Marcus Hayes: Jenkins has to fill leadership void on Eagles defense

NOW, IN THE WAKE of three blown second-half leads, the Eagles miss safety Quintin Mikell's stinging tongue as much as they miss his punishing hits.

Veteran defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins can fill the leadership void.

In 2009, Mikell replaced safety Brian Dawkins as the defense's leader. Dawkins led the defense for a decade. He inherited the job from cornerback Troy Vincent, who got it from Mike Zordich, who followed Seth Joyner . . .

The point is, the defense always had someone to hold players accountable. They have had no one since the Eagles let Mikell go to St. Louis as a free agent.

"I know a lot of times they say leadership comes from the linebackers or the safeties, but at this point, I don't think we have an identity, or a sole leader," said third-year linebacker Moise Fokou. "Right now, it's up in the air. If anybody wants to take it, so be it."

Clearly, Jenkins wants to take it. He sees problems. He has the answers.

To date, Jenkins has been reluctant to step in front of a room of alpha males and act like top dog.

"You do kind of hold back some. You're not sure of the flow of things too well," Jenkins said. "It's tough, because there's so many new people. You don't know how people react to certain things. Certain situations. It's difficult, trying to learn everybody."

In his eighth year, Jenkins, 30, was undrafted out of Central Michigan in 2003. He signed with Green Bay and, as an end and tackle, logged 14 sacks from 2008-10. He was a big part of Green Bay's Super Bowl run last season.

The Eagles signed him to a 5-year, $25 million deal in the offseason. He has been the center of the Eagles' galaxy of assembled defensive stars, but he is no star himself. That's why he has been relatively silent.

He worried that he would step on the toes of end Trent Cole, a two-time Pro Bowl sack machine around whom the defense was built, or Mike Patterson, a first-round pick in 2005 and a full-time starter since '06. He believed that free-agent end Jason Babin, a rugged individualist coming off his first Pro Bowl, wouldn't like it.

Perhaps, he said, he would offend the cornerback constellation: cerebral Nnamdi Asomugha, the prize of free agency; talented young Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, pried from Arizona for Kevin Kolb; or team jester Asante Samuel, the quirky interception specialist.

None of those players has the stoic personality, the unquestioned professionalism, of Jenkins.

None has a Super Bowl ring, either.

"He's come in with some credibility," Fokou said. "He knows what it takes to be a champion."

It's not as if Jenkins has been silent - to the press.

He publicly fumed over free-agent quarterback Vince Young dubbing the Eagles a "dream team" before it had even played a preseason game.

After the Eagles blew a 20-point lead in the second half Sunday, Jenkins admitted that, with the big lead, the defense was letting up, "getting happy," feeling "joy."

Daily, Jenkins provides illuminating insight to the Eagles' defensive issues.

That continued yesterday.

Jenkins reiterated that the Eagles are playing "partial games," efforts that mean "nothing if you buckle in crunch time."

He also observed that, partially because of the lockout, Eagles players are not familiar enough with the scheme of new coordinator Juan Castillo; that they do not automatically do the right things late in games.

"Not just knowing what you're doing, but knowing what you're doing so well that when you start getting tired, and things start moving a lot faster, you don't second-guess yourself," Jenkins said. "You can just react."

Finally, he said, the defense's psyche could use a boost on Sunday at Buffalo:

"If we can put a complete game together, that will do a lot for the confidence and the whole camaraderie of the defense."

Jenkins learned candor and accountability watching Packers middle linebacker Nick Barnett. Barnett was supported by future Hall of Fame cornerback Charles Woodson.

There will be no leadership coming from the linebacker corps, which is little more than a committee of youths competing for playing time.

There can be none from the safeties, all young, all shaky.

Still, Jenkins isn't sure what he should do.

"It's kind of hard because you don't want to overstep your boundaries," he said. "When do you speak up? How do you do it?"

You speak up now, and you speak up loudly.

Maybe soon, he said: "In time, you start feeling more comfortable to do things."

In time? To borrow from an eloquent and accomplished orator:

The time is his.