Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby Return to Practice
Jalen Mills is, officially speaking, physically unable to perform. Yet, there was the Eagles cornerback working on the team’s indoor practice field Wednesday afternoon with his teammates once again.
It appears that Mills will have some kind of role in Sunday’s NFC East matchup against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. First, though, he must be activated from the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, which is merely a formality at this point.
Ronald Darby may have a role as well, after he was listed as a limited participant in practice for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury in Week 3 against the Detroit Lions.
“I’m excited as hell,” said Mills following practice. “I feel energy from myself, I feel energy from the other guys.”
Mills added that, physically, he feels fine. His conditioning may be a bit lacking, though, and that could depend on how big of a role he plays in his first game since last Oct. 28, when he walked off the field at Wembley Stadium following an Eagles win over the Jacksonville Jaguars with a foot injury.
He hadn’t been back at practice to do anything substantial until Wednesday. His past year consisted of plenty of rehab work done off to the side and away from his teammates.
Mills said he has recently been running plenty of sprints, keeping his yardage up in order to keep his heart and lungs strong.
Football shape is another story, however.
“There’s no simulation for it,” said Mills. “You have to go out there and do it. You can run as many 110 sprints as you want, but at the end of the day, it’s different.
“I’m aiming (to play Sunday). As far as my conditioning goes, I feel I can. This point right now my mindset is I’m playing the whole game.”
That will of course, be up to the coaching staff, and head coach Doug Pederson has said they will likely take it slowly with Mills. Darby could be in the same situation.
Darby wasn’t exactly at the top of his game prior to the injury, and Mills, when he played long ago, wasn’t known as a lockdown corner, so look upon them as saviors for a secondary that is a big part of why the Eagles are ranked 29th in passing defense and have allowed 13 touchdown passes in six games probably wouldn’t be fair.
Still, these were the two cornerbacks who started during the Eagles 2017 Super Bowl run, though Darby played just nine regular season games that year due to injury.
When Darby and Mills start together, the Eagles are 13-8.
“The more guys that are high-caliber players that are playmakers, the more of those you get back on a team, the better we are,” said safety Malcolm Jenkins. “At the end of the day we still have to execute. It’s not like we put Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby out there and all of a sudden the things we have done to hurt ourselves are cured. We have to play a little bit more disciplined brand of football.”
