The Eagles Secondary Should Be Talked About First And Foremost

By Matt Giraldi | Jun 11, 2017

Oct 23, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills (31) breaks up the pass attempt to Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs (14) during the first half at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

The Philadelphia Eagles don’t have a lot of name recognition in their secondary outside of Malcolm Jenkins. That could all change this upcoming season however.

The Eagles have had their fair share of landmines in the secondary since 2010. Asante Samuel‘s last two seasons with the team were abysmal. Soon thereafter, Nnamdi Asomugha proved to be one of the worst free agent signings in the team’s history. Let’s just avoid talking about Byron Maxwell and Nolan Carroll.

Poor personnel decisions have mired the team in mediocrity as well. Brandon Boykin was a solid nickel corner that was traded away by Chip Kelly. That trade might not have been so bad in hindsight. It netted the Eagles Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Of course, the Eagles also traded Eric Rowe to the New England Patriots.

Now, entering the second year of Doug Pederson’s tenure as head coach, the Eagles have a rag tag group of guys in the secondary. Malcolm Jenkins returns as a locker room leader and arguably the best player in the back-end of the defense. Jalen Mills returns with his green hair and his cloud of criticism from Eagles fans. In “Dude Where’s My Car” fashion, and theeeeen…

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We have guys like Rasul Butler, Patrick Robinson, Jaylen Watkins, Terrance Brooks and Sidney Jones. If obscurity was an official NFL statistic, the Eagles would corner the market (I’ll be here all week).

Lost in the aforementioned obscurity is how well these Eagles corners played during OTAs. Sure, the pads aren’t on and the teams are running vanilla systems. However, there’s reason to believe in their success this upcoming season.

The improvement along the defensive line is the biggest reason. Derek Barnett was abusing Lane Johnson during OTA’s. Brandon Graham has improved enough over the past couple seasons to make many think he’s an actual NFL pass rusher. Vinny Curry, well, appears to at least be another body along the line.

Another season led by Jim Schwartz should also help. Last season the Eagles allowed the 13th fewest passing yards in the NFL. They held opposing quarterbacks to an 85.7 quarterback rating. With 16 interceptions, the team was only two behind the league leader(s) and ranked in the top ten in the NFL. Let’s be honest too, Schwartz knows he is up against the grain with this secondary.

Next: Five Reasons The Eagles Make The Playoffs In 2017

Last season, the Eagles showed they had what it takes to stop the run. This season, it’s about also stopping the pass. The team had only two games where they didn’t force a turnover last season. In the fourth quarter, the Eagles defense held opposing quarterbacks to a 54.3 passer rating. In the red zone, opponents completed only 43.1% percent of their passes. For all the criticism we are heaping on the secondary, we might want to start thinking about building a hype train.

Chugga chugga…

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