Philadelphia Eagles: Sidney Jones (number 22) turns 22

Number 22 for the Philadelphia Eagles turned 22 years old on May 21st. It’s Sidney Jones’ birthday!

It’s time to celebrate a birthday for one of the Philadelphia Eagles young guns on defense. Sidney Jones on May 21st celebrated another birthday. Yes, number 22 turned 22 years old.

Say what you want about that being some powerful football insight on ‘The Birds’. Honestly, it just sounds mad cool to say it. Yeah, we typically get this charged up about a 21st birthday, when young men transition into adult status, but Jones doesn’t wear the number 21 so deal with it.

First, let’s check out some well-wishes from the Eagles themselves:

Since we’re here, we might as well do some analysis.

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Some of the impatience we experienced by knowing we weren’t going to see Jones play in his rookie season was replaced by the excitement of knowing his rehab was progressing ahead of schedule.

Suddenly, we were met with the idea that we might see him prior to the end of 2017’s regular season.

Finally, in last season’s final regular season game, we got a shot. Jones showed some promise by doing a few nice things, but we have to be honest about two things.

One, the game didn’t matter, and second, nothing in that performance showed us enough or has any bearing on how well he’s progressing as a football talent.

Year two of the Jones era is upon us.

OTAs are approaching, and Jones is ready for year two of his NFL career. Practice reps will now be added to the mental reps he took all season a year ago. Philly’s carrying eight corners and one player listed as a defensive back (D.J. Killings) into OTAs and training camp.

Jones joins Ronald Darby, De’Vante Bausby, Jalen Mills, Randall Goforth, Rasul Douglas and rookies Avonte Maddox and Chandon Sullivan in a crowded cornerback grouping. Douglas impressed in relief of both Darby and Jones a season ago, but of the names listed, one might imagine the plan is Darby and Jones go into the preseason, and maybe the regular season, as the starters.

We have a long way to go before determining whether or not that’s the case. OTAs come first. Then, there’s training camp, but prior to that there’s today. Happy birthday wishes are in order for the 43rd-overall selection of the 2017 NFL Draft.