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Eagles' defensive backs have 'a long way to go' | Les Bowen

DB coach Cory Undlin is hopeful Eagles can cut down on abundance of opponents’ TD passes this season

OF THE POSITION coaches the Eagles made available for interviews Monday, Cory Undlin might have been the most wary about declaring definite improvement over last season.

Undlin is embarking upon his third season in charge of the defensive backs. He's seen fire and he's seen rain. He has worked for defensive coordinators Bill Davis and Jim Schwartz, has lived through Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond and E.J. Biggers and Nolan Carroll and Leodis McKelvin, not to mention the organization's 180 on Eric Rowe, a casualty of regime change from Davis to Schwartz. Undlin has thrown Jalen Mills into the fray as a seventh-round rookie, seen Mills emerge a bit scuffed but with his confidence intact.

And that's all just in two years with the cornerbacks.

At safety, the Ed Reynolds days are safely behind us now, the starters seem set with Rodney McLeod and Malcolm Jenkins, Jenkins able to man the slot if needed.

But while the Eagles seem to think they've upgraded substantially this offseason at wide receiver, running back and edge rusher, Undlin's group is very much a work in progress.

"We have a long way to go, obviously," Undlin said.

Asked when he will know whether his unit is better than last year, when the Eagles allowed 19 touchdown passes in their final 10 games, losing seven of those, Undlin said: "When we start playing the games and it is (better)."

Undlin said he likes the young talent he thinks he has. But in the defensive backfield, young talent is the sort of talent that gets coaches fired. Young talent bites on double moves, blows coverages, takes the wrong angle.

"Zero. None," Undlin said, when asked whether there is any substitute for playing games, for defensive backs. He said you work and teach all you can, and "you hope by the time they get to games, that gap between (practice and games) has somewhat shrunk."

The biggest talent the Eagles bestowed upon Undlin this offseason is a guy he hasn't seen on the field yet, won't see practice before September or so. Sidney Jones is the high first-round corner the Eagles were able to get in the second round because Jones tore an Achilles' preparing for the draft. Jones reported to NovaCare on Monday for this week's minicamp, but he won't be on the field Tuesday, or any day soon.

Undlin recalled Monday that Jones was his first or second interview at the NFL Scouting Combine.

"I love everything about him, besides the fact that he's not going to be able to run around. But it is what it is," Undlin said.

"My expectation is he's going to be back and be the same player. Only time will tell on that. I have no idea when that's going to be."

Asked whether this could be a "lost year" for Jones, given the seriousness of the injury he is rehabbing, Undlin said: "It won't be a lost year. We're preparing and he's showing up every single day like he's going to play this year. Now, is he? I have no idea. He has no idea. But we're going about our business on a daily basis like he's going to play.

"Will he be a little bit behind? He'll be behind. Because he missed these reps."

Throughout the draft process, though, Undlin said he "liked everything about" Jones.

"Great control of his body. Violent in and out of his breaks. Guy plays with his hair on fire. He checks off all the boxes," Undlin said.

Jones has been rehabbing at the University of Washington because the academic schedule is on the quarter system and after rookie camp, league rules didn't allow him to work at NovaCare until this week. Undlin said they've been FaceTiming at night.

"Smart kid. Asks a lot of questions," Undlin said.

The most experienced Eagles corner is new to the team and the defense. Journeyman Patrick Robinson was the only veteran free-agent corner the Eagles signed, a 29-year-old who was a Saints first-round pick in 2010. He's coming off an injury-shortened season with the Colts.

It isn't clear where Robinson fits in on the field, but Undlin said he really appreciates Robinson's willingness to share what he has learned.

"It goes down just like this, in the meeting room or on the field: You're in a drill and, as Patrick goes through and I coach him, then he gets out and the next guy goes through, and I turn around, and Pat's coaching him," Undlin said. In the meeting room, he said, Robinson tells the other corners what he sees on tape, after Undlin finishes.

"He will make us all better. The guy knows ball. He's played a lot. He gets the game," said Undlin, who noted that Robinson was "on the ground a few times" early in OTAs, not as much later.

"There's not much to change on him. I like his quickness - the guy can run. He's smart . . . He just sees it. He can see the formation, the splits, the alignments, who's on, who's off. He gets the game," Undlin said.

Down the road, maybe even down the stretch in 2017, the expectation is that Jones and third-round rookie Rasul Douglas will be the starting corners, perhaps with Mills in the slot.

Undlin talked Monday about what he sees in Douglas, who is 6-2, 209 - "Like his length, like his change of direction. Like his mindset . . . The guy loves ball. He's only been here for what, a (little more than a) month since the draft's been over. Guy comes in every single day with the mindset to get better. He loves ball. He wants to talk football all the time. Loves watching tape, texting me, all that other stuff. I like where he's going."

But Douglas isn't there yet. Undlin has been working with him on the refined movements bigger corners must master to stay with shiftier wide receivers.

It's very much like what Undlin did with Mills (6-feet, 191) a year ago.

"He's been in games, he's played in big games. He's played good in some games. He's played bad in some games," Undlin said of Mills, who embodies Schwartz's prized aggressiveness, sometimes to a fault. "The biggest thing (going forward) would be that there's a lot more good play than there is good and bad.

"He was a rookie last year. I'm proud of what he did," playing 65 percent of the Eagles' defensive snaps. "He's got to play at a more consistent level . . . He's got a ways to go, like we all do.

"Whether it's him or anybody else in the room, we've got a ways to go before we play that first game. We'll keep grinding it down," Undlin said.

bowenl@phillynews.com

@LesBowen

Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog