Saints’ Jenkins Makes Good First Impression

Now that New Orleans Saints rookie cornerback Malcolm Jenkins has completed his final exams at Ohio State, the first-round draft pick is proving to be an extremely quick study on the football field. According to Mike Triplett of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jenkins’ knowledge of the game was evident during the Saints’ minicamp this weekend as he made up for lost time caused by the NFL academic rule. “He’s a smart guy,” safety Darren Sharper said of Jenkins. Although Jenkins surrendered a long reception to wide receiver D’Juan Woods during the first pass thrown in his direction, he also intercepted a deflected Mark Brunell pass and drew praise for how physical he was while jamming receivers. An imposing cornerback at 6'0", 204 pounds, Jenkins was a consensus All-American selection for the Buckeyes. “Well, the first impression when you look at him is, ‘Man, that’s a pretty big cornerback right there,’” cornerback Randall Gay said. “If he’s that big and can move like a cornerback, then he has some skills. And you can see he went right out there in practice, you can tell he’s been in this playbook. He wants to be there.” Jenkins adjusted his final exam schedule, including a challenging forensic science class, with school officials to fulfill his academic requirements a week early so he could get to work. “The sooner I could get down here, the more I could learn,” Jenkins said. ". . . Everybody’s learning it just like me. I know the coaches aren’t expecting me to automatically just grasp the whole playbook and come in here and dominate right off the bat. I have a little bit of a learning curve, and all I can do is just do my best and learn as fast as I can.” Although some NFL teams projected Jenkins as a safety due to his 4.5 speed in the 40-yard dash, the Saints are giving him every opportunity to prove himself at cornerback.