Enough about Malcolm Jenkins!

[TheRealMcCoy]

I'm glad I'm not the only one tired of it.

TALK TO EM, JALEN!!

I've seen this angle a lot on twitter and even a bit here too. Cut the crap.

Jenkins was an aging player that's best years were clearly behind him. I think last year showed that.

He can definitely contribute in the box and is still a smart player and leader, for sure, but he wanted much more of a commitment from the Eagles.

Do I think he was wrong to want an extension/new deal? Hell no.

But, the Eagles weren't wrong for letting him seek that contract extension elsewhere when he made it clear he wasn't returning on the final year of his deal.

I would say he outperformed that extension we gave him in 2016, but he had a year left on that deal and with us being under heavy constraints after that last year on his deal it didn't make much sense at all to just throw him a nice big extension for past production. His leadership, play, and durability were extremely valuable to the Eagles in his years here. Great free agent signing by Roseman that helped us immensely. There is no denying that. I will always be greatly appreciative to Jenkins for helping bring us our first title.

However, Roseman showed a lot of self awareness admitting to one of his weaknesses as a GM.

Jenkins was prime to be an example of just that.

Given what Malcolm wanted and what was best for the team in the long run I think the departure made too much sense.

I also think he overvalued what he was worth at this stage of his career honestly. 

This was what he was scheduled to make in 2020 if he stayed on his current deal:

Quote

Jenkins is currently owed a base salary of $7.6 million in 2020. With over $3 in remaining prorated bonus money, plus per-game incentives worth an additional $250,000, his cap hit rises to over $10.8 million.

He probably could have reached that 10.8 million with his durability or close to it which would've also been more than even his highest figure for even his 4th year of his Saints contract which there is a great chance he never even sees causes its a business and by his 4th year I'm pretty sure New Orleans is gonna realize he's just not worth 8 figures at that point and cut him and save 8 of that 10.25 million.

Now, he wanted job security being 32 years old and looking at his last "big" deal and I don't think he would change his decision to force Roseman's hand, even if he didn't get probably as much per year as he thought he could get.

I don't think Roseman should be criticized for what was in all likelihood the right decision for the team going forward and probably a tough one given what he said about getting attached to players and Jenkins being one of his best FA signings (along with Brandon Brooks).

The Eagles have 2 guys with leadership abilities on the back end in McLeod and Mills. I think it just got overlooked with Jenkins here. Not to mention we also brought in Slay who proved to be a good leader and veteran presence in the DB room.

There is a litany of reasons the Eagles are struggling this year, but Malcolm Jenkins' departure was the right move and is ultimately very low on the totem pole.

People need to get this through their heads.

 

[TheRealMcCoy]

The beat reporters talking about Mills and how he looked pretty natural back at safety doesn't appear to be smoke either.

People are gonna point to that big run by Henderson where Mills was coming down and the last line of defense and missed that tackle in the open field that he definitely could've made, but he's still adjusting to playing safety and not surprised by that. He stopped and left his feet too early on that play and paid for it.

But, overall I think he has played pretty well for his first 2 games at the position. I just saw an Eagles highlight maker who has been watching the all-22 said Mills had a pretty good game against the Rams. PFF also gave him the 2nd highest coverage grade of any Eagles player on Sunday too fwiw lol.

Meanwhile, Jenkins struggled against the Raiders on Monday night. 

The transition for Mills isn't gonna be an easy one and will come with some hiccups, but he knows he has big shoes to fill.

Jenkins was a model of leadership, durability, and consistency for most of his tenure. He was an obvious fan favorite for years for a reason and I think that's why Eagles fans are so quick to point to 'losing him', but they are just waiting for any bad Mills play to tear him down and bring up Jenkins and I don't like it.

Schwartz may be putting too much on his plate too early and like I said for someone making a switch from corner to safety this shortened offseason and no preseason to get his feet wet really hurts. Give him time to grow into the new position and all the added responsibilities.

I've never been a huge Jalen Mills fan, because his cockiness/swagger always rubbed me the wrong way with how he would get beat deep, but I think that part of his game is allowing him to make a tough transition to a do-it-all safety replacement for Jenkins. His energy is infectious for the team. He'll likely get better tackling coming downhill, but you can't expect him to be as great there as Jenkins was when he had been doing it for most of his pro career after he switched from nickel corner.

Also, just from watching interviews and seeing quotes this offseason I think Mills has done a great job maturity wise with the position move and giving credit to Jenkins despite how many questions he was asked about him this offseason. I don't know if he's gonna be here long term at safety. This may just be a 1 year thing as he's on a 1 year deal and Schwartz might not be here in the future, but I'm gonna be in his corner and paying close attention to how he progresses.

Edited September 23, 2020 by TheRealMcCoy

[Nabbs4u]

Sorry but Malcolm might of been then most under appreciated Eagle in history. 

Played damn near every snap for 3 straight years in a secondary that was not only decimated by injury but was asked to play every position but DL.

He's now being replaced by a player who not only sucked at CB but can't stay healthy. It's just a matter of time before Mills comes up gimp. Not If but When.

