Eagles rookie CB Quinyon Mitchell shuts down Terry McLaurin as he’s earning a new reputation around the NFL

PHILADELPHIA — If there’s a test for Quinyon Mitchell throughout the NFL season, opposing quarterbacks don’t want him to take the exam. Thursday’s showdown against the Washington Commanders was a prime example.

Mitchell played 39 coverage snaps. He was targeted just once. 

The play occurred with 4:21 left in the second quarter, a Jayden Daniels pass to Austin Ekeler. The Commanders were in no-huddle and Daniels was in shotgun on a crossing route. The pass was incomplete, the only time Washington even thought of testing Mitchell as the primary defender. 

Mitchell’s assignment was Terry McLaurin. The Commanders didn’t even throw Mitchell’s way when he was covering McLaurin, who was targeted just twice on the night. 

“I feel like we did, defensively, we did a good job with him and their offense just limiting explosives,” the soft-spoken Mitchell said. “I feel like we had great preparation and went out and executed.”

The Eagles defense shut down Daniels and his targeting of wide receivers throughout the night. Daniels attempted 32 passes, 11 of which were to wide receivers. Daniels went 4 of 11 for 28 yards with an interception, finishing with a 7.1 passer rating.

“It’s just good team defense,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “A lot of credit to Q [Mitchell] and [Darius] Slay and the underneath coverage that was helping them go other places with the football. Good team defense takes being on the same page, playing with great effort to the football, which I saw a lot in this game, and then just tackling well.”

There was no secret the Eagles looked to contain McLaurin and show down the Commanders passing attack. Commanders wide receivers had four catches for 28 yards. Ekeler accounted for 89 of Daniels’ 191 passing yards Thursday night, an outlandish 46.6%. 

“I feel like they had a little plan of, ‘Hey, let’s limit Terry’ and stuff like that,” Daniels said. “So, we’ve got to go back and watch the film and figure out ways how I could get Terry the ball, how we could get Terry the ball. 

“Because he’s an explosive player, what he’s done in this league and his resume. So, we want to give our best players the ball as much as possible. So, we’ll figure out ways to move down the road and do that.” 

Mitchell credited his preparation for shutting down McLaurin, but knows his play his far from a finished product. It was nearly flawless Thursday. 

“He’s a great receiver,” Mitchell said. “I felt like I got some good reps in there, but there are some things I’d like to clean up, too. Just continue to get better.”