Philadelphia Eagles: Jim Schwartz isn’t ready to name starting CBs

Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz hasn’t figured out who will start at cornerback for week one yet.

The Philadelphia Eagles secondary has caused a lot of headaches for the team over the years. Being that it’s tough to come by a truly consistent and reliable cornerback in the NFL, Philly has had the opportunity to do tons of experimenting in the worst way possible in the past.

Nowadays, though, they have an intriguing bunch. Once, the starters, along with depth were an issue. Today, they have tons of depth at the position, but it’s not totally clear who should start. Last season, the Eagles began the season with Jalen Mills, Ronald Darby, and Sidney Jones starting.

By the end of the season, Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox, and Cre’Von LeBlanc were on the field as starters due to injuries. Although Darby, Mills, and Jones had some good moments early on, their injuries would soon become somewhat of a blessing because the Eagles found out some excellent traits regarding their depth pieces when they were asked to take over as starters.

Now in 2019, the Eagles are dealing with a good problem to have. Who will get the start when everybody is healthy? We’re unsure — and apparently, so is Eagles defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz. With the regular season kicking off in two weeks, Philly has to start aiming their focus towards week one. And finding starting corners will be a crucial decision coming up.

However, it hasn’t been discussed yet, and it will likely take a while to figure out.

Jim Schwartz discusses the state of the cornerback position

Right now, the Eagles have a handful of cornerbacks dealing with injuries. LeBlanc is still in a walking boot and could be out as late as November. So the Eagles don’t really have any answers involving LeBlanc right now. As for Jalen Mills, he’s in a similar situation.

Mills started the offseason off on the PUP and has yet to come off. At this point, it’s obvious he won’t be ready for the start of the season, so he is out of the equation for now as well. That leaves the Eagles with Ronald Darby, who is just fully returning, along with Douglas, Jones, and Maddox.

Assuming that Darby is back for week one, it’s almost a guarantee that he gets a starting spot on the outside. The Eagles clearly believe he’s a dependable starter in this league because they wouldn’t have banked $9 million on him to come and stand on the sidelines.

As for the other three, they have been battling it out at a different spot every day. While Douglas is the most experienced and battle-tested, something about the former third-round pick doesn’t grab the attention of Schwartz as much as it should.

For Jones and Maddox, those two are the most versatile out of the bunch. They can both play in the nickel or on the outside. Although Maddox proved he could be reliable last year, Jones has been praised more often than not for his offseason at the Nova Care Complex. It will be interesting to see the final results, but we could be waiting until the week of week one to find out.