Bowen: Rookie corner Mills might start Monday

THE TOP of Jalen Mills' head still looks like a swath of avocado-lime shag carpeting from the '70s, but that's a bit of a disguise, for a precocious rookie who has impressed coaches and teammates.

So much so that if starting cornerback Leodis McKelvin misses Monday night's game in Chicago with a hamstring injury, as expected, the Eagles probably will put Mills on the outside in McKelvin's spot and leave veteran Ron Brooks in the nickel role, safety Malcolm Jenkins said Thursday.

The Bears like to move 6-3 Pro Bowl wide receiver Alshon Jeffery around the formation; surely they'll want to match him against the seventh-round rookie from LSU, who played a dozen snaps in the Eagles' opener, after McKelvin left the game.

"I think he's ready. He looks forward to the challenge," Jenkins said.

And, of course, he might have a little help.

"I'm sure we'll know where No. 17 is at, every snap," Jenkins said.

"Big receiver. Has great hands. Strong catcher. And runs good routes," Mills said, when asked about Jeffery, who caught four passes for 105 yards in the Bears' 23-14 season-opening loss to the stingy Houston Texans.

"When he does go up for the ball, you do have to attack him, and attack the ball at the same time," said Mills, who is listed at 6-foot, 196.

"Last game I think (quarterback Jay Cutler) just threw the ball up there, let him make a play," said the Eagles' other starting corner, Nolan Carroll, who is listed at 6-1, 205. "He's a big dude. When the ball's in the air, it's like playing basketball a little bit. It's one of those things, you've just gotta challenge him, play the ball in the air."

Carroll said he isn't too worried about having to nurse Mills through the game, if the rookie starts.

"He's one of the more ready corners I've been around, as a young guy . . . I don't think he's scared. He embraces the challenge. I don't have to tell him anything," Carroll said.

"He's confident. You can see that in his play, you can see that from his demeanor. There's not too much we have to tell him when he's out there."

"He's just gotta be stout. That's a physical receiver," Brooks said, when asked what advice he'd give Mills about Jeffery. "He's got a big catching radius. You just gotta make sure you fight him the whole play. 'Cause he's not gonna quit on ya.

"Some teams, they want to see what the rookie can do . . . He's a product of LSU, just like I am. He's been in the heat, in the fire. I don't think it'll be anything new or different to him. He's going to go out there and strap it up, like we do every week."

Mills said he expects the Bears to look for him.

"For sure. I feel like that's at any position in the NFL. A rookie, they want to see what you can do . . . That's just the nature of the game," he said. "I'm just going to play my technique."

Mills attracted notice right off the bat in training camp, then seemed to lag during much of the preseason, as he fought through a hamstring injury. But the trade last week of corner Eric Rowe, a second-round pick in 2015, underscored the impression Mills has made on coaches.

What's been hardest for him?

"The mental aspect of the game. You're going up against super-smart guys," Mills said. "Everybody here is physically talented, but it's the mental part. Where a guy, he may nudge you on a certain route to get a little open space, or if you're going in to tackle, and the running backs, they're running a lot lower, so you have to get a lot lower than you would in college."

Mills' brief appearance in the opener was notable for what happened with 3 minutes, 41 seconds left in the game. Browns quarterback Robert Griffin III scrambled toward the sideline. Mills warded off a blocker, then was face-to-face with Griffin. Basically, Griffin ran into Mills, who stood his ground and leaned into the contact. Griffin broke a bone in his left shoulder and will miss at least eight weeks.

Mills said he saw Griffin "at the last minute; it was just kind of a bang-bang play. He came up to me, we just contacted. It's never intentional to try to hurt somebody . . . I just hope everything's good for him in the healing process and he gets back on the field, because he is a good player."

Brooks, a fifth-year veteran who played for defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz in Buffalo two years ago, did not seem to begrudge Mills the starting job. He said he was fine with the nickel, where he got on the field for 73 percent of the snaps in the opener.

"It's not a backup role; it's just another corner," Brooks said. "I'm not too hung up on who's a starter, backing up, any of that."

In Schwartz's scheme, at least Sunday, Brooks seemed to function almost as a quasi-linebacker.

"Sometimes you end up in the linebacker box, certain situations - it's a little weird," Brooks said.

Will Mills start? When Doug Pederson called McKelvin "week-to-week" instead of "day-to-day" on Monday, along with tight end Zach Ertz (displaced first rib), it seemed extremely unlikely. Week-to-week is still the term Pederson is using, and it still seems to apply to Ertz, but there might be a little more hope with McKelvin.

"Fast guys have this injury. That's a fast-guy problem," McKelvin said, when asked whether he's ever had a hamstring strain before. (Every corner and every wide receiver has had a hamstring strain.) "Definitely not a tear, it's a strain. Day by day, see how it goes. Tested it a little bit today by running, not doing too much to try to aggravate it, as far as striding . . . It felt pretty good. We'll just see, day by day."

If McKelvin really might play this week, that would help explain why the Eagles haven't made a roster move, even though they have only three healthy corners. Or it could be that, since practice-squad corner C.J. Smith can practice with the team all week anyway, they want to wait until the end of the week, so whichever player gets released is unlikely to be signed by teams that don't want to disrupt their rosters at the last minute. Also, Jenkins is capable of playing corner, making it less of a crisis.

@LesBowen

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