Eagles expect a lot from second-year cornerback Jalen Mills | Paul Domowitch
NFL cornerbacks need the guts of a burglar and the memory of an amnesiac. Jalen Mills proved last season that he has both.
NFL CORNERBACKS need the guts of a burglar and the memory of an amnesiac.
Jalen Mills proved last season that he has both.
Mills played 65 percent of the Eagles' defensive snaps as a seventh-round rookie. Played inside and outside. Went mano a mano with some of the very best wideouts in the league.
Won some battles and yes, lost some. But he never backed down, and he never hung his head after getting beaten. He displayed uncharacteristic resilience for a rookie.
"The thing that impressed me the most about him is his mindset,'' safety Malcolm Jenkins said. "Playing corner in this league is not easy. You have to be confident.
"That's one thing he's had since he stepped in the building. That confidence and that desire to always want the No. 1 guys; to always be challenged. That's probably 80 percent of the game.''
The Eagles faced a Murderers' Row of wide receivers last season that included the Steelers' Antonio Brown, the Bears' (now an Eagle) Alshon Jeffery, then-Redskins' DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon, the Cowboys' Dez Bryant and Cole Beasley, the Giants' Odell Beckham Jr., the Falcons' Julio Jones, the Seahawks' Doug Baldwin and the Packers' Jordy Nelson. The results often weren't pretty. But Mills never backed down.
"When you think about the quarterbacks we had to go against, the receivers we had to go against, and me, being a rookie going up against those guys, you had to know (some bad) things were going to happen,'' Mills said. "That's why, as a cornerback, and especially as a rookie, you have to have that short-term memory. In the NFC East, with the guys we have to go against, it's necessary.''
It's anybody's guess right now who will be the Eagles' top three cornerbacks on Sept. 10 when they take the field against the Redskins at FedEx Field in the season-opener.
Both of their 2016 starters - Leodis McKelvin and Nolan Carroll - are gone. McKelvin was released and Carroll wasn't re-signed.
Second-round pick Sidney Jones likely will open the season on the PUP (physically unable to perform) list as he recovers from a torn Achilles'.
But there are at least seven others with a legitimate chance to win one of the two season-opening starting outside corner jobs and the nickel job this summer, including Mills, veterans Patrick Robinson and Dwayne Gratz, third-round rookie Rasul Douglas, promising second-year player C.J. Smith, and CFL imports Aaron Grymes and Mitchell White.
If he stays healthy, it's hard not to envision Mills being one of the Eagles' top three corners. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz likes the same things about the kid that Jenkins does. Loves his mindset and his competitiveness and his toughness and his resilience.
This is a kid who, last November, went up to Schwartz at halftime of the Eagles' 24-15 win over Atlanta and volunteered to shadow the Falcons' Jones.
Jones had caught six passes for 73 yards in the first half. One of the Eagles' starting corners, Nolan Carroll, had left the game with a concussion. The other, McKelvin, was playing with a bad hamstring.
Schwartz didn't have many other options and had pretty much already decided to put Mills on Jones. But he was impressed that he came to him and volunteered.
Mills gave up a 28-yard pass to Jones on the Falcons' first offensive play of the second half, then held him in check the rest of the game. Jones caught just three more passes for 34 yards.
"I've seen veteran players that don't want that responsibility,'' Jenkins said. "To have a rookie come in and want to cover the best there is, that's one (guy) you don't have to worry about as far as him getting fazed by the ebbs and flows of games or the ebbs and flows of the season. He's going to compete every snap, game in and game out. That's a hard quality to find in this league.''
Mills displayed uncommon moxie for a rookie corner. And while Schwartz clearly likes him, Mills knows he has to show improvement in his second season. Resilience is a nice quality, but you'd prefer not to have to rely on it that often.
"Knowing coach Doug (Pederson) and coach Schwartz and (defensive backs) coach Cory (Undlin), they're prove-it-to-me guys,'' Mills said. "When I say that, that's every day. It's not one day out of the week or two days out of the week. It's every day.
"The playing experience I got last year was very, very helpful. Just coming into Year 2 and having had those game-speed experiences against the teams we were going against and the guys we had to cover, it was very, very helpful.
"Because my main thing right now is to slow everything completely down to where I'm not hesitating; where I'm just going out there and having fun and making plays.''
Schwartz's defense clearly struggled against the pass in the second half of the season. They gave up 19 touchdown passes and allowed 269 passing yards per game in their last 10 games.
That's why McKelvin and Carroll are gone. That's why defensive end Connor Barwin is gone.
That's why the Eagles drafted Jones and Douglas and first-round defensive end Derek Barnett and signed Robinson.
If Mills can take his game to the next level, it would certainly help things.
"I'll sum up his rookie season (this way),'' Schwartz said. "It was a rookie season. There were some things that he did well and he flashed.
"And there were times he didn't play as well as we needed him to. His challenge is creating that consistency. It's hard to be consistent when you're brand new at something. But the experience he got from being out there and being thrown into the fire should benefit him going forward.
"I like where he's going. He's never lacked for competitiveness. He's never lacked for work ethic. Those are things that he comes here with every day.''
@Pdomo Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog