PHILADELPHIA — It was Monday last week when Doug Pederson implied that Ronald Darby and Sidney Jones would be the Eagles’ starting outside cornerbacks in Week 1.
Wednesday, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz declined to reveal who he’d be starting.
Saturday, the coaching staff informed Rasul Douglas that he would be the one starting opposite Darby against the Washington Redskins, with Avonte Maddox in the slot.
Clearly, it’s a fluid situation. Don’t expect that to change in Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, even against All-Pro receiver Julio Jones.
“We both have the mindset that we’re starting,” Douglas said on Tuesday, “until Saturday comes and they tell us.”
Well, in Week 1, Douglas might have started, but by no means was he the one playing in that spot on the outside full-time. After a rough first half for Douglas highlighted by the moment he allowed rookie Redskins receiver Terry McLaurin to get by him — without any safety help, mind you — and complete a 69-yard touchdown play down the field, he was subbed out for Jones.
Schwartz attributed that long touchdown to a combination of poor coverage and lacking pass rush on Tuesday, but Douglas struggled otherwise, too.
Overall, Douglas played 55 snaps — the most of any Eagles corner — and Redskins quarterback Case Keenum had a perfect passer rating (158.3) on five pass attempts into Douglas’ coverage area, per Pro Football Focus.
The Eagles won the game, but the cornerbacks would admit they need to improve.
In the second half, after barely playing in the first, Jones subbed in for Douglas on the outside and the two of them rotated with Darby — on a “pitch count” in his first game back from 2018 knee surgery — for the rest of the game. Maddox battled cramps and otherwise struggled in the slot, too, garnering the team’s worst coverage grade on the team.
All told, it wasn’t exactly an exemplary performance to open the season. Keenum threw for 380 yards, and would’ve surpassed 400 if he didn’t overthrow McLaurin on another deep ball where the speedy rookie burned Jones and was wide-open down the field.
Schwartz wasn’t exactly complimentary of the group at his Tuesday press conference.
First, the defensive coordinator attributed some of the team’s pass-rushing trouble to struggles in coverage, saying “we can do better certainly in pass rush, but I think in coverage we can make the quarterback hold the ball a little longer and buy time for our guys to get home.”
On the defense’s performance in coverage in the first half, Schwartz was a bit more specific in his criticism: “I think you have a tendency when you give up a play to get a little less aggressive in coverage and then we gave up some underneath things. But there was a lot of different things. Overall, we just didn’t, particularly in that first half, didn’t have a lot of sync. Our zones weren’t good, our man wasn’t good, our blitz wasn’t good — we were still stopping the run pretty good — but whether it was a combination of tackling or angles going to the ball or defending deep to short or playing tight coverage, it just didn’t look like us and didn’t look like what we’ll look like.”
As for that cornerback rotation — Schwartz admitted that it’s not ideal shuffling cornerbacks in and out of the lineup. Typically, teams stick to two cornerbacks in base and then, maybe, shuffle things around when in a nickel defense.
Jones slid inside when Maddox left the game with cramps, but otherwise Maddox has a hold on that job, at least for now.
The reason for the rotation — specifically, using Douglas in the first half, and Jones in the second — Schwartz attributed that in part to the depth of talent he sees in the cornerback room, and part to simply trying to figure out the best combination to use.
Of note, the Eagles will be without Jalen Mills (Physically Unable to Perform list) and Cre’Von LeBlanc (injured reserve) for, likely, at least half the season. When they return, that could throw a wrinkle into the rotational plans.
“I think that, yeah, we would like to get it settled,” Schwartz said, "but we have a lot of guys that can go out there and contribute. I think we probably would prefer to have different packages for different match-ups and for different things like that. When you do have guys that haven’t played in the pre-season, guys come back from injuries and things like that, I think it’s just sort of a fact of life. You get long drives, you get different things.
“We’re prepared to play it anyway, but I think that, when it’s all said, when it gets settled down, we’ll be in a good spot because we have a lot of guys that have experience.”
Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZackBlatt. Find NJ.com on Facebook.