Jalen Mills has Brought Back Swagger, Perspective and Experience

Return of cornerback has provided Eagles with a lift, but the Tom Brady and Russell Wilson challenges await

Jalen Mills boarded a flight for the Turks and Cacios Islands last Monday.

The past three weeks have been taxing, both mentally and physically for the fourth-year Eagles cornerback, and the bye week was the perfect time to refresh. It had been nearly a full year since he had played a live game of football, with weeks that spilled into months of rehab for a broken foot suffered in London last October.

“I ain’t played in a year, now we’re talking about what, playing three games off of nine days of practice, you know what I’m saying? “ said Mills after the Eagles beat the Bears last Sunday, 22-14. “I’m tired for sure. Just tried to give it all I had these past three weeks. I’m going to relax and chill for sure. I have to go get some sun. It’s going to get cold around here real quick.”

There is no denying the Eagles’ secondary has played better during the two-game winning streak they carried into the break. 

Mills and cornerback Ronald Darby, who played his second straight game last week after missing a month with a hamstring injury, ran their record to 15-4 when they start together on opposite corners.

“I know with me and Darb, we feed off each other, whether it’s in practice or whether it’s in a game,” said Mills. “I know our two safeties trust us on the outside and that frees them up to do some different things. We had a really good game (against the Bears), but we just have to keep building off of it.”

Maybe the improvement in the overall play of the secondary is a product of the quarterbacks they played the past two weeks the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen and Chicago’s Mitch Trubisky, but the next two games will go a long way toward determining whether or not the improvement will continue or not, because the Eagles will host the New England Patriots next week (4:25 p.m.) and the Seattle Seahawks the following Sunday (8:20 p.m.).

It goes without saying who quarterbacks those two teams.

“We are getting there,” said Mills. “We are definitely warming up. This is three games going in with my group. Coming off of this bye, everyone is going to rest their mind and rest their body and we are going to come back and play the Patriots at top level.”

There is no question the Eagles missed the swagger Mills to the cornerback spot and his ability to put a bad play quickly behind him rather than letting it bother him to the point where his confidence might begin to wane.

Now, Mills said his year away while rehabbing has given him a different outlook on the game.

“It kind of gives you that coach perspective,” said Mills. “Now I’m used to, instead of just going in there and playing, hearing a call, I may see a certain formation or the (opposing) offense may be in a certain personnel and I sort of already know what (defensive coordinator Jim) Schwartz is going to call, or I’ll know how an offense is going to attack us in a certain situation. It definitely gives you a different perspective.”

“I do feel like I’m a better player. Even being in this system for four years, that helps, too. You have guys who are new system every year with coaching changes, but I think it’s a really good thing Schwartz has been here all four years.”

These final seven games could go a long way to deciding whether or not the Eagles will want to give Mills and/or Darby another contract. Both are free agents at the end of the season.

“I would love to retire in Philadelphia,” said Mills. “I love this city, I love the team and we have great things going on here.”

NOTE: The Eagles signed safety Marcus Epps off waivers from the Minnesota Vikings. Epps, who was drafted last spring by Minnesota in the sixth round out of Wyoming, was released after the Vikings claimed Andrew Sendejo, who had been released by the Eagles on Tuesday. In essence then, the Eagles traded Sendejo for Epps and a compensatory draft pick in 2020, which is expected to be a fourth-round selection.