Despite his struggles, Eagles CB Adoree’ Jackson is likely to start against Chiefs, Vic Fangio says

For now, the Eagles are sticking with Adoree’ Jackson as their starting outside cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell, according to Vic Fangio.

When asked Tuesday if the plan is to have Jackson start Sunday on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs, the defensive coordinator said, “Right now, yes.”

Jackson, the ninth-year veteran cornerback who turns 30 later this month, had a rough showing in his Eagles regular-season debut on Thursday against the Dallas Cowboys. According to Pro Football Focus, he conceded five receptions for a team-high 103 yards in coverage, including five first downs. He also had a missed tackle.

Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb inflicted the most damage on Jackson. The All-Pro receiver finished the night with a team-high 110 receiving yards and racked up three receptions on five targets for 72 yards against Jackson, according to PFF.

Fangio pointed to lapses in Jackson’s technique as the root causes of his shortcomings in the opener.

“He’s just got to make sure he’s a master technician and not let his technique falter,” Fangio said. “They have good receivers, and if you don’t go about your job the right way from a technique standpoint, those good receivers become impossible to cover.”

Barring a change in tune, the Eagles are betting on Jackson’s improvement when they hit the road to face the 0-1 Chiefs. Do they have better options at outside cornerback? Fangio didn’t sound too high on the team’s internal alternatives to Jackson.

Jakorian Bennett, who played seven defensive snaps against the Cowboys while Jackson was being evaluated for a concussion, allowed three receptions for 20 yards, according to PFF, and was flagged for pass interference on his first play. Fangio said that a seven-snap sample size was “not enough” to make any conclusions about the 25-year-old’s readiness to take on the starting outside cornerback role.

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What about Cooper DeJean, the team’s nickel cornerback? During training camp in August, Fangio said another player would need to emerge at nickel for the Eagles to consider moving DeJean to the outside full-time. As of Tuesday, that had not happened. Fangio said the team would prefer to keep DeJean in the slot.

Against Dallas, Fangio opted to use a rotation of safeties alongside Reed Blankenship. When the Eagles were in their base defense, Sydney Brown was on the field. Drew Mukuba took his place when the Eagles were in their nickel defense.

The Eagles weren’t in their base defense very often, so Brown didn’t see much action. According to Next Gen Stats, they were in base for 12 of 56 defensive plays (21.4%) and in nickel for 41 plays (73.2%). Brown took just 14 snaps on defense, while Mukuba was on the field for 51 plays.

Fangio said that entering the game, he thought the defense would be in base more. However, because the Cowboys deployed three wide receivers frequently, the Eagles were forced to use their nickel personnel to match.

Mukuba, the team’s second-round pick out of Texas, made his regular-season debut a couple of weeks removed from a hamstring injury he suffered at the end of training camp. On paper, and by the eye test, Mukuba had a solid performance — he finished the night with four tackles, including two “stops” (which PFF defines as tackles that constitute a failure for the offense). He also allowed just one reception for 5 yards.

However, Fangio noted that the rookie safety has room to grow.

“He did OK,” Fangio said. “He had a couple major busts that hurt us and could’ve hurt us even more. So looking for him to improve this next week.”

Howie Roseman made yet another tweak to the Eagles’ defensive depth when he signed free-agent defensive end Za’Darius Smith on Friday.

The 33-year-old Smith brings 10 years of NFL experience to a corps full of young players such as Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt. The veteran edge rusher spent last season with two teams — the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions. He combined for nine sacks, marking the fourth-best single-season output of his career.

While Smith projects as a situational pass rusher in the Eagles’ rotation, Fangio still has questions about the role the newcomer will play in the short and long term.

“I haven’t really tracked him that much,” Fangio said. “I knew he was a good player. I don’t know how he’ll fit in yet. Haven’t seen him on the field. Don’t know what kind of shape he’s in. Don’t know how quickly he’ll pick up what we’re doing. So that’s a TBD right there.”

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The decision to add Smith came one day after the Jalen Carter-less Eagles defensive front failed to sack Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. According to Next Gen Stats, Prescott was pressured on 34.3% of his dropbacks, which fell in the middle of the league in Week 1. But the Eagles were one of only three teams that failed to sack the opposing quarterback.

Only four edge defenders were active Thursday — Smith, Hunt, Joshua Uche, and Patrick Johnson. Azeez Ojulari and Ogbo Okoronkwo were inactive.

The corps of edge rushers has been a prominent topic of conversation this offseason. The group lost some firepower following the departure of Josh Sweat in free agency and the retirement of Brandon Graham. Even though the group seems to be a work in progress, Fangio said Tuesday that he is “feeling better” about its depth.