Philadelphia Eagles: Jalen Mills and Avonte Maddox need to trade positions

The Philadelphia Eagles need to shake up their defensive secondary.

Welp Philadelphia Eagles fans, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but here we go: Rodney McLeod will miss the remainder of the 2020 NFL season with a torn ACL.

While this news isn’t too surprising, as the Eagles’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee came up clutching his leg during the team’s Week 14 shocker against the New Orleans Saints, it’s still a pretty tough loss for a team that just started to find a glimpse of life after a month-plus losing streak behind one of the least entertaining offenses in the entire NFL.

And to make matters worse, it’s not like the Eagles are really loaded with viable backups to fill in behind the 30-year-old vet either.

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With Marcus Epps having largely filled the role as the Eagles’ first safety coming off the bench for the bulk of the 2020 season and only one other player, Baylor UDFA Grayland Arnold, listed as a free safety, the Eagles’ single-high options aren’t looking too promising. I guess the Eagles could scour the open market and sign a free agent option like Earl Thomas or HaHa Clinton-Dix but at this point, why bother? While either player is theoretically better than what the team already has, with three weeks left in the season and the playoffs far from a guarantee, what’s the point?

*sigh* If only the Eagles had a player already on their roster with experience playing free safety, maybe even during the postseason.

Oh wait, they do, and his name is Avonte Maddox.

A college perimeter cornerback at Pitt, Maddox initially began his career as a special teamer before replacing McLeod as the Eagles’ starting safety alongside Malcolm Jenkins in Week 5 of the 2018 season. Though Maddox was far from perfect, as the 5-foot-9, 184 pound DB lacks the size needed to ever be a hammer dropping open-field tackler, his 4.39 speed allowed him to fly around the back of the Eagles’ defense and keep would-be scorers in front of him.

Even if McLeod ultimately proved to be the better player of the two, Maddox theoretically could have continued on with the role due to his natural fit at the position and filled the team’s third safety role better than the rag-tag bunch of dudes who filled that role from 2018 on.

But that isn’t how the Birds opted to go.

No, for… reasons, Howie Roseman remained convinced that Maddox had what it takes to play outside cornerback in the NFL and used the then-second year cornerback as a utility reserve in 2019 before giving him the starting nod in 2020 following the releases of 2017 draftees Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas. Had Maddox been able to hang opposite Darius Slay, maybe those decisions would have been justified, but in a rather predictable turn of events, that hasn’t been the case.

No, Maddox has consistently ranked among the worst cornerbacks in the entire NFL, and the team has had to rely on a motley crew of replacements like Michael Jacquet and Kevon Seymour (who?) to play on the opposite side when Slay has missed time.

But there’s one bright spot that’s shone through the otherwise murky mess Roseman has crafted coming out of training camp: Jalen Mills.

That’s right, for how bad a rep Mills gets nationally and from a very specific segment of the fun-hating fanbase, the former seventh-round pick out of LSU has been a better than expected replacement for Jenkins as the Eagles’ strong safety, even if his numbers don’t always show it. He’s been a fantastic pass rusher, having recorded his first sack and a half in Eagles’ Week 3 tie to the Bengals, and has been a much better option covering tight ends than Nathan Gerry.

And when his number has been called to revert back to cornerback, Mills has been noticeably better than Maddox.

Sure, he still lacks the speed needed to keep up with burners on the outside, but even Slay attested to feeling more comfortable with Mills lined up on the opposite side of the field, which, spoiler alert, is kind of an indictment of Maddox.

Gosh, if only there was a way for the team to simply swap the two players’ positions and allow Mills to play cornerback and Maddox to fill in for McLeod at free safety. Oh wait, the team can quite literally do exactly that.

Sure, that would leave the Eagles with a hole at strong safety but isn’t that what the team drafted K’Von Wallace to play back in April? He sure isn’t taking away snaps from NRC as the Eagles’ slot cornerback like PFF suggested when he was drafted. Measuring in at 5-foot-11, 206 pounds with legit 4.5 speed and a ton of experience playing for the NCAA championship-winning Clemson Tigers, Wallace has been criminally underutilized by the Eagles so far this season. Even if he’s not the second coming of Brian Dawkins, the Eagles should at least be using the remainder of their season to see if they need to draft another replacement for Jenkins in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Is making three position changes in one week a tad excessive to replace one team captain? Maybe so, but after watching the Eagles shuffle around their offensive linemen like deck chairs on the Titanic for pretty much every week of the regular season, it’s not like they aren’t willing to make moves. Does the name Jalen Hurts mean nothing to you? Sometimes a midseason swap works.

If Week 14 of the regular season is of any indication, the Philadelphia Eagles can get better if they put their players in the right position to succeed. Was it hard to finally rid themselves of Jason Peters once and for all? I mean, yeah, it probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for a season-ending toe injury, but the Eagles were vastly rewarded for finally returning Nate Herbig to their starting offensive line with a much-needed win against the best defense in the NFL. With Rodney McLeod now set to join Peters on IR, the Eagles would be wise to use a similar approach and re-shuffle their defensive backfield to put their young players in the best position to succeed and see if Avonte Maddox and K’Vonn Wallace can be their starting safeties of the future.