The Philadelphia Eagles will open up their 2015 season against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night and they have a lot of questions to be answered. Chip Kelly has made a lot of roster changes, and this will be the first chance to see if they will pay off for him. One of the major question marks for the Eagles is their secondary, and they won't be eased into anything as they will have to contend with Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and company. In an attempt to cover Jones, it is being reported that the Eagles will likely have their number one cornerback, Byron Maxwell, shadow him throughout the game, according to D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Jones has become one of the best receivers in the NFL and is coming off an incredible season where he caught more than 100 passes for almost 1,600 yards and six touchdowns. The Eagles do not have confidence in their other cornerbacks to be able to stay with Jones so they will stick Maxwell on Jones and hope he can get the job done.
Maxwell was the top cornerback on the free agent market this offseason, and the Eagles gave him a six-year $63 million deal. Maxwell is far and away the Eagles number one corner as they are loaded with question marks behind him. Even Maxwell himself has question marks as he was previously with the Seattle Seahawks and was assigned a side of the field instead of taking a specific receiver. This will be Maxwell's first time having to shadow a top receiver, and it will be interesting to see how the 27-year-old handles it.
Behind Maxwell, the Eagles are expected to start Nolan Carroll at the other cornerback spot and E.J. Biggers is the favorite to play nickel corner, which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence for Eagles fans. All eyes will be on how Maxwell does covering Jones, but it may be Roddy White, the Falcons number two receiver, who has the big game against the other Eagles cornerbacks.
The Eagles will likely be happy to live with White having a big game as opposed to Jones running wild because of his big play ability. At this point in his career, White isn't as explosive as he used to be and isn't nearly as big a threat as Jones is. Maxwell is going to have his hands full with Jones, but it may be the other Eagles corners that are the bigger concern heading into the season opening game.
