May 30, 2017
Around this time last year, Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was effusive in his praise of safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod, a pair of players who had just received lucrative contracts.
"That was money well-spent," said Schwartz. "I’m sort of violating my rule with judging too much into this time of year. Linemen need pads on before you can judge them, and rookies, let’s not judge those guys on anything yet. But both of those guys are veteran players. And you can see that right away. They’re both multi-dimensional. They both communicate very well. They can cover a lot of ground. They can blitz. They can play man. They can play zone. I’d be very surprised as the year went on if they’re not one of the better safety tandems in the NFL."
Jim Schwartz will go out on a limb in praise of certain players.
In his first press conference of 2017, Schwartz was asked if the Eagles did enough this offseason to fix their ugly cornerback situation, and he was realistic about what he has to work with.
"Well, we'll find out during the season, for sure," he said. "That is the final determination in every move that we make and everything that we do – from preparation, to drafting, to signing free agents, to new coaching schemes. That's the great thing about this sport. It all comes to light during the season. I think it's probably a little too early to evaluate right now. We're still working through a lot of different stuff. It's certainly a position of importance for us. We understand where we were last year and how it affected our defense, and we need to be better at our corner position, for sure."
If you were to look at the difference in the Eagles' depth at outside corner this time last year compared to present day, it would look something like this:
| Cornerback | 2016 | 2017 |
| 1 | Leodis McKelvin | Patrick Robinson |
| 2 | Nolan Carroll | Jalen Mills |
| 3 | Eric Rowe | Rasul Douglas |
| 4 | Jalen Mills | ? |
The Eagles will also be adding rookie Sidney Jones to the mix at some point, whether that be later this year, or next year. And, of course, Ron Brooks is/was on both rosters as a slot corner.
During his presser, Schwartz spoke about both of his starting corner, and said some positive things about each of them individually.
• On Jalen Mills: The thing I like about Jalen is he's very competitive, even though he's young, he's a good pro, and he does make improvements. And if he can continue in that regard, I'll sum his rookie season up, it was a rookie season. There were some things that he did well, and he flashed. There were times he didn't play as well as we needed him to. His challenge is creating that consistency. You do that, and it's hard to be consistent when you're brand-new at something, but that experience that comes from a year, getting out there and being thrown into the fire, he should be able to benefit from that as we go further down the road. I like where he's going, but he's never lacked for competitiveness. He's never lacked for work ethic. Those are things that he comes every day with."
• On Patrick Robinson: "Two years ago, we evaluated him when he was with San Diego. I thought he had a really good year. He had some inside-outside flexibility. Played nickel, played outside. And we liked what we saw. He obviously signed with Indianapolis. Then last year was a bit of a lost season for him with injuries. He looks like he's back healthy now. He's a guy that brings some experience in there. He's really quick, he's really fast. He's been around the NFL. So those are all good attributes to have. Just like any other veteran player... the biggest challenge for those guys a lot of times is trying to switch everything to their own terminology. There are some things that maybe you do a little bit different than the team that they were with before. But usually that's their adjustment. So those guys, for lack of a better way to put it, they're a little bit behind the other guys because they don't have the base of knowledge of 16 games and training camp and all those things. But in my experience, those guys catch up quick because they have so much experience."
But are they better than last year?
"Well, I think that we'll see where that goes," he said. "I think we go in, just about any position, we don't expect anything. We don't expect our D-line to be better this year. And I say that, I mean, that would probably make a bad quote: ‘Schwartz doesn’t expect D-line to be better.’ What I'm trying to get to, and I don't know the best way to put it, but to say anytime that you… Maybe take for granted, you know… Just say, ‘Hey, we added a couple players, so we take for granted that we're going to be better.’
"This is a tough business. Things change an awful lot and you can't take anything for granted. You have to come to work and constantly work to improve. I like the young players we've added. I think not only some of our draft picks, but we've signed some pretty good undrafted free agents that have done some nice things in the rookie camp and also in the OTAs so far. [We] added some veteran players like Patrick Robinson [and] have some returning players that are now a year more under their belt. So, I think all those things can point in the right direction, but none of that means anything. This game isn't played on paper. It's played between the lines. Our job is to be ready when those games count."
The Eagles being better at corner than last year would be clearing a pretty low bar. Schwartz declined to go out on a limb and say that they are.
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