Soon-to-Be Free Agent Rodney McLeod Reflects on Knee Injury

With an expiring contract and his future cloudy, The veteran safety indicated that either his knee or his play is still not at 100 percent after surgery last December

Rodney McLeod is making a late-season push to earn another contract, whether that’s with the Eagles or another team.

The Eagles safety seemed to indicate that the torn ACL suffered late last season and wasn’t operated on until Dec 29, 2020, is still not 100 percent, or at least his game is not 100 percent back to where it was prior to the Week 14 knee injury suffered against the New Orleans Saints.

After the last two weeks, though, he has to be close.

McLeod has interceptions in the last two games. One was a game-ender, the other a game-changer.

The game-ender, of course, came Sunday, when his end-zone interception of Taylor Heinicke with 24 seconds to play sealed the Eagles’ 20-16 win that was the launching pad into the postseason for the fourth time in five years.

It doesn’t get any better than a walk-off pick, unless it’s an interception to start the second half to jump-start a 34-10 win over the New York Giants a week earlier. Tied at 3-3 and New York getting the ball to start the second half, McLeod picked off Jake Fromm and returned the ball 24 yards to New York’s 21, setting up a Boston Scott TD run to go up 10-3.

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“I just admire his leadership,” said QB Jalen Hurts on Tuesday. “I admire everything he’s overcome and how he’s dealt with it. I know he kind of got it at the mud, as they say. He’s earned everything that he has, and I admire that, and I appreciate that about him.”

McLeod, who will turn 32 in June, has overcome two knee surgeries in the last four years.

His season ended after just three games with a torn ACL and MCL in 2018.

He was able to return fully healthy in 2019 and put together a strong season, with 76 tackles, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles. The Eagles gave him a two-year contract extension after that season with a $3 million signing bonus and $7.8M guaranteed.

But last year, he tore the other ACL.

After having been through knee rehab before, McLeod gave serious thought to his future.

“It crushed me, man,” McLeod said to his co-host of the Rodney McLeod Hour on iHart Radio’s Fox Sports the Gambler a couple of weeks before his surgery. “What is this going to entail for Rodney McLeod moving forward? Do I have the strength to keep pushing forward and to endure everything that I experienced two years ago when I first went through my ACL? All of those thoughts are going through your head and of course your career.

“You’re at age 30, where does that place you post-surgery and how are you going to be valued? What’s the narrative about you now? All these thoughts go through your head and you gotta just pour all of the emotions out. They have to come out.”

McLeod had wanted to return for Week 1 this season, but the knee wouldn’t allow it.

It wasn’t until Week 4 against the Chiefs that he made his season debut, playing 48 snaps (72 percent). His snaps have up and down, mostly up, from there.

He admits he still thinks about the knee and about those that helped pull him up in the darker moments of rehab.

“Honestly yeah man it’s still on my mind and I’m still trying to get myself back to the level of play where I was last year honestly,” said McLeod following Sunday’s win, “but it feels good to be able to come out these past two weeks and make huge plays for the team and I think it’s just credit to a lot of the hard work that I put in. I obviously didn’t do it myself a lot of people helped me get to this point, especially my family, my wife, my parents, siblings, friends.

“Everybody lifted me up in the time that I needed it the most so feels good to be able to do this for a lot of people that I care about.”

Rodney McLeod celebrates his walk-off interception vs. Washington in Week 17 / USA Today

One of those friends is teammate Anthony Harris, the fellow safety who overlapped with McLeod at the University of Virginia.

“Just looking at his journey, what he’s been able to do on the field, facing injury, coming back, battling this season, staying focused, and me just trying to be there the entire way to continue to encourage him, continue to just push him,” said Harris on Tuesday. “To see him have that (walk-off interception) moment and clinch a playoff spot was huge.”

McLeod was asked on Sunday how close he was to being back to his pre-injury form.

“I can’t put a number on it,” he said. “I just go back to work each and every week and try to get better. I’ve seen growth within myself throughout the course of this year from week to week. I’m just seeing the fruition of it. Look forward to another week and getting the leg stronger and get ready for Dallas.”

And beyond that, once however long the Eagles stay alive in the postseason, it’s up to the font office just how much longer he will remain in Philadelphia.

Or, perhaps, McLeod could choose retirement.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.