How will Philadelphia Eagles approach Ronald Darby’s return?

Coming out of their bye and heading to Dallas this week, the Philadelphia Eagles are expected to get back cornerback Ronald Darby.

It sometimes gets easy to forget that the Philadelphia Eagles have been without number one cornerback, Ronald Darby, for most of the season given how well the Eagles corners have played.

Although, it doesn’t seem like that long ago when Darby went down in the Eagles Week 1 game that many began to wonder how the Eagles would get by without their number one cornerback. A weakness heading into the season had just got even weaker.

Now, heading into Week 11 the Eagles are set to get their top cornerback back. Sitting at 8-1, they have gotten by pretty well without Darby, but for sure are ready to welcome him back.

Jalen Mills and Rasul Douglas have exceeded all expectations this season. Not just have they held down the ship with Darby out, they have shown that the Eagles have great young depth at the cornerback position. Add in the play of slot cornerback Patrick Robinson and you can see why this position has actually been one of the strengths for the Eagles this season.

In the long term, the Eagles are in great shape at the cornerback position. Sidney Jones and Darby look to be the future on the outside while Mills will most likely shift into the slot. Many have speculated that when all four of these guys are healthy, including Jones, there is a strong possibility that Douglas will be moved to safety; where the Eagles can utilize more of his strengths there.

But the question being asked is what will the Eagles do right now, and how will they address this “logjam” the rest of the season? Frankly, this is a great situation to be in.

Darby has been participating in practice since prior to the second Washington game. Meaning he has been participating in football activities for about three weeks now.

Even though Darby has been practicing for that time, it may still take him some time to get back into full game shape. While he readjusts to playing full games, do not be surprised to see the Eagles rotating Darby in and out with Douglas.

Darby will play on Sunday and after practicing with the first team, should start and have a large role, but he most likely won’t be seeing a full game’s worth of snaps right away. The Eagles are fortunate to be in a situation where they are deep at the cornerback position, so there is no need to rush Darby by any means, and it would be smart to slowly work him in.

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Now fully healed from that dislocated ankle, once Darby is back up to game speed he will take over as the top cornerback. Whether that comes as early as this week or a couple weeks remains to be seen.

But without a doubt, Darby is the most talented cornerback the Eagles have and his presence will improve an already very good defense. Which has to be a scary thought for the rest of the NFC.

With the Eagles now being so deep with talent at the cornerback position, they have themselves in a great position for when they face pass heavy teams.  Darby and Mills on the outside and Robinson on the inside should help to prove that; and if they want to bring out a fourth cornerback for some coverage rather then dropping a safety into coverage, they will have the luxury to do that with Douglas.

Or if the Eagles want to rotate corners at times to keep their guys fresh; that is now something they can do with all this depth.

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Regardless of what happens, the Eagles are for sure happy to have their number one cornerback returning. There is a reason why they went out and got him in August and during this stretch run, Darby will hopefully prove his worth. With all of that being said, the Eagles have themselves in a great situation at cornerback going into the stretch run. Something we never thought would be said just a couple of months ago.