PHILADELPHIA — Avonte Maddox has taken Quinyon Mitchell under his wing on the field. That relationship has branched outside the NovaCare Complex.
On Sunday morning, Maddox received a phone call from the Eagles rookie asking for help. This didn’t have anything to do with playing nickel.
His car ran out of gas going across the bridge,” the veteran cornerback said. “He called me. I stopped to pick him up. So it doesn’t matter. Whenever he needs me.”
Maddox and Mitchell weren’t late for practice either. He waited until Mitchell got a gallon of gas on the Walt Whitman Bridge before helping him fill his tank at the gas station.
“He said his car broke down,” Maddox said. “I said, ‘Broke down?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I just need gas, but it told me I had 50 miles to get here.’
“And I’m like, ‘Ah, man, come on.’ I got him some gas. So we’re good.”
Maddox has been a mentor for Mitchell throughout this training camp, taking the rookie under his wing as he learns how to play slot cornerback. The job has belonged to Maddox for several years, but he wants to pay it forward.
“It’s all part of competition,” Maddox said. “I love to compete, but I’m here to help these guys get better, grow. And if they’re here to take my job, I’m all for it. I’m here to compete for it.
“Me and him can compete at it, but at the end of the day, if he has a question, I would never turn my back. I would never not tell him the right answer. Any time he needs extra work. Any time he would need to know an answer to anything, I would help him.”
As Mitchell is getting first-team reps in the slot, Maddox has been going back to a position he’s been cross-training at over the course of his tenure with the Eagles. Maddox is back at safety, getting first-team reps while C.J. Gardner-Johnson nurses a shoulder injury.
“It’s been getting better every day,” Maddox said. “I’ve been working a lot at the safety spot. It’s been valuable for me because I need the reps, seeing it a little bit different. But it’s making sure I get the fundamentals and the footwork down.
“I know all the calls. I know where I’m supposed to be at the moment, and I know where all my teammates are supposed to be.”
Maddox had to fight for a roster spot coming into camp, but the Eagles seem to have a place for him on the roster whether that’s in the slot or at safety. At the very worst, Maddox provides valuable depth in the secondary — which the Eagles haven’t had in years.
Even though Maddox is still battling for his place on the roster, he wants to make sure Mitchell is in good hands.
“He’s definitely doing a great job,” Mitchell said of Maddox. “He’s smart. He knows football. I just give him the concepts of what I’m looking at, seeing here and there, how they’re lining up, what would I do in this situation or that situation.
“He asks (questions) every day. That’s encouraging to see because when you got questions, that means you care, you want to learn, you want to be out there.
“It’s never a battle between us in that way. On the field, it’s all about competition and me helping him get better because at some point, I’ll be done with football, and he’ll still be going, and I want him to be the best he can be.”
