Philadelphia Eagles: Why oh why is Rodney McLeod playing box safety?

The Philadelphia Eagles have flip-flopped Jalen Mills and Rodney McLeod.

Rodney McLeod took a fairly interesting path to the NFL.

A three-year starter at Virginia, the DelMarVa native was ultimately not in the 2012 NFL Draft – being passed over for eventual busts as Trent Richardson and Justin Blackmore in the Top-5 alone – before signing a three-year, UDFA-scale minimum contract with the then-St. Louis Rams.

After working his way up the depth chart over the course of camp, McLeod earned a spot on the 2012 Rams’ 53 man roster as a rookie and went on to establish himself as one of the better players at the position in the league by his second professional.

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Though McLeod never made a Pro Bowl with the Rams, he parlayed three successful seasons as a staring safety into a five-year, $35 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles – making him the second-highest-paid safety in the 2012 class behind only long-time Viking Harrison Smith.

Initially paired up with Chip Kelly holdover Malcolm Jenkins, the dynamic duo ran the NFC East as arguably one of the top-3 safety tandems in the league, if not the-best post-Earl Thomas/Kam Chancellor.

Sure, that pairing didn’t last forever, but even in the post-Jenkins-era, McLeod has shown a willingness to pick up the slack has the new elder statesman of the secondary room – being named a defensive captain for the first time in his career while continuing to earn uncontested starts at safety.

Only here’s the thing, over the first two games of the 2020 season, McLeod hasn’t exactly stuck to his traditional spot anchoring the defensive secondary at free safety.

That’s right, in a rather unusual move, McLeod has been sending more and more time with each passing game in a quasi-Jenkins in-the-box move, correspondingly sending Jalen Mills further off the line into more of a traditional single-high, free safety role.

But, like, why?

When Mills re-signed with the team on a one-year, $5 million deal, many, including the Green Goblin himself, presume it would be to play the Jenkins box safety role. He said as much when describing his decision to re-sign in Philly, as did fellow free agent addition Will Parks, who is currently out on IR. Factor in rookie fourth-round pick K’Von Wallace, who excelled in a slot/box role at Clemson, and Eagle should theoretically be set at strong safety, which, in turn, should allow McLeod to remain consistent in his role as the secondary’s line of defense.

Instead, McLeod is lining up next to starting linebackers Duke Riley and Nathan Gerry with alarming frequency, matching up with everyone from tight ends, to running backs, and even receivers in both man and zone coverage.

To be fair, from a practical standpoint, playing a safety in such a role does make sense; McLeod just isn’t the player for the job.

For all of the hype going into the season, Gerry was absolutely demolished in coverage when manning up against Rams tight end Tyler Higbee, which is equally alarming considering the former fifth-round pick play safety at Nebraska. While players like Parks, Mills, or even Wallace have the speed to take away the vertical seam routes that torched the team from the tight end position, it’s hard to imagine any safety matching up well against a 6-foot-6, 255-pound tight end with ease.

With that in mind, McLeod is one of the smallest players on the Eagles roster – only slightly taller than Avonte Maddox and 13 pounds lighter than the 5-foot-6 Boston Scott – and not a particularly fast one at that – running a 4.6 40 at his Pro Day. For better or worse, McLeod is really only a logically fit to play free safety in the NFL. While the former cornerback does have a nagging tendency to prematurely bite on a potential play from time to time, McLeod’s lack of functional athleticism has largely been overshadowed by good instincts and willingness to drop the hammer on a would-be ball catcher in the open field.

But come on, willfully placing McLeod on a tight end like Higbee, who isn’t even all that prolific, for double-digit snaps is just not a strategy for success.

Now to be fair, McLeod is not a bad player. He’s still a top-15 single-high free safety even at the tender age of 30 and deserves every one of the $12 million he has coming his way over the next two seasons, but putting him in an unadventurous situation just isn’t a winning strategy. Against the run, McLeod was easily pushed around by the likes of Higbee and recently extended receiver Robert Woods, and in coverage, those issues were far from mitigated.

Who knows, maybe Jim Schwartz simply wants to incorporate a more versatile, interchangeable safety situation after having Jenkins express dissatisfaction with playing anywhere but in the box, but in doing so, the Eagles have put McLeod in a position where he’s being exposed, and in turn forcing Mills into a deep safety position that hardly suites his style of play either.

Say what you will about Mills on the outside, but he’s an NFL player. Remove the need for him to man up against speedsters on the outside and Mills’ plus tackling and infectious swagger could be seriously impactful. Did you see his tackle for a loss on Cam Akers in the first half of the Rams game? Those are the plays he’s earning $5 million to make, not identifying which side of the field to shadow to and pray he can take down a jail-broken receiver before he hits the endzone.

Flip flop McLeod and Mills into their natural positions, even for a game, and I’d assume each both would turn in more impressive performances than their milquetoast performances in Week 2.

In the NFL, and really any sport, teams are usually at their best when they put their players in the best possible situation to succeed. Though the jury is still out on whether or not Rodney McLeod and Jalen Mills can be the next great South Philly safety tandem, it’s hard to truly judge either player individually or as a unit when they’re not being placed in the optimum position to shine. Hopefully, the Philadelphia Eagles can remedy that situation in Week 3, as the Week 3 romp against the lowly Cincinnati Bengals is rapidly becoming a must-win litmus test for the 2020 season.