Will Parks is happy to be home with the Eagles, isn’t thinking about replacing Malcolm Jenkins just yet

The guy that starts for the Eagles this season at the safety position opposite Rodney McLeod will be replacing Malcolm Jenkins.

So, no pressure or anything.

Will Parks will at least get a chance to be that player, but he isn’t thinking yet about filling the cleats of a legend.

“I’ve got to prove myself” in a new environment, after four years with the Denver Broncos, Parks noted Tuesday on a conference call with reporters. “At the end of the day, we can talk about this and talk about that, but I haven’t played here yet ... I’ve got to put myself in position to talk about that.”

He added that he and Jenkins use the same trainer in the offseason, as does corner Sidney Jones. Parks warned that Jones will “come back as a dawg” whenever football resumes.

Parks, who turns 26 in July, grew up in Olney, graduated from Germantown High, then went to college at Arizona. Like a lot of kids in Philly, he was a Brian Dawkins fan. Parks recounted getting to meet the Eagles’ (and Broncos’) Hall of Fame safety before an Eagles-Broncos game at the Linc in 2017.

“Brian Dawkins is one of my favorite people in the world ... He was the first person I met” that day in warmups, Parks said. “I thought of that when I finally decided I was coming here.”

A 2019 interview implied that Parks grew up as (gasp) a Cowboys fan, but he clarified Tuesday that it is his father who follows Dallas. “I grew up in a Cowboys house, and I grew up in an Eagles house – my mom is a diehard Eagles fan,” he said. “I don’t know how he became one. It is what it is.”

Parks said he feels confident his dad will root for the Eagles against Dallas now that his son is an Eagle.

Parks said he and new Eagles corner Darius Slay struck up a Twitter friendship a few years ago and have been in touch this week. “He’s excited to come here, I can tell you that, first and foremost,” Parks said.

Parks’ biggest asset might be his versatility – he can play safety and nickel corner, and he said Tuesday he could play outside at corner if needed. This is a trait he has nurtured through high school, college, and the NFL, he said, partly because “when you know what everybody else is doing, it makes your job easier.”

Though he agreed to only a one-year free agent deal here, “it was a perfect situation,” he said, given the style of defense that coordinator Jim Schwartz prefers, and the fact that Parks’ roots and his family are in Philly. Asked about only having a contract for one year, Parks said: ”This is a chance for me to prove myself," and that when you are working in such a situation, it’s easy to “keep the main thing the main thing.”

He said he looks forward to Schwartz and new defensive backs coach Marquand Manuel employing him in different areas.

“I don’t like being a sitting duck. I definitely like to move around, give the offense different looks,” he said.

Parks has worked to curb gun violence in Philadelphia, particularly after the shooting death of his granduncle, Barry Parks, who was the victim of a Hunting Park robbery while he waited for a bus in 2018. Parks said he thinks his message will resound more now as an Eagle, than as a guy who played for a distant NFL team.

“I think it’ll hit different,” he said. Parks added that he hopes he can “spark a little bit more of a light” now that he plays in his hometown.