Getty Eagles CB Sidney Jones has been playing himself into a larger role, maybe even a starting one.
There has been more shuffling going on in the Eagles’ secondary than in a VFW hall. And the team is still sliding around.
On the same day cornerback Ronald Darby was placed on season-ending IR, the team’s defensive coordinator was dropping hints on a new starter.
Rasul Douglas was widely assumed to get the job, an assumption strengthened on Monday when Doug Pederson all but confirmed it. However, Jim Schwartz back-tracked ever so slightly on Tuesday by giving Sidney Jones a huge vote of confidence.
The 23-year-old out of Washington has greatly underachieved since being drafted 43rd overall in 2017. That is, until the calendar hit December.
Jones provided the game-clinching pass breakup last week on Michael Gallup in the fourth quarter, following his key breakup on a third-down play in overtime two weeks ago. He has quickly taken on a Brad Lidge role, as the closer of the Eagles’ secondary.
In doing so, he’s gained the trust of his coaching staff and Schwartz didn’t rule out increasing his snaps. Maybe even starting him this week.
“We’ll see the way it goes this week,” Schwartz said when asked about starting Jones. “We have a lot of different combinations and a lot of different personnel groups that we can have ready, but he’s certainly in the consideration.”
Sidney Jones comes up CLUTCH with the pass breakup.
Sidney Jones Defensive Snaps Slowly Increasing
It’s been a roller-coaster ride for Sidney Jones this year.
First, he was sidelined with a nagging hamstring injury, one that bothered Doug Pederson and led to the coach challenging Jones’ fitness. Then Jones was flat-out benched for poor play by guys like Craig James and Orlando Scandrick.
Jones wasn’t happy but he seemed to get the message. The third-year cornerback has picked it up in recent weeks while watching his snap counts steadily climb. He was in on 18 defensive snaps (29-percent) last week versus Dallas after seeing just one snap the previous week. That one snap was arguably the biggest play of the game, though.
On Tuesday, Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz complimented Jones for never “putting his head down” despite his early struggles.
“He has a great attitude every day,” Schwartz said. “He prepares like he’s starting every single week, and that’s helped him to be able to make those plays.”
Schwartz also went into detail about those two possibly career-defining — and career-saving — pass breakups. He specifically mentioned a crucial 3rd-and-8 play against the Cowboys that put Jones on Dallas’ best receiver, Amari Cooper. Jones blanketed him like Linus as the pass fell incomplete.
“There was no error at all in that coverage,” Schwartz said. “There was nowhere for the quarterback to throw that one. He threw incomplete and then came back and took a shot on that.”
“So it hasn’t just been one or two plays, Schwartz continued. “He’s been a consistent player and made tackles when he’s needed to. I’ve been very proud of him.”
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