In a disappointing followup to their Super Bowl-winning 2024 campaign, the Eagles had several areas of concern, and they’ve attempted to address many of them so far in the offseason. There is one position at which they didn’t make much of an effort to change, though, as the team appears to be comfortable with its situation at the safety position.
In 2025, the Eagles saw three players — Reed Blankenship, Andrew Mukuba, and Marcus Epps — get significant snaps at safety. Mukuba, the second-round rookie out of Texas, graded the highest of the three, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), but only graded out as the 73rd best safety out of 91 players graded at the position. Blankenship, the other starter, finished the season 89th of 91, and while Epps didn’t play enough snaps to make the rankings, his overall defensive score of 51.8 would’ve slotted him in around 80th.
Philadelphia’s secondary does look a bit different at this point in the offseason with Blankenship departing in free agency, but the team hasn’t done anything so far to add a starting caliber safety, aside from re-signing Epps. The Eagles did announce that first-team All-Pro nickelback Cooper DeJean would be the team’s starting safety in the defense’s base package, but Philadelphia only used it’s base package about 20 percent of the time last year. More often, the team ran packages with additional defensive backs, for which the plan in 2026 will be for DeJean to shift back up into his specialized nickel role.
When DeJean steps back up into the slot, Epps appears to be the first backup in line to step into the first-team defense next to Mukuba. The only offseason additions at the position are veteran free agent and former All-Pro special teamer J.T. Gray and Texas Tech seventh-round rookie Cole Wisniewski.
Jimmy Kempski of the PhillyVoice expected the team to do more at the position, and after the draft came and went with no major improvements, Kempski thought a trade for a starting-caliber defender would occur sometime soon after June 1. It doesn’t appear the Eagles are in any hurry to make a change at this point in time, though, so Kempski now believes the team may wait to evaluate how their current group looks in training camp before opting for a big move to bring in outside help.