I too wouldn't want to answer questions about Malcolm if I was Jalen. There isn't really a comparison between the two.

[Daimonas]

Malcolm was one of our best defensive players... until 2019. He was clearly not what he used to be and am glad we moved on instead of giving him an extension.

[TheRealMcCoy]

4 hours ago, Nabbs4u said:

Sorry but Malcolm might of been then most under appreciated Eagle in history.

Lol what? This isn’t even remotely true.

Jenkins got tons of love and appreciation.

[TwoUpTwoDown]

I think the one quantifiable downside to losing Malcolm so far this season has been the obvious Redzone miscommunications. We are really bad in that area compared to recent years.

[AZ_Eaglesfan]

Watching how he played on MNF..... it’s a damn good thing we didn’t resign him. Guys over the hill. Great leader for sure, but other guys can fill that role. 

[Broadway Joe]

It made sense to let him go from a money perspective, from a footaball perspective it didn´t. While his best years are clearly behind him, as usual we did a poor job of finding his replacement. 

He talked about wanting an extension/restructure on TC of 2019 yet we neglect the S position knowing it would come to this on 2020. I´d much rather have over the hill Jenkis whose impact with presnap insticts and lining the defense goes way beyond the stat sheet than the crap we are fielding at the moment. 

[AZ_Eaglesfan]

4 minutes ago, Broadway Joe said:

It made sense to let him go from a money perspective, from a footaball perspective it didn´t. While his best years are clearly behind him, as usual we did a poor job of finding his replacement. 

He talked about wanting an extension/restructure on TC of 2019 yet we neglect the S position knowing it would come to this on 2020. I´d much rather have over the hill Jenkis whose impact with presnap insticts and lining the defense goes way beyond the stat sheet than the crap we are fielding at the moment. 

Idk if you saw him play vs the Raiders on Monday but he was straight up awful. Jenkins being gone is good, he was not worth the money and Mills seems much more comfortable at safety. 

[Broadway Joe]

2 hours ago, AZ_Eaglesfan said:

Idk if you saw him play vs the Raiders on Monday but he was straight up awful. Jenkins being gone is good, he was not worth the money and Mills seems much more comfortable at safety. 

I did watch him and while he wasn’t good, I don’t think he was awful either. But I think past his Prime Jenkins is better than “prime” Gerry/Mills.

[TheRealMcCoy]

2 hours ago, Broadway Joe said:

It made sense to let him go from a money perspective

Okay... glad you agree with me there.

2 hours ago, Broadway Joe said:

from a footaball perspective it didn´t

I get what you're saying, but if we weren't willing to give him a sizable long term extension he wasn't gonna play on his deal.

2 hours ago, Broadway Joe said:

While his best years are clearly behind him, as usual we did a poor job of finding his replacement.

That's a different discussion and I agree with you. 

I was calling for us to take a safety on day 1 or 2 going back to last year knowing Jenkins and/or McLeod was probably on the way out soon, but we skipped on it both years.

We went offense with 5 (Dillard, Sanders, Arcega-Whiteside, Reagor, Hurts) out of the 6 day 2 picks we had. The only defensive player we took was Davion Taylor who was a raw LB who needed probably at least a couple offseasons of developing. 

Bringing Mills back for cheap and trying to move him back to safety made some sense, but the shortened offseason hurt him. He'll get more comfortable playing the position as the season goes on I think. Thought he improved from week 1 to 2. Also, Will Parks being out kind of hurt this secondary too. Not sure why they are fielding Marcus Epps. K'Von Wallace can't be that bad. He's a very efficient tackler and there was some talk he was picking things up fast in the beginning of camp. I just don't think Schwartz really trusts rookies really.

2 hours ago, Broadway Joe said:

I´d much rather have over the hill Jenkis whose impact with presnap insticts and lining the defense goes way beyond the stat sheet than the crap we are fielding at the moment. 

In the short term like this season? Sure, I guess.

Having 2 veterans back at safety still would make things a bit easier, but we would most likely definitely regret giving him 4 years (or a 3 year extension) like the Saints.

Would it really improve our defense that much this year though?

Like maybe the communication would be better. I could see that. His coverage is probably definitely worse than Mills at this stage in his career.

McLeod was definitely the better of the two to bring back.

His ability to play FS is something we probably couldn't entrust to a rookie even if we took one and definitely not Mills or Parks.

Not to mention he was willing to come back on a very reasonable 2 year deal for 8.6 million. 

 

[RaidersAreOne]

Dude was horrible vs. Waller. He was getting smoked all game long.

[EaglesPeteC]

Remember that time we passed on a Chauncey Gardner Johnson 3 times? So glad we have Dillard and JJAW though.....

[Broadway Joe]

@TheRealMcCoy very good post and that´s some nice nuggets from Mills who I feel has a better football IQ than most think.

However I feel that Jenkins impact would be much more welcome for the LBs than at S. Him being an undersized LB is better than what we currently have. I don´t what to see the horrible ¨LBs don´t matter in the 4-3¨take ever again. 

I do want to see Wallace play too, I don´t recall Epps making a good play, ever. 

[Jroc04]

I think we’re really missing Parks.