The Eagles’ safety job beside Drew Mukuba has turned into something less like a winner-take-all battle and more like a weekly shuffle.
Marcus Epps and Michael Carter II fought for the starting role all summer, but four weeks into the season, the competition still hasn’t produced a permanent answer. Against the Bears in Week 3, Vic Fangio split the snaps between them - Epps played 27, Carter played 20 - and the defensive coordinator said Wednesday that the arrangement is staying put.
“Those two guys are still going to man it,” Fangio said.
That doesn’t mean Fangio views the situation as ideal. When asked whether he’d like one of them to eventually lock down the spot, he was direct: “That’s always your goal.”
The path to this point started with Reed Blankenship leaving to explore free agency and then signing with the Houston Texans on a three-year deal. That opened the door next to Mukuba, the Eagles’ second-year, second-round pick. Philadelphia brought Epps back on a one-year deal this offseason and also reworked Carter’s contract, keeping both in the mix.
The battle began in the spring and ran through all 17 training camp practices. Epps appeared to win it, taking most of the first-team reps and never really giving the coaches a reason to pull the plug. But after just two games, the Eagles went to a rotation against the Bears.
For Epps, that means the pressure is real. Confidence matters plenty at safety in the NFL, and it’s fair to wonder whether the move has landed as a blow. Epps didn’t sound rattled on Wednesday.
“With me, I’m always believing in myself,” Epps said on Wednesday. “My whole background, my whole storyline, I don’t really care what nobody has to say.
I know who I am and I always carry myself that way. Confidence in myself has gotten me here, gotten me to Year 8.
No matter what anybody on this planet has to say, I don’t care. I’m just going to keep doing what I do, stay locked in, stay focused.”
The reality is that Epps hasn’t played well through the first stretch of 2026, and the Eagles clearly know it. They wouldn’t be pulling him off the field otherwise. More broadly, the safety play has been uneven.
Carter, meanwhile, has flashed more often in camp, though he’s still learning the position. Most of his NFL work has come at nickel corner, and he didn’t start picking up safety until the Eagles traded for him before last season’s deadline. He has also served as the extra defensive back in dime packages this year, and now his role is growing even more.
“It’s cool,” Carter said of his extra playing time. “I feel like it means a lot just to be able to contribute again.
Just taking it day by day and trying to get better. Just be the best teammate I can be, the best version I can be for the team day to day.”
Epps, at 30, came back hoping to reclaim a starting job. Instead, just a few games into the season, he’s already at risk of losing it altogether.
“You just gotta stay locked in and stay focused,” Epps said on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, you just got to do whatever the team needs you to do and what the coaches as you to do.
It’s not about me. It’s about everybody here, it’s about the team.
I would say that’s the biggest thing. Stay locked in so I can do my job when it’s my turn.
Stay locked in so I’m seeing everything that’s going out on the field when it’s not my turn. And just be a good team player, be a good teammate.”
There is another wrinkle in Philadelphia’s secondary. In base defense, Cooper DeJean has been lining up at safety on 25.7% of the team’s snaps. Fangio has repeatedly shut down the idea of moving him there full-time, including again on Wednesday.
What Fangio did not dismiss was the possibility that Kenny Moore II could eventually enter the picture. Moore, like Carter, has spent his career as a nickel cornerback, and the former Colts defender is learning both spots in the Eagles’ defense.
“Well, he's a down-the line-possibility, maybe,” Fangio said. “He's really never played safety in his career, so it'd be some heavy lifting for him on the immediate return.”
For now, though, the short-term answer remains the same: Epps, Carter, or some combination of the two next to Mukuba.
Mukuba had been dealing with a knee injury, but he was finally off the Eagles’ injury report to open the week. After a promising rookie season that ended early, he’s looking for stability in Year 2 - even if the spot beside him keeps changing.
“Still gotta do my job regardless of who’s out there with me,” Mukuba said after Monday night’s game in Chicago. “Whoever is out there with me, I still got a responsibility and a job to do so I’m just going to do that.
I work good with both Marcus and Mike, so it don’t bother me. Whoever’s out there is going to go ball.”
And for all the competition, the tension hasn’t spilled over. Epps said he and Carter built a strong relationship last season after Carter arrived in a trade in October, and that bond has helped keep the situation from turning messy.
“Whatever Vic wants to do,” Carter said, “we roll with it.”
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