Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Mills is one of the league's brightest young stars

Jalen Mills has been counted out his entire NFL career, but in 2017, he’s quietly become the Philadelphia Eagles’ best cornerback.

Of all the players who’ve stepped their games up in 2017, none has been more pivotal to the Philadelphia Eagles‘ recent success than second-year cornerback Jalen Mills.

After being a longshot to even make the roster in 2016 as the team’s second of three seventh-round picks, Mills quietly caught the eye of defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and quickly rose up the team’s depth chart.

Mills, a three-star recruit from Desoto, Texas, spent four seasons as a starter at LSU, before entering his name for consideration in the 2016 NFL Draft. But unlike recent blue-chip Tiger prospects like Tyrann Mathieu, Patrick Peterson, or more recently Tre’Davious White, Mills wasn’t particularly popular in the pre-draft process.

Between running a pedestrian 4.61 40-yard dash at the 2016 NFL Combine, and questions surrounding a 2014 arrest for second-degree battery, most teams believed that the risk in drafting Mills wasn’t worth the potential reward, and he dropped considerably from a second-day prospect to a player who was eventually selected 233rd overall.

But fortunately for the Eagles, Mills came to camp hungry to compete with a huge chip on his shoulder.

More from Philadelphia Eagles

While playing in arguably the worst secondary in the entire league, Mills found his way onto the field by splitting reps with then starters Nolan Carroll and Leodis McKelvin, a pair of players who aren’t even in the league anymore, and quickly made it hard for Jim Schwartz to take him off the field.

And it all came to a head in Week 10, when the Eagles faced off against the eventual NFC Champions, the Atlanta Falcons.

With the team’s secondary hit hard by a string of injuries, and Mills the only healthy corner left on the active roster, the then-rookie cornerback explicitly asked Schwartz to go one-on-one against Julio Jones for the entire second half of the game.

Talk about a real baptism by fire.

Though Jones did get his, finishing the game with 10 catches for 135 yards, he was held out of the end zone in large part thanks to Mills expert coverage skills and was a major reason why the Falcons ended up losing to the Eagles by a score of 24-15, their fourth loss of the season. While the performance wasn’t particularly impressive from a statistical standpoint, it showed that Mills had guts and could one day fill the role of a lockdown cornerback.

Going into 2017, the Eagles went out of their way to bolster their secondary by adding four defensive backs, but there’s no way the team would continue to start Pro Football Focus‘ lowest graded cornerback of 2016 in 2017, right?

Well, crazier things have happened.

After initially splitting time on the outside and slot with free agent acquisition Patrick Robinson, Mills was named the team’s starting outside cornerback alongside Robinson and rookie third-round pick Rasul Douglas to start the preseason.

But unfortunately for Mills, his position as the team’s top cornerback didn’t last very long.

One week into the team’s preseason slate, Howie Roseman saw an opportunity to seriously improve the team’s secondary and ultimately swapped out Jordan Matthews, and their 2017 third round pick for diminutive cover man Ronald Darby, a legitimate starting caliber cornerback. But after only one half of play, Mills was once again thrust into the spotlight after Darby suffered a particularly gruesome ankle injury in the Eagles’ Week 1 victory over the Washington Redskins. But fortunately for the team, the moment was not too big for the former seventh-round pick.

After losing their Week 2 game to the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 27-20, the Eagles went on an absolute tear, winning their next nine games by a combined score of 301- 147, and much of that success could be directly attributed to Mills ability to keep up with opposing team’s number one receivers. I mean sure, he gave up his fair share of catches and took his knocks, but Mills turned the Eagles secondary from arguably the team’s biggest weakness to an average NFL-caliber unit, a truly amazing feat when you consider just how terrible the Eagles secondary has been over the past half decade.

And really should anyone be surprised?

A four-year starter at LSU, which itself is a pretty impressive accomplishment, Mills played all over Les Miles‘ defensive, logging serious minutes at corner, safety and in the slot, and became nationally renowned for his impressive press coverage abilities. Sure, he wasn’t the fastest player in the league, but Mills football IQ and unshakeable confidence have allowed him to match up against any receiver and fight for a full 60 minutes.

And you know Schwartz likes a fighter.

Even when Darby was eventually cleared to return to play in Week 10, Mills retained his spot at left cornerback, facing off against opposing team’s best receivers on a nightly basis, and week after week continued to get better.

In arguably the most important game of the 2017 NFL season, the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs, Mills stepped up and showed why he’s one of the leagues’ brightest young stars.

Once again facing off against Julio Jones, Mills fought the five-time Pro Bowler tooth and nail, and only allowed a single catch to the leagues’ best receiver for 12 yards. 12 yards. Though Jones did ultimately finish the game with nine catches for 101 yards, the vast majority of his production came when lined up against Darby, who struggled to contain the 6-foot-3 force of nature one-on-one.

And with the game on the line, Mills showed what he was made of.

With the Falcons in the red zone on what would ultimately be the final play of the game, Mills stepped up and made what could very well be the play of his life: a leaping pass defense on Jones to the ice out the drive, and clinch the Eagles a spot in the NFC Championship game.

Simply put, even with Darby, Douglas, and Sidney Jones ready to play next season, Mills should, and likely will remain the team’s top cornerback, and that honor is well deserved.

Next: Philadelphia Eagles: Should Jordan Matthews come back to Philly?

Without Mills, the Eagles likely wouldn’t have finished the regular season 13-3 and surely wouldn’t be facing off against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game in a few short days. The eternal underdog, Mills has proven on the field time and time again that he shouldn’t be counted out and going forward, he’s only going to get better for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Home/Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Mills is one of the league’s brightest young stars

By Matty Breisch | Jan 15, 2018

Jalen Mills has been counted out his entire NFL career, but in 2017, he’s quietly become the Philadelphia Eagles’ best cornerback.

More from Philadelphia Eagles