Terrell Edmunds will wipe C.J. Gardner-Johnson from the minds of Eagles Nation
There are endorsements, and there are statements that will wind up placing an undue amount of pressure on the party mentioned if we aren’t careful. There’s nothing wrong with a little pressure though, right? You know the saying well. Pressure ‘makes diamonds or bursts pipes’. That’s how we separate the contenders from the pretenders. Just look at the last two Philadelphia Eagles‘ franchise quarterbacks if you need a couple of examples.
Jalen Hurts turned out to be a diamond. Carson Wentz is a pipe. Something tells us this Terell Edmunds fellow is going to be special in the midnight green as well. Our guess? He’s going to make Birds fans forget C.J. Gardner-Johnson and relatively soon if you haven’t already. Trust us. We know it’s hard to do.
Who knew that C.J. came with this much drama? Dude’s Twitter game is crazy… and slightly annoying, but Edmunds comes with seemingly a more mature mindset, and he’s already starting to win over some trusted voices.
Barrett Brooks gives the Eagles’ addition of Terrell Edmunds a glowing endorsement.
March 28th’s episode of JAKIB Sports’ highly-popular Birds 365 show was an entertaining watch, one where Rickie Ricardo and Barrett Brooks stopped by. The latter is a co-host on his own JAKIB imprint, Sports Take with Derrick Gunn, Barrett Brooks & Rob Ellis. He’s also a mainstay on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
It’s his recent take on Edmunds that grabbed our attention though. Don’t look now, but Terrrell has already earned a comparison to an Eagles Super Bowl hero.
Barrett Brooks says Terrell Edmunds is the closest thing to Malcolm Jenkins that we’ve seen in Philly. pic.twitter.com/NLHhgcuLQr
— JAKIB Sports (@JAKIBSports) March 28, 2023
Cue the pressure. Now, we have to be honest here. Edmunds spent most of his time in Pittsburgh as a box safety for the Steelers. Malcolm Jenkins could play deep, at the line of scrimmage, or play a little slot corner if need be. Just to be fair though, we pulled both players’ statistics covering their first five years in the league.
Malcolm Jenkins (2009-2013)
- 71 regular season games, 63 games started
- Six interceptions, 2 pick-sixes
- 37 pass breakups, six forced fumbles, one scoop and score
- 359 total tackles, 4.5 sacks
- Nine TFLs (tackles for loss), 12 QB hits
Malcolm also appeared in six postseason games during his first three seasons. He collected 25 tackles, a sack, and two pass breakups.
Terrell Edmunds (2018-2022)
- 79 regular-season games, 76 starts
- Five interceptions, zero pick-sixes
- 26 pass breakups, zero forced fumbles
- 410 total tackles, five sacks
- 15 TFLs, nine QB hits
- Two playoff games, started both
- 12 tackles, one PBU in two playoff games
We can’t look past the fact that their roles were different. So were the defensive philosophies of the teams they played on, but truthfully while the numbers are comparable in some areas and vary in others, we’d still state Malcolm was the better player during his first five NFL seasons.
There’s no shade toward Edmunds there. Jenkins was a tough act to follow (and still is). Then again, who are we to argue with Brooks’ expertise?
His NFL career spanned 12 seasons. He played with two of the greatest safeties God ever created, Brian Dawkins and Troy PolamaluHe also shared the field with a couple of defensive backs who were damn good as well, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor.
With that being said, if Brandon Brooks believes Terrell Edmunds is worthy of a Malcolm Jenkins comparison, we respectfully defer to his knowledge of the game. We just hope he’s right. If Edmunds is as good as we’re being told, this could be fun.
