As Darius Cooper made his way to a meeting with Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman ahead of Tuesday's 4 PM roster cutdown deadline, he said his heart wasn't racing.
An undrafted wide receiver out of FCS program Tarleton State, Cooper enjoyed a strong offseason in Philadelphia and was soon going to find out if he made the Eagles' initial 53-man roster. But the moment wasn't getting the best of him.
"I had peace about it," he said on Wednesday.
After answering a couple of questions from the Executive Vice President/General Manager and head coach, they told Cooper he made the cut. He spent months climbing the depth chart in hot practices at the NovaCare Complex and became the only undrafted free agent to make the Eagles' 53-man roster.
"They called me up and (we) had a great conversation," Cooper said. "I was very happy, very excited, very grateful to have this opportunity to play for this organization."
As a zero-star recruit, Cooper got to Tarleton State and played sparingly over his first two seasons. Then in 2022, he exploded for 1,063 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in 11 games.
From there came the question of whether he should transfer to a bigger program. He took some time, prayed about it, and decided to stay. He had 622 yards in seven games the following season and then led all of college football wide receivers with 1,450 yards in 2024.
Despite the gaudy numbers, Cooper didn't hear his name called in the draft. He earned his spot on the 53-man roster every day during the offseason, including an 82-yard, one-touchdown preseason debut, and while it's a great success making the roster, he knows that isn't the end goal.
"(It's) definitely the start of the journey," he said. "I know God has something big planned for me, for my family, for this organization, and I'm just excited to ride along."
Cooper now joins one of the best wide receiver rooms in the NFL as he tries to carve out a role. He'll get to work every day with his "favorite wide receiver in the league," A.J. Brown, along with DeVonta Smith, Jahan Dotson, and John Metchie III.
There's a stark difference to how the rest of the wide receiver room got into the league as everyone besides Cooper was drafted in the first two rounds, but they're all in the same spot at the moment.
Now that he's on the roster, Cooper is focused on earning a role on gamedays. In this Eagles offense, that could mean blocking or contributing on special teams, and Sirianni sees those traits in the rookie.
"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," Sirianni said. "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."
It has been an exciting day and a half for Cooper and his family, and he has taken some time to reflect, but he knows this is just the start. There's more work to be done.
"Definitely grateful," he said. "Definitely appreciate the journey. But we're going to keep moving forward."
— Written by Matt Ryan
