He Wasn't Invited

Three quick things before we dive in:

1. A short story about an older gentleman at my gym

2. I just published a new YouTube video. Still working on improving my voiceovers. Drop a comment & let me know what else I should sharpen up for next time: He Cheated Death

3. Big thanks to long-time reader Joe V. for today’s story suggestion!

In today’s edition…

He didn’t learn his position until college.

He wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine.

He didn’t expect to get drafted.

Then he became the secret weapon no one saw coming.

Let’s dive in 👇

_{POWERED BY MOMENTOUS}

Creatine for a Sharper Mind and Stronger Body

Momentous Creatine powers focus, memory, resilience, and recovery while supporting strength and endurance. Trusted by experts and over 200 pro teams, it delivers pure Creapure®, NSF Certified for Sport® and free from fillers or artificial junk.

Head to livemomentous.com and use code HIVE for up to 35% off your first order.

Creatine for a Sharper Mind and Stronger Body

_{Your support for our sponsors keeps these stories coming every week} 🤝

From Draft Snub to Preseason Star: Meet the Eagles' New Secret Weapon

No time to read now? Click here to save it for later 🐶

Heisman Trophy winners aren’t easily impressed.

Especially those who’ve reached the pinnacle of football at the highest levels – winning two NCAA National Championships and a Super Bowl in less than a decade.

And yet, DeVonta Smith’s jaw was on the floor.

After watching his teammate dominate in a preseason matchup, the Eagles star pulled up YouTube and searched “Darius Cooper highlights”.

"He's a freak of nature," Smith said. "He's fun to watch."

Their journeys couldn’t be more opposite – one a highly touted first-round pick, the other an undrafted, overlooked player who wasn’t even invited to the NFL Combine.

But that’s the beauty of football.  Somehow, they both ended up in the same place.

Darius Cooper grew up in St. Louis, Missouri.  He went to Hazelwood West High School, on the outskirts of the city, where he played quarterback.

He was pretty good at it, too.

A two-time team captain under two head coaches, Darius was an All-Conference first-teamer and Co-Offensive Player of the Year.

Despite a senior season where he threw for 1,275 yards and ran for 870 more, he was a zero-star recruit.

In the end, he only received three college offers.

All were from Division II programs, except for Tarleton State, a school making the leap from D2 to Division I FCS.

When head coach Todd Whitten got a tip on Cooper’s film, he saw a raw athlete with the ability to make plays under pressure.  It’s something you can’t teach.

Even if he wasn’t college QB material, Whitten figured they’d “find something to do with him.”

After committing to Tarleton State, Darius made the 11-hour trip down to Stephenville, Texas – where, as The Athletic noted, the population (22,147) is smaller than the football stadium’s seating capacity (24,000).

It wasn’t long after Cooper arrived on campus that receivers coach Tate Whitten pulled him aside.

“I was trying to get ahead of the game before any of the other position groups tried to scoop him up. He was all for it.” Tate said.

Darius had been a quarterback his whole life, but adjusted to the new position quickly.

“You see the whole field as a quarterback,” he said. “So when I moved to receiver…it was kinda easy to gauge and see different coverages and see how people disguised things and see if they [were] in man or zone coverage…I think it even slowed the game down for me even more.”

Every day, he aimed to set an example for his teammates.

Before and after every practice, he got extra reps in catching balls from the Jugs machine.  Even when he landed an internship that ate into practice time, he still found ways to get his work in.

After only catching 6 passes in his first 16 college games, the work finally paid off in his third year.

In September of 2022, he had his breakout game on the national stage against TCU.  He torched the eventual title contenders with six catches, 117 yards, and a touchdown.

“That was kinda when we and everyone else knew that we had a really good player there,” head coach Todd Whitten said.

All of a sudden, big schools were calling about Cooper.  Coach Whitten said the number of offers was “well into the teens, maybe 20.”

In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, it would’ve been easy for Darius to leave Tarleton State behind.

A bigger program meant more attention.  If he decided to transfer, he could’ve gotten on the NFL’s radar a lot sooner.

“He could have gone off anywhere — anywhere,” Tate Whitten said.

But taking the easy way never came easily to Cooper.

He didn’t leave.  Instead, he stayed loyal to the program and coaching staff that believed in him from the beginning.

That loyalty allowed him to break into the record books.  He finished his career as the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards (3,185) and second in touchdowns (29).

In 2024, he was a first-team FCS All-American after leading the subdivision with 1,450 receiving yards.

He did all that while maintaining a 4.0 GPA, which earned him a spot on the 2024 Academic All-American Team.  He was just one of just 53 Division I athletes – not just football players, but all athletes – to receive the honor.

But it wasn’t until the NFL’s pre-draft process that he discovered the downside of staying at Tarleton State.

Scouts typically question how an FCS guy would look at the NFL level.  So it’s important to see how they stack up against players from blue-chip programs.

Darius didn’t get that chance.

He wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine, the Senior Bowl, or the East-West Shrine Bowl.

He did have a pro day, but his numbers didn’t stand out.

