Ground Zero for the Jalen Mills Switch
The NFL is always about more than the moment.
Last season, on Nov. 17, the Eagles were coming off their bye week and facing a difficult part of the schedule with the reigning Super Bowl champions set to invade Lincoln Financial Field.
With the extra time to prepare for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz took notice of the lack of playmakers on the outside for the Pats. The DC decided to make a bit of a tweak, often taking Jalen Mills away from his duties at left cornerback to deal with what Brady depended on in what turned out to be his final season with New England, his running backs and tight ends.
The Eagles struggled offensively and weren’t able to get it done in a 17-10 setback, but Mills excelled in his expanded role.
“I had fun that game,” said Mills during a conference call earlier this week. “I was around the ball almost every play.”
A mental note was made by Schwartz and when the Eagles weren’t able to work things out contractually with Malcolm Jenkins this offseason, Schwartz had already made the decision on who he wanted to replace Jenkins, the three-time Pro Bowl selection who was arguably the most versatile defensive player in all of professional football.
For Schwartz, it came down to the guy who will step in front of the Eagles defensive coordinator and embrace any challenge like the one presented to him against Brady and Company.
Mills is the player being tasked with replacing Jenkins on the back end of the Philadelphia defense after four years of being the guy who wasn’t supposed to hold up outside the numbers but did, in fact, hold off so many with “better pedigrees.”
No one knows Mills’ game better than Schwartz and the Eagles were the only organization looking to move the LSU product back to the safety this season. Every other free-agency suitor for Mills planned on keeping him at CB where he quickly developed into a contributor after being a seventh-round pick in 2016, Schwartz’s first year on the job in Philadelphia.
In the classroom, a move to safety always made sense for Mills.
After all, that’s exactly what happened in Baton Rouge when Mills kicked inside for his final two seasons out of necessity. More so, from a trait standpoint, Mills is thought of as speed-deficient on the outside but plenty fast enough to handle things on the back end.
So maybe it just came down to need in the early stages of Mills’ career in Philadelphia. With Jenkins and fellow veteran Rodney McLeod around at safety and CBs like Ronald Darby, Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas not living up to expectations, the Eagles needed Mills outside.
With Jenkins, who also started his NFL career at CB before moving, now out of the picture and back in New Orleans things have changed.
“As far as the shoes I’m going to have to fill with the name Malcolm Jenkins, of course, it’s going to be a task,” Mills said. “There’s been a standard set there — you could go past Jenk to Brian Dawkins — a tone-setter at that position in the city of Philadelphia. I know for sure it’s going to be a standard I have to rise up to, but I’ll be ready for it.”
While Jenkins was considered the Eagles on-field leader in the defensive backfield, the next two in line were McLeod and Mills. Since his first day in Philadelphia, Mills had gravitated toward Jenkins.
“I had a long conversation via text with Malcolm after everything went down,” Mills said. “That was my big brother. It always has been since I first stepped on the field with the Eagles until our last game we played with Seattle.”
Schwartz, meanwhile, is big on trust, especially at safety where aging veterans like Corey Graham and Andrew Sendejo would often infuriate fans with declining skill sets but calmed the defensive coordinator with their football IQs and ability to always be in the right position.
Mills was the rare young player who quickly worked his way into Schwartz’s inner circle as evidenced by expanded roles at times.
When Ronald Darby was acquired from Buffalo in August of 2017 the former second-round pick was supposed to step in as the CB1 (typically the left corner because most quarterbacks are right-handed) and that was the case in the season opener against Washington when Darby went down with a dislocated ankle.
Mills, who had been at LC before Darby arrived, went back and never left as the Eagles went on to win Super Bowl LII.
The other bread crumbs of trust were littered throughout the years. Placed in the slot as a rookie to deal with route machine Cole Beasley or shadowing Odell Beckham, Jr. when he was still in New York before the Jenkins-like role against the Pats last season.
All of those moments equaled the kind of trust Schwartz covets.
“We feel like Jalen is a positionless player,” GM Howie Roseman said. “He can really play down in the box, he can cover a tight end, he can cover a slot receiver, he can play out wide, he's got range.
John McMullen covers the Eagles for SI.com. You can listen to John every day at 4 ET on ESPN 97.3 in South Jersey and reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
