Eagles GM Howie Roseman explains why the Eagles let three-time Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins walk

Nearly two weeks after the Eagles let him walk, many fans still are having a difficult time wrapping their arms around the team’s decision to wave bye-bye to popular safety Malcolm Jenkins.

Jenkins, 32, was a team leader. He was the glue, the brains, on the back end of Jim Schwartz’s defense.

On a team that couldn’t seem to hold a walk-through without somebody breaking a bone in their foot or tearing a hamstring, Jenkins was seemingly indestructible. He didn’t miss a single game in the six seasons he played for the Eagles. The last two years, he played every snap of every game.

Jenkins wanted more money, more than the $7.6 million he was scheduled to make this season.

There were negotiations, but in the end, the Eagles decided not to exercise the 2020 option on the final year on Jenkins’ contract. He ended up signing a four-year, $32 million deal with the Saints that includes $16.2 million in guarantees. Essentially, it’s a two-year, $16.2 million deal.

“The hardest part of this job is that you have to make tough decisions, and you have to figure out where you’re going to do that," Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said Thursday during a 50-minute conference call with reporters.

“When you have people and players who have given the team so much and the city so much and me personally so much, these are hard things to do. But we’re trying to balance what we can do this year and what we can do going forward."

The Eagles had wanted to keep Jenkins through this season. They were willing to tweak his 2020 numbers to do that.

But with their emphasis on getting younger and cheaper as they move forward with a 27-year-old quarterback who is going to have a $34 million cap number in 2021, they weren’t interested in giving Jenkins a contract extension that would add guaranteed money to future caps.

“As much as you want to show gratitude for past performance and loyalty, you also have to have one eye on the future," Roseman said.

“It’s just the nature of where we are right now as a sport. You see it with Hall of Fame players leaving their teams. Quarterbacks. Tight ends. You see it. You can’t sign everyone.

“For us, we had to make some tough decisions. We had conversations with his representative. We understood what was important to him and what he was looking for. But we also were trying to balance that with what we were trying to do in the offseason.

“We’re in a position now with our team where we’re going to have to lose some guys."

The Eagles apparently are moving cornerback Jalen Mills back to safety to replace Jenkins. They also re-signed their other starting safety, soon-to-be 30-year-old Rodney McLeod, to give them someone who “could continue to get us lined up and provide leadership’’ on the back end, Roseman said.

The Eagles are trying desperately to avoid the injuries and missed playing time that have plagued them the last three years. They have revamped their medical, training, and strength and conditioning staffs.

As Roseman has said multiple times, hope is not a strategy anymore with respect to injuries. All of the free agents they have signed thus far have few missed games on their resumes.

If this was a year ago, it’s unlikely they would have considered trading for DeSean Jackson, who missed 13 games last season with a core muscle injury.

And while Jenkins has been the picture of health during his career, particularly with the Eagles, he also is 32. And the older a player gets, the more likely it is that he’s going to get hurt. That no doubt played into their thinking with not wanting to give him a contract extension.

“While Malcolm hasn’t been hurt, they just know that as he gets older, the odds [of an injury] go up," former Eagles president Joe Banner said. “Having a younger player, there obviously are exceptions to this, but a younger guy has a smaller chance of getting hurt."