NFL.com graded him a 5.65 out of 8 as a “candidate for bottom of roster or practice squad”, citing weaknesses like “sloppy footwork” and “rarely scares cornerbacks.”

The 2025 NFL Draft came and went.  Cooper’s name was never called – he didn’t expect it to be.

“I wasn't disappointed at all," he told CBS Sports.

“God has a plan for everybody. God has a purpose. My plan wasn't to go to the draft, so I focused on training, my pro day. We thought we'd go maybe late seventh round, but [my] name didn't get called – and that's okay.”

Luckily, Howie Roseman called a short time later.

How’d the reigning champs find out about the star of the United Athletic Conference?

“We give our area scouts a chance to put their names on free agents and go get those guys, and our area guys did a great job,” Roseman told Yahoo Sports.

“(Southwest Area Scout) Cam (Bradfield) did an unbelievable job. I think (Director of Player Personnel) Phil (Bhaya) was a big part of that too.”

Making the team as an undrafted free agent – especially as an FCS guy – is an uphill battle.

And the NFL is a notoriously short-sighted league.  A star today could be gone tomorrow.

Since the first day of camp, Darius Cooper was practical.

He knew that nothing lasts forever.  His original temporary jersey number – 41 – was a reminder of that.

Plan A was to go crush it in training camp, perform in the preseason, and claw his way onto the Eagles’ final 53-man roster.

If that didn’t work out, Plan B was to go back to school for physical therapy – a career he plans to pursue regardless.

But whether his NFL career lasted a day or a decade, he wanted to make an impression.

On the night of the Eagles’ first preseason game against Cincinnati, he stood in front of reporters at his locker.  With a gleaming smile, he formally introduced himself:

“Darius Cooper. Graduated from Tarleton State University. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri. It’s just a blessing to be here.”

That moment set the tone for his entire preseason.

The same night, Darius recorded a team-leading six catches for 82 yards and a touchdown – all against the Bengals’ first or second-team defense.

In other words, real players who suit up on Sundays.

"I think he has a lot of good tools, catches the ball obviously really well," head coach Nick Sirianni said after the game.

“Those are some tough catches that he made today…He's continuing to get better, learning all the different spots that he needs to play. I think he's got an opportunity to do some good things. Obviously, you saw that out there today.”

It wasn’t just the coaches who were impressed.

A.J. Brown praised Cooper’s strong hands and body control.  DeVonta Smith marveled at his dominance in one-on-one matchups.

As beat writer Reuben Frank noted, he even beat Pro Bowl corner Denzel Ward for a touchdown in a joint practice.

Still, there were growing pains.

“Being at that school, sometimes in the offense he was in, there's some adjustments that we have,” Eagles receivers coach Aaron Moorehead said.

“He was never in a huddle. He never heard a play out of a huddle. So he's all of a sudden got to hear the play out of the huddle, and all of a sudden he's got to get to his spot. He's got to learn his assignment, his alignment, what adjustment we have on a certain play, and then he's got to go do it at a high level against an NFL corner.”

From training camp through the preseason, Darius did everything he was asked.

When it was all said and done, he survived every round of cuts and made the final 53-man roster.

The fact that he’s only played wide receiver for five years makes his accomplishment even more impressive.

“I feel like I’ve shown just a little something that I can do, just scratching the surface,” Darius told The Athletic.

“Coming to the league is a big difference from college, and I’m very detailed. So just keep learning things like that and we’ll see how far we go.”

Starting out, he’ll probably see most of his playing time at special teams.  But that doesn’t bother him.

“What can I do for the team? That’s what I want people to know about me,” he said.

“I’m not a selfish receiver or anything like that. I want to do whatever I need to do for us to win, so special teams is big for me. I love being a part of special teams. Whatever [position] you need me at, I’m gonna give my all…It’s about we, not me.”

As for the big picture: can he really make the jump to the NFL and stick with the defending Super Bowl champs?

“He always rises to the occasion,” Tate Whitten said. “When the lights are the brightest, the pressure’s on, it feels like everything’s raining down on top of you, he ain’t gonna flinch.”

“It doesn’t matter what’s coming at him, he’s going to hit it full speed.”

🐶 

Today’s story was written by yours truly.

If you enjoyed it, check out these related stories 👇

• This Zero-Star Recruit Spent 18 Months Working Minimum Wage Jobs on His Road to The NFL

• From D3 to Dynasty: How a Small School QB Whisperer Became a 3-Time Super Bowl Champ

Did you dig this one? Reply and let me know.

Now let’s go watch some football 🏈 

Til next time,
Tyler

Extra Innings…

🌟 Trivia Answer: C) 30,000 viewers tuned in for the debut of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). The first words spoken were: "If you're a fan, if you're a fan, what you'll see in the next minutes, hours, and days to follow may convince you you've gone to sports heaven."

👀 In case you missed it: How Blake Treinen went from rejected walk-on to 2-time World Series champ.

⚾️ Check out this unreal play from Bobby Witt Jr.

🏀 “Getting to the NBA is hard. Getting to the NBA from Bimini? I don’t know the exact odds, but it’s gotta be like 0.000001% chance.” Check out VJ Edgecombe’s essay for The Players’ Tribune.