Former Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins reflects on his time in Philadelphia

One day, Malcolm Jenkins will be an old man sitting on his porch, probably in the City of Brotherly Love or in the Big Easy, and he’ll have a lot of stories to tell his grandchildren about both his football life and all of his off-field accomplishments. Six amazing years with the Philadelphia Eagles was sandwiched by two stints in New Orleans with the Saints. He won a Super Bowl in both cities for his efforts.

On Sunday, he returns to the City of Brotherly Love, but as he was on December 13th a season ago, he’ll be in the visiting team’s locker room. One might imagine that, as all NFL stars do, he’ll say that this is a game that isn’t different than any other, but knowing what we all know about Jenkins, there’s no way that could be the case.

Malcolm Jenkins shares a few thoughts on his time with the Eagles.

In all, Malcolm Jenkins has played the Eagles three times. Two wins have been the result. He lost in his third visit (New Orleans lost to the Birds in Jalen Hurts’ debut as the starting quarterback in 2020).

As mentioned, there’s another side to that coin though. Malcolm Jenkins appeared in 102 games for the Eagles and started every single one of them (that includes six playoff-game appearances). He racked up over 400 solo tackles during that time and stuck his head in on more than 100 others.

He was also one of football’s true iron men. Aside from a decision the Eagles coaching staff made to rest their starters in Week 17 of the 2017 season, Jenkins played one-hundred percent of the snaps for his entire career with the Birds. They say availability is a skill, and no one was more skilled than Malcolm.

In a recent write-up by ESPN’s Tim McManus, Philly’s best safety since Brian Dawkins discussed his return to Lincoln Financial Field. Here’s some of what was said.

"I was able to show my authentic self, and realize the fan base really connected with who I was, so I got a chance to be my complete, unfiltered self. And there was a reciprocity to it all. The more I gave to the city, the more the city gave to me. You don’t really find that too many times as an athlete or just a human being in general. It’s a connection that I cherish and was huge for my life."

Jenkins’ legacy in Philadelphia with the Eagles is about more than 30 tackles that resulted in a loss of yardage and 6.5 sacks that he racked up in the regular and postseason (remember, he played the safety position). It’s about more than an equally impressive 11 interceptions and four defensive touchdowns in an Eagles jersey.

Jenkins can’t be discussed without bringing up his leadership or the fact that he’s a humanitarian and champion for social justice. Malcolm is one of Philly’s adopted sons, a guy that will never have to buy a beer in the City of Brotherly Love again. He still gets a lot of love from the city and fan base. Just don’t expect that love to be expressed during Week 11’s game.