Philadelphia Eagles: It is time to bench Jalen Mills

The Philadelphia Eagles need to bench cornerback Jalen Mills for the sake of their defense and sanity of the fans moving forward in 2018.

Philadelphia Eagles fans are tough, as a whole and as an audience. Everyone knows this. The Eagles won the Super Bowl last season and that did not stop the Eagles fans from booing the team in Week 1 when they were playing poorly. They are passionate and wear their emotions on their sleeves. One player who Eagles fans have been very upset with this season is cornerback Jalen Mills.

Mills, who was drafted in the seventh round of the 2016 NFL Draft because of off field issues, has looked like a seventh-round pick in the 2018 season. Eagles fans have been talking about the idea that the Eagles should bench the former LSU Tigers defensive back, but it should no longer be an idea. It should be reality.

It is time for the Eagles to bench Mills and move Sidney Jones to the outside. For what seems to be the 100th week in a row, Mills bit on a double move and was torched deep for a big play. Double moves have killed him his entire career and somehow he still has trouble covering them.

If it were just the double moves beating Mills, the Eagles would likely live with that, but it isn’t. Mills is getting beat on simple posts and verticals now and has become instant offense for opposing quarterbacks.

If he is not just giving up big completions, he is being called for defensive pass interference, which I have agreed with all of the calls on him. Almost all of his pass interference calls come from his lack of technique and lazy footwork. What makes it tough to bench Mills is the passion he plays the game with and his willingness and ability to tackle.

The only problem is that he has become such a liability in coverage, it is time to pull the plug. Jones has been playing solid all season and is just as willing and able to tackle as Mills. Jones was going to be an early first-round pick until an Achilles injury at his pro day derailed that. Philly got him in the second round, but he has shown that the talent is still there. It is his time to show the Eagles if he can be the guy they can trust in coverage because there is no longer any trust in Mills.

What would the secondary look like if Jones moved to the outside?

Well, that would leave the slot corner spot open, but rookie Avonte Maddox has flashed so far this season so he would likely be the guy to move there. You could also see how Mills would do in the slot, but I think a couple of weeks sitting on the bench could hopefully light a fire under him and get him to either play better or show you made the right choice. The only problem with Maddox moving to the slot is that he played a ton of free safety in Week 4, with the loss of Rodney McLeod.

Regardless of what the new lineup would look like, it is time to take Mills out of it.