July 19, 2025
Over the last few weeks (basically whenever there wasn't other news to cover), we've been taking a look at every player on the Philadelphia Eagles' roster, and how they fit with the team heading into training camp. Today we'll look at the safeties.
Previous training camp previews
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver
Tight end / Fullback | Offensive tackle | Guard | Center
EDGE | Interior DL | Linebacker | Cornerback
The depth chart:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Reed Blankenship | Sydney Brown | Lewis Cine | Maxen Hook |
| Andrew Mukuba | Tristin McCollum | Andre' Sam |
In 2023, Blankenship had an up and down season. Near the midpoint of the season, he led all NFL safeties in pass breakups, and he was a sure tackler, typically taking good angles to the football and preventing good offensive plays from becoming disasters. However, like many of his teammates on both sides of the ball, he struggled down the stretch during the team's collapse.
In 2024, Blankenship has a good season from start to finish, and he was also a playmaker, as he had four INTs, tied for tenth-most in the NFL.
Blankenship has one year left on his contract, which made him a strong candidate for an early extension, but nothing has gotten done on that front.
Mukuba was a favorite of mine throughout the draft process, and a very clear fit in Vic Fangio's scheme. He is primarily a safety, but he doubles as a slot corner, in a similar mold as C.J. Gardner-Johnson. He is smart, tough, instinctive, and a ballhawk, as he had five INTs and a forced fumble in 2024. He's also a hitter. Watch his highlight reel below. He sees the field so well, and has outstanding anticipation of where the ball is going.
The downside is that Mukuba is small. He's short and light with short arms.
Mukuba will have a chance to compete for a starting safety job. At a minimum, he gives the Eagles more depth at safety and in the slot, which they need after losing four contributing defensive backs in Darius Slay, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Isaiah Rodgers, and Avonte Maddox this offseason.
Brown was a core special teamer as a rookie in 2023 who only played 335 snaps in the regular defense, despite the team suffering quite a few injuries at safety. He was buried on the depth chart early in the season behind Band-Aids like Justin Evans and Terrell Edmunds, playing just 16 snaps the first three weeks of the season before missing the next three games with a hamstring injury. When he got extended action in games later in the season, it was typically out of position at slot corner, where he was filling in for Avonte Maddox and Bradley Roby, after guys like Mario Goodrich and Josiah Scott proved to be ineffective.
In the 2023 regular season finale against the Giants, Brown tore an ACL. He missed the entirety of 2024 training camp as well as the first four games of the season. When he returned from injury, Brown was behind Tristin McCollum on the depth chart for the entirety of the season. He played just 79 snaps in the regular defense, more than half of which came in the Eagles' meaningless regular season finale against the Giants.
Brown is a very good gunner on the punt team, and just generally an intense special teams player. His most notable moment of the season came against the Cowboys, when he got into a melee with several Cowboys players. Brown was ejected from that game and left to a loud ovation at the Linc.
Brown has ideal athletic measurables, and he seems to love to play football, but two consecutive defensive staffs have had oddball players higher than him in the safety pecking order.
Earlier this offseason we took a look at Brown's 2024 snaps. It wasn't great. He seemed to lack recognition skills, and he plays a little out of control. He has some things to clean up if he's going to start.
McCollum made the Eagles' 53-man roster out of training camp, and it is my understanding that he was "the 53rd guy." He was the first safety off the bench in 2024, and played 250 snaps in the regular defense. He finished the season with 33 tackles and 2 pass breakups. After Gardner-Johnson was ejected for saying something mean to Commanders receivers in a Week 16 loss, McCollum entered the game and struggled.
It's worth noting that Fangio was asked about the starting safety competition between Mukuba and Brown, and Fangio said, "Tristin's in that, too."
Late in the 2024 season the Eagles signed Cine to their active roster. He was a Vikings 2022 first-round pick (32nd overall) who suffered a compound fracture in his leg Week 4 of his rookie season. He missed the rest of the 2022 season, and played sparingly in 2023 before being released by the Vikings following 2024 training camp. Cine spent the 2024 season on the Bills' practice squad before the Eagles poached him.
Cine has appeared in 11 NFL games in three seasons. He has only played 10 career snaps in the regular defense, with 134 special teams snaps. He has 1 career tackle.
Like many other Eagles players on the defensive side of the ball, Cine is a former Georgia Bulldog, along with Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith, Nakobe Dean, Kelee Ringo, and Azeez Ojulari. His college scouting report, via Lance Zierlein of NFL.com:
Cine plays with a willing aggressiveness that fit right in with Georgia's talented stop unit. He plays with an urgent, downhill approach, which leads to memorable collisions but he's not always under control in getting there. He doesn't have desired mass and stopping power for his style of play, but the work gets done. Cine lacks range and instincts to play over the top and is better suited to split safety and down safety alignments. He can handle man coverage underneath but doesn't have the hips to swing and sway with talented receivers down the field. Cine has future starting potential as a zero flinch safety, but has limitations for