An in depth and complete scouting report and draft prospect profile of Iowa Defensive Back Cooper DeJean for the NFL Draft.

Prospect: Cooper DeJean

School: Iowa

Age: 20 (21 on Draft Day)

Cooper DeJean Measurables:

• Height: 6’0.5” (NFL Combine)
• Weight: 203 (NFL Combine)
• Other Notes:
  • Did not participate in Combine as he is coming off a fractured fibula, he will do his own workout for teams Pre-Draft

Film Watched: 2022: Ohio State; 2023: Penn State, Iowa State, Wisconsin

Prospect Grade: Scheme Dependent 62% with upside

Projected Draft Day: Round 2*

Player Comparison: Ceiling: Trent McDuffie; Floor: Kelee Ringo

Cooper DeJean Summary:

The Positives

• Positional versatility
• Don’t worry about him getting beat in any deep zone coverage
• Plays hands on during the route
• Tackling decent-ish
• Recovery speed can bail out lacking footwork
• Special teams value
  • Kick coverage and return man
• In Cover 2 or any zone coverage where he is in a low-mid zone he is good at reading concepts making plays
• Iowa decided to play what felt like heavy, or at least heavier, man against Wisconsin. His ability to press, play aggressively, and be a man corner looked better in a small sample size than most the rest of the tape. 

The Negatives

• Plays WAYYYY off for the most part
  • Plays pretty conservative. You can see in small tendencies that he has that he’s afraid to get beat over the top
• Does not provide much of anything in run support
• Even when he was close to the line his first step was back
  • Holds true in most games except for Wisconsin
• Tackles WRs pretty well when he has to, but struggles to bring down backs alone
• Gets grabby at the top of routes at times
  • Seems like it’s because he doesn’t have the ability to break with receivers at the top of routes 
• Footwork is too inconsistent
  • Sometimes flashes the ability to break on and with routes nicely and other times it’s bad
    • His inability to break quick at times stems from him opening his hips too early and too much
• Concerns about his comfort level in a back pedal
• His tackling worries us a little bit
  • Passive tackler, not an aggressive finisher

Side Notes:

• DeJean is probably a CB at the next level, but it’s extremely hard to tell. He’s a good coverage DB, so he could transition to safety, but we don’t think he’s filling the alley, and we can assure you if he ends up in the open field 1 vs 1 with a running back as the deep safety… that RB is scoring . 
• The Iowa State game and Penn State games look much different. 

Cooper DeJean is an extremely overhyped prospect. It truly feels like he’s going to be a scheme dependent player, but what scheme we really don’t know. DeJean offers positional versatility, but in a way that we don’t truly know what position he’s going to end up at. A big positive is that you don’t have to worry about him getting beat deep. Unfortunately the negatives outweigh the positives. 

Updated 3/19/24: Upon our rescout of Cooper DeJean, we actually really like DeJean as a prospect. When he is a deep zone player, the statement stands, you don’t have to worry about him getting beat deep. When we say DeJean bails, he turns and runs faster than prisoners during a jailbreak. The first time we watched his film it was watching him turn and bail time again and again. In the rescout, thankfully we decided to turn on the Wisconsin tape because it is night and day. Cooper DeJean, similar to fellow 2024 CB Quinyon Mitchell, is a prospect who’s true talent is horribly hidden behind a scheme that doesn’t let him play ball. The similarities between Mitchell and DeJean are actually quite freaky, and honestly could be compared to one another, although DeJean is probably a tad more ready to play Day 1.

One of the things we noticed this time around that we felt we kind of ignored the first time around was that very rarely if ever do you see DeJean back pedal. We believe one of the primary reasons why it looks like he bails immediately is because he may not be comfortable in a pedal.

When DeJean gets to play the low-mid zones and man coverage, he looks much more comfortable with his ability. Granted Wisconsin didn’t really have an “alpha” receiver, DeJean’s flashes of ability to excel in a different scheme is promising. Just keep in mind that just because we have a starter grade on DeJean doesn’t mean he’s not a bit of a developmental project. If he starts as a role player and special teamer we wouldn’t be surprised, but should win a spot by the end of rookie season. 

Updated 3/19/24:

• Combine numbers and notes added to measurable portion of profile
• Grade switched from “47%” to “Scheme Dependent 62% with upside”
• Projection switched from “Day 2/3” to “Round 2*”
• Comp switched from “Kelee Ringo” to “Ceiling: Trent McDuffie; Floor: Kelee Ringo”
  • *DeJean is coming off a fractured fibula. Injury will drop him a tad for now; however, he is expected to workout for teams in April before the draft. Projection will be re-evaluated post April workout
• Positives Added
  • Recovery speed can bail out lacking footwork
  • Special teams value
    • Kick coverage and return man
  • In Cover 2 or any zone coverage where he is in a low-mid zone he is good at reading concepts making plays
  • Iowa decided to play what felt like heavy, or at least heavier, man against Wisconsin. His ability to press, play aggressively, and be a man corner looked better in a small sample size than most the rest of the tape. 
• Negatives Added
  • Footwork is too inconsistent
    • Sometimes flashes the ability to break on and with routes nicely and other times it’s bad
      • His inability to break quick at times stems from him opening his hips too early and too much
  • Concerns about his comfort level in a back pedal
  • His tackling worries us a little bit
    • Passive tackler, not an aggressive finisher