Eagles Lose Two Free Agent Safeties, One a Starter on Super Bowl Team

Jalen Mills, who spent five years with the Eagles as a 7th round draft pick, is headed to New England, Rudy Ford to Jacksonville

Jalen Mills will need a new hairstyle.

No longer will the longtime Eagles defensive back dye it green after agreeing to a four-year, $24 million contract with the New England Patriots on Monday.

Only last month, Mills told CBS Sports HQ that he wanted to return to Philadelphia.

“When you got fans that passionate, why not want to play here,” said Mills. “I'm the Green Goblin. I love it in Philadelphia. I won a Super Bowl with them."

The Eagles secondary took another hit on Monday when Rudy Ford agreed to a two-year, $4.2M deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ford was a standout special teams player for former ST coordinator Dave Fipp, playing 17 games with the Eagles over two seasons.

Mills was a favorite of former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, but the changeover to a new coaching staff could have hindered the possibility of Mills returning.

There was a segment of the Eagles fan base that will be happy with the Mills news, believing that he got beat too often, didn’t have enough speed to stay with a receiver on deep routes, and bit too often on a double move, but Mills was a valuable contributor to the team since being drafted in the seventh round back in 2016.

He was a starter on the Super Bowl team in 2017 and added value when he returned last year on a one-year deal to play safety.

Due to injury, Mills bounced back and forth between safety and corner in 2020 and he finished the year second on the team in tackles with 105 despite missing the season finale due to be placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

READ MORE: Eagles Should Make Re-Signing Jalen Mills a Priority - Sports ...

The free agency period doesn’t technically begin until the NFL’s new league year does at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, so nothing can be officially announced until then unless a team re-signs its own free agent.

A so-called legal tampering window began at noon on Monday, and many free agents have agreed to deals already.

The Patriots have been the busiest so far. Usually not much of a player in previous years, New England missed the playoffs in his first year with quarterback Tom Brady and is intent on not letting that happen again.

In addition to Mills, the Patriots have agreed to deals with nose tackle Davon Godchaux (two years, $16M), outside linebacker Matthew Judon (four years, $56M), and tight Jonnu Smith (four years, $50).

In the evening, the Patriots inked receivers Kendrick Bourne and Nelson Agholor, perhaps forgetting the old axiom that March's free agency winners rarely become February's Super Bowl winners.

Before free agency began, New England re-signed free-agent-to-be QB Cam Newton.

Meanwhile, the Eagles are stuck on the sidelines still trying to finesse their way under the $182.5M salary cap by restructuring a boatload of veteran contracts.

A big step toward doing that took place earlier on Monday when Brandon Graham agreed to restructure his contract, adding another year to keep him through the 2022 season at which time he will be 34.

READ MORE: Eagles Extend Brandon Graham, Gain Cap Relief - Sports ...

Quarterback Jacoby Brissett and safety John Jonson are a couple of names that the Eagles have reportedly shown interest in, but Philadelphia won’t be the only team in on those names and there are plenty of other teams that have more money to spend.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.