Jalen Mills Will Start This Week – And He Should

By Paul Bowman, Eagledelphia Managing Editor

Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz announced at his press conference today that Jalen Mills would remain the starting cornerback.

“I am firmly behind Mills. That guy has played a lot of good football for us. He epitomizes a lot of what we are about defensively – toughness and competitiveness and ability to bounce back, and I’m confident he will.” – Jim Schwartz

It is a wise move. Mills came to the Eagles as a seventh round pick and has performed excellently and he should continue to start.

It may be an unpopular opinion I hold right now, but there are those who agree, like recent Eagles Hall of Fame inductee and NFL Analyst Seth Joyner.

Lota hate directed at @greengoblin Stop it Philly! This kid was great in the past, he'll be fine! Show him some support, he needs & deserves that!! Lil technique polish which all players experience and he'll be makin plays & ballin again! #Eagles #FlyEaglesFly #BleedingGreen

— Seth Joyner (@sethjoyner) October 2, 2018

Sure Mills has had a few bad weeks, but every cornerback has those. In the four games this season, Mills has allowed the following:

Jalen Mills Statistics

Looking at those statistics, the first thing that I notice is that Mills has only given up one touchdown. It was a 75-yard touchdown pass against the Buccaneers. Notice he gave up 80 yards in that game. If you take out that one 75-yard touchdown reception, he allowed six receptions for a whopping five yards. That performance is when fans started to lash out at him – for a performance where he was beat one time.

Noticeably, he also only allowed eight yards while covering TY Hilton in Week 3. Hilton is a receiver who had four straight years of over 1,000 receiving yards before he fell just short at 966 yards last season when the Colts did not have a quarterback. He is a top receiver in the league and the fact that Mills allowed only eight yards to him has been under appreciated.

I would also argue that the Eagles have faced two of the top five receiving corps already this season. When you are lining up against Jones/Sanu/Ridley (Falcons) and Evans/Jackson/Godwin (Buccaneers) every snap, it is expected that your corners will get burned with any level of competent quarterback play.

Another big statistic is that he has only allowed one touchdown. He is great in the red zone. This is partially because he ends up playing closer to the receiver. It is amazing that Jim Schwartz has his corners 10 yards of the receivers. His defense relies on pressuring the quarterback – you have no time to do that when you are scheming to allow the receivers to be open for quick passes every play of the game. Mills doesn’t have as much speed as many receivers so he could get beat deep on plays where he isn’t back, but that is what the free safety is there for. Allowing Mills to make contact at the line and giving the pass rushers time to get to the quarterback would greatly benefit the defense.

Seth Joyner also agrees with that point.

Not sure what happened to defenders CBs & DBs getting up and challenging WRs at the line, throwing off route timing? Getting up & off, aligning inside & moving out, outside & moving inside? You give QBs presnap reads & free releases by Wrs, it's like 7on7 in practice!!

— Seth Joyner (@sethjoyner) October 2, 2018

Another issue with the points allowed per game has been the return of Carson Wentz. Don’t get me wrong, Wentz is a great quarterback, but he is rusty and has made critical mistakes in both of the games since his return, fumbling the ball to be recovered by the opposing team twice and throwing an interception all at the 25or 30-yard line. No one can expect a defense to not give up points when the offense is giving the defense little time to rest and giving the ball away just outside the redzone. The rust Wentz is showing should wear away, but his mistakes have resulted in three field goals. The defense, including Mills, has done an amazing job simply not having given up a touchdown in those situations. Again, this is in part due to the short field allowing Mills to play in close coverage.

I personally do not understand all the hate for Mills from fans. Fans already want him to be cut from the roster – have they forgotten that Mills was our top cornerback last season for eight games while Darby was out with a dislocated ankle? The Eagles were 7-1 in the games where he was out top corner and, including the playoffs, were 16-2 last season with Mills being the number one or two corner starting every game. Plus, Mills is an underdog and blue collar type of player who gives all he’s got and wants the best for his team and city. He is exactly the type of athlete that Philadelphia looks for, yet he is getting so much heat.

Fans need to give Mills the support he deserves and allow him to play to the level that he has proven he can. A bad game can, and will, always happen. That doesn’t mean the end of the world.