. Talking a little more trash, which is fun. He's done a great job. I think Year 1, he had that experience of starting all season and he's only in Year 2 and he's got some of his best football ahead of him and he's playing at a high level already. I know he'll continue to do that."

Earning his PhD

During Mitchell's rookie season, Parker seemed impressed by the amount of graduate level" questions he was getting from the rookie.

Mitchell is even more advanced in Year 2.

He's kind of on his way to getting his PhD," Parker said. It's probably going to take another year or two. We don't have any PhD students in the room yet. We've got a lot of guys in grad school that are working for different certificates and stuff like that."

Parker explained that this advanced level he's seeing from Mitchell is about what the cornerback is seeing for himself on film and on the field. But it's also about being able to filter that information.

Sometimes, Parker said, there can be information overload. The advanced part of all this is understanding what is useful and what is not. For example, watching an offensive lineman's stance might be tempting to decipher run vs. pass but that stance can lie. What if it's an RPO and you start running downhill to stop a run? Then you're in a bad position.

Part of the advancement of knowing more is knowing what you don't need to worry about as you're watching film," Parker said.

There are so many little details that go into playing the cornerback position in the NFL and there are plenty of them that the common fan might never think about.

A big topic of conversation coming out of the Bucs game was about the amount of non-calls Mitchell might have gotten away with. And, sure, he was a bit handsy. But part of being a professional cornerback is finding that line.

Here's Emeka Egbuka on facing grabby DBs like the Eagles last week - he says if it isn't called, it's not a flag." pic.twitter.com/8UQsbFNJ6q

- River Wells (@riverhwells) October 1, 2025

From the DBs perspective, there's a lot of work and thought that goes into it.

That's the drills we do, that is watching film, of course. That is watching film around the league," Parker said. Him and some of the guys, we watch around the league film twice a week. Beginning of the week and the end. So the penalties that got called, OK why was this a penalty? Well, he did this. Well, this looked like a penalty but his eyes were up so he didn't get called for it. What is the offense doing? Is this OPI, is it not?' All the things. It's a wide variety.

As many teaching examples and learning examples that we can provide them to play cleaner and to avoid those mistakes that we want to try to provide during the week."

Becoming the best

There's no doubt that Surtain is considered the best cornerback in the NFL. The 2021 first-round pick out of Alabama is in his fifth season with the Broncos and is already a three-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro and was the league's Defensive Player of the Year in 2024.

Surtain is a fan of Mitchell's game.

I do watch a lot of film on the young corners," Surtain said to reporters in Denver this week. That's kind of crazy to say right now because I still feel young.I think he's a great corner. He has it all. He possesses the skills (and) traits that you look for in a corner. He's very feisty. He has great feet, great fundamentals. I think he's going to be a great corner for years to come."

DeVonta Smith was teammates with Surtain at Alabama and has talked before about those epic matchups in practice. This week, Smith said he sees some similarities between Surtain and Mitchell.

It's been fun," Smith said. I would think the competitiveness is the thing that's similar about them. They're both very competitive. They both just want to get better. Q puts himself in the position that he's going to be in the game throughout practice and things like that and I think that's why he's having the success that he's having now."

While Surtain was excellent as a rookie, he was an All-Pro in Year 2. And it seems like Mitchell could be on the same trajectory.

In fact, Surtain's position coach for the first three years of his career was Parker, who came to Philadelphia to reunite with Vic Fangio last season. Parker's experience developing Surtain is definitely playing a role in the development of Mitchell, although Parker found a different rhythm with Mitchell and DeJean last season.

Parker explained that there are two types of teach tape" he shows his players. One is about scheme, sometimes how they play against a particular route. The other is about technique, whether it's footwork or leverage or finishing at the football.

It's probably safe to assume Surtain shows up on that teach tape quite a bit. But just 24 games into his NFL career, Mitchell is starting to show up on there too, which is just another badge of honor.

He has a couple clips," Parker said with a smile. He has a couple clips."

And Mitchell is just getting started.