Eagles Still Doing Safety Dance
Jalen Mills last played safety five years ago. In college.
Now, it looks like he could be the Eagles’ starter opposite Rodney McLeod. Mills will be fitted to fill the shoes of strong safety Malcom Jenkins, who the Eagles let leave town when the two sides could not agree to a satisfactory financial reward for what Jenkins did the previous six seasons with the team and what, even at 32, he could potentially do for them in the immediate future.
It may have been a shock to see Jenkins depart. It feels an even bigger shock to see the team re-signing Mills to a one-year, $4 million deal to switch from cornerback to safety. In the pros.
Some thought the Eagles should have tried to move Mills from corner to safety a couple years ago. Then he got hurt in London against the Jaguars in 2018 and missed the rest of that season and half of 2019. Perhaps more to the point as to why it didn’t happen, the Eagles were happy with his play as a cornerback and needed him to stay at that position.
The transition from corner may be seamless. It may not.
Jenkins began his career as an outside cornerback with the New Orleans Saints. He was average, so the Saints put him at safety. Jenkins never looked back.
Mills could be trending in a similar direction.
That’s not to say he will completely fit in Jenkins’ shoes. Jenkins footprint is huge, from the field to the locker room to the community. Mills can’t be expected to be Jenkins. All he needs to show is that he can be a safety. Again.
Free agency is far from over and two running backs were on the move Friday, so another shoe could easily drop in terms of adding another safety.
Even if Mills proves to handle the transition without much calamity, the team still needs to find a third safety.
On Friday, one possibility was picked up the Dallas Cowboys. Former Chicago safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix agreed to a one-year, $4 million contract with Dallas.
There are still some free agent safeties available that may interest the Eagles, however, such as Will Parks, Vonn Bell and, well, Tony Jefferson, who it would take more money to sign than probably either Bell, and definitely more than Parks.
The Eagles could be in the market for Parks, a former sixth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos. He is 25, has made 15 starts in four years, and, as a bonus, he’s from Philly. Parks can also play both safety positions.
Other potentially inexpensive options are Blake Countess, who has already had two quick stints with the Eagles, and Johnathan Cyprien, who played four games with the Eagles last year then was traded to Atlanta for linebacker Duke Riley.
Countess is still just 26; Cyprien 29.
The expectation here is they will not just sign someone on the cheap, but draft one early as well.
Second-round draft candidates include Lenoir-Rhyne’s Kyle Dugger, whose size and speed could make him either a strong or free safety. He is 6-1, 217 and ran a 4.49 at the Combine.
Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield, who may also be adept at either safety spot at 5-9, 203 and a 4.45 time in the 40, or Cal’s Ashtyn Davis, who is 6-1, 202 but considered raw, could be possible targets as well.
If the Eagles are thinking of a first-round safety, something that totally go against their philosophy, they could land the perceived cream of the crop, either Alabama’s Xavier McKinney or LSU’s Grant Delpit, assuming one of both are still there at pick No. 21.
Adding two more safeties, no matter how or who, would suit the defense run by coordinator Jim Schwartz, who likes occasionally deploys three safeties at once, probably more than most teams.
In the Super Bowl year of 2017, Corey Graham got 40 snaps as the third safety. In nine games last year before he was released, Andrew Senedjo played 37 percent of the snaps.
Marcus Epps and Rudy Ford are the only other two safeties on the roster and maybe one will be that third safety, though unlikely.
Epps, 24, played just 10 percent of the defensive snaps after the Eagles claimed him off waivers from the Vikings on Nov. 27. He’s the same size as Mills, with far less experience.
Ford, 25, is heavier than either Mills or Epps, at 205 pounds and standing 6-foot. Acquired from the Cardinals last August, he was placed on Injured Reserve with an abdomen injury with six weeks still left in the regular season. Ford had primarily only been used on special teams until the injury struck. H had played just two percent of the defensive snaps in 10 games.
It means the Eagles aren’t done adding safeties. Not by a long shot.
