Philadelphia Eagles: Is Michael Jacquet really the current plan at CB2?

With the Philadelphia Eagles new-look OTA schedule coming to a close on Friday, some of the city’s media members were allowed into the Linc for a brief glance at how the team’s been looking as of late. There were one-handed catches by DeVonta Smith, odd green ball drills organized by Nick Sirianni, and one lineup-based decision in the secondary that really caught my attention.

According to The Atheltic’s Bo Wulf, the first-team secondary for the Eagles included Michael Jacquet lining up alongside Darius Slay at starting corner:

One of the most talked about depth chart positions during the offseason, nobody really knew what the Eagles were planning to do at CB2. The team had a handful of under-the-radar young guys like Craig James, Zech McPhearson, and the aforementioned Jacquet who appeared to be in line for the job, but everyone was realistically holding out hope that Howie Roseman would go sign one of the top free agents still available (Steven Nelson, Brian Poole, etc.)

While the Eagles could still go out and chuck an incentive-laden, seriously backloaded deal at one of the top FA corners, the odds for such an arrangement to happen are getting slimmer by the day. Training camp is right around the corner, and the team’s rookie coaching staff is going to want as much time as possible to construct and configure their depth chart.

It’s only June, but the Philadelphia Eagles lining up Michael Jacquet as their CB2 on Friday turned some heads.

Turning our attention back towards Jacquet, it’s just really hard to imagine that him being the Eagles primary CB2 is going to work out well for Philadelphia moving forward. An undrafted free agent signing last year, Jacquet came in and gave the Eagles a spark late in the season, before having one of the worst games I’ve ever seen by an NFL corner.

Jacquet was targeted nine times during the Eagles Week 16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, allowing seven catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns, primarily to Dallas wideout Michael Gallup.

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It was the second-highest yardage allowed by an NFL defensive back this past season, one that saw Jacquet earn an “inactive” status the following week.

You can make an argument for Jacquet still being a raw product, one that’s worthy of an extra look this season before turning the job over to someone else. After all, Jacquet is just 24 years old, and actually fared somewhat admirably against DeAndre Hopkins during the Eagles’ Week 15 loss in Arizona. Standing in at 6-2 and 201lbs, Jacquet is also one of the better suited players on the roster to take boundary corner reps, from a pure physical standpoint.

With that said, rival teams around the NFL aren’t going to be oblivious to the potential weakness that Jacquet could be in the Philadelphia Eagles secondary this season. If he doesn’t show signs of rapid development this offseason, one can only assume that opposing offensive coordinators are going to aggressively target him early and often, similar to how the Cowboys did in 2020.

Early lineup configurations in June don’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, the CB2 job could easily be won by someone else, or Howie Roseman could finally pull the trigger on bringing in a veteran. However, as things currently stand, Jacquet being the team’s initial option feels less than ideal.