Through five practices at Eagles training camp, one of the biggest questions on the roster is starting to look a lot less scary.
The concern was easy to spot before camp opened: safety. Losing Reed Blankenship in free agency was a brutal hit, and without that veteran presence back there, plenty of people pointed to the spot as the team’s biggest weakness.
But early camp has changed the conversation.
Andrew Mukuba, the Eagles’ 2025 second-round pick, entered camp as a near-lock for one starting safety job. The other spot was expected to come down to Marcus Epps and Michael Carter II. Instead of looking shaky, that group has flashed enough to make the position look like a strength.
SportsRadio 94 WIP Eagles reporter Eliot Shorr-Parks broke down Day 5 and made it clear he’s been impressed by what he’s seeing.
"So far through practice, I think the safety position has actually been one of the strengths on this team. Uh, Andrew Mukuba is having an awesome camp.
He is all over the ball. It feels like two, three times a practice he is forcing an incompletion.
He's right there to help a pass fall incomplete, and you can see like the physical ball-hawking nature of his game really shining. And then today, Michael Carter came away with an interception.
Michael Carter did an excellent job, uh, reading the ball from Jalen Hurts. He got over in time.
Not the best throw from Jalen. Michael Carter jumps up, gets it, was able to return it quite a bit.
"If Mukuba is a good safety- and look, he was a second-round pick, he's looked good so far- if Michael Carter transitions well to safety, and I think he's been good so far, and Marcus Epps is just Marcus Epps, which is a solid veteran player, the safety position is actually not looking like a weakness on this team."
Mukuba is the name driving the optimism. The Eagles need him to become the playmaker they believed they were getting when they drafted him. He showed flashes of that last year with interceptions, sacks, and more, but Year 2 is where that has to become more consistent.
Epps appears to have the edge for the other job after doing enough late last season to put himself in position. Carter, though, has made things more interesting with the way he’s shown up in camp, and he could make the battle tighter than expected.
For the Eagles, that’s a welcome development. The defense already looks strong from the front line to the secondary, and the safety room no longer feels like the obvious weak link it did before camp.
That matters for the bigger picture, too. The defensive line is set for the next five years, the linebackers are lined up for a strong season, and the cornerbacks are expected to land long-term deals next offseason and remain in place for a long time.
The safeties may still be the part of the defense that turns over the most, but if Mukuba, Epps, and Carter keep playing this way, it gives general manager Howie Roseman room to leave that spot alone for now and focus elsewhere. Right now, they’re giving the Eagles exactly what they needed: a position that no longer looks like a problem.
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