Philadelphia Eagles

All-time Eagles great announces retirement from the NFL

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Safety Malcolm Jenkins, one of the greatest free agent acquisitions in Eagles history and one of the heroes of the Super Bowl LII team, has announced his retirement from the NFL.

Jenkins, 34, played 13 total seasons in the NFL after the Saints drafted him in the first round back in 2009 out of Ohio State.

RELATED: Eagles fans, players react to Jenkins' retirement news

Jenkins spent the first five seasons in New Orleans before he joined the Eagles in 2014. That ended up being an all-time great free agent signing for the Eagles.

“In so many ways, Malcolm Jenkins defined everything we want a Philadelphia Eagle to be,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. “He was talented, intelligent, versatile, and reliable. He was physically and mentally tough. He led with his words, with his actions, with the emotion he took to the field and with the professionalism he brought every single day to our building.

“He never took a single snap off — not in a game and not in a practice. Few players have ever had a personality and a style of play that meshed more perfectly with the City of Philadelphia. He contributed in so many memorable moments during his six years in Philadelphia, inlacing our first Super Bowl Championship.”

In his six years with the Eagles, Jenkins made three Pro Bowls, became the unquestioned leader of the defense and helped the franchise win its first-ever Super Bowl. He played and started in 96 games with the Eagles and had 11 interceptions, 4 touchdowns, 12 forced fumbles, 5 1/2 sacks and 32 tackles for loss.

During his six seasons with the Eagles, Jenkins didn’t miss a single game and he almost never left the field. He was one of the most reliable forces on that side of the ball for many years and was a smart and calculated leader of those teams. He was the whole package.

In his six years with the Eagles, Jenkins played and started 102 out of 102 regular season and postseason games and almost never left the field.

Jenkins played 6,818 of 6,909 possible defensive snaps in his Eagles career (98.7%). He also played 2,484 consecutive snaps to finish his run in Philly. And he also contributed 940 special teams snaps.

Simply put: Jenkins will go down as an all-time great with the Eagles. He will one day be in the Eagles’ Hall of Fame.

After the 2019 campaign, Jenkins returned to New Orleans for the last two seasons of his career. While he maybe wasn’t the same player, Jenkins still played 32 games over the last two years before calling it quits. Former Saints head coach Sean Payton always regretted letting Jenkins go after the 2013 season. Payton called that one of the biggest regrets of his career.

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“It meant the world to me,” Jenkins said in 2020 before returning to the Linc to face the Eagles. “I gave six years of everything I had, not just on the field, but into the locker room, into the community. Philly was me. It’s synonymous at one point in time. And so it’s going to be very nostalgic. I’ve been looking forward to this game all year to be able to get back into the Linc.”

In addition to his play on the field, Jenkins also became a part of the fabric of Philadelphia and still calls the city home. The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation has remained active in the city even after Jenkins’ departure in free agency a couple years ago.

“I consider Philadelphia my home and there isn’t a city in the world that understands and embodies grit, determination and perseverance more than Philadelphia,” Jenkins said in June of 2020.

Jenkins has also been at the forefront of several social justice campaigns fighting against racial inequality. After Colin Kaepernick was out of the NFL, Jenkins became a face of a movement in the league against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.

In Philadelphia, he’ll most be remembered for helping deliver the Lombardi Trophy. His hit on Brandin Cooks early in Super Bowl LII will be a moment forever remembered in the city. While Jenkins won a Super Bowl with the Saints as a rookie in 2009, he’d probably admit there was something a little more special about that run in 2017. We would too.

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