After bringing back Jalen Mills and grabbing Darius Slay and Nickell Robey-Coleman this offseason, there is a cluster at the cornerback position that needs to get sorted out. We know Slay will secure one of the outside corner spots, and Robey-Coleman is best in the slot, so who will be the other outside corner opposite Slay?
According to NBC Sports Philadelphia's Derrick Gunn, Avonte Maddox will have the first opportunity to win the other starting job.
Maddox has been thrown all over the Eagles defense since his arrival in 2018. He has played outside corner, the slot, and also filled in at safety. It's shocking that Jalen Mills isn't guaranteed the job, but right now it is being reported that Mills is going to play Malcolm Jenkins former role, which was a jack of all trades role as both a cornerback and safety.
The team still appears to be very high on Maddox, and even though he doesn't have the height wanted for someone to play on the outside, he has the speed to make up for any mistakes made at the line of scrimmage.
There is still a lot that needs to unfold this offseason, including whether or not the team addresses safety early in the draft. If they do address that position early, then Jalen Mills might not need to move to Jenkins' former role and stick just to his previous job as a starting corner. If the Maddox experiment doesn't work, the team also has Sidney Jones to try again on the outside. For now though, any developments will need to wait until the team is able to get on the field in the summer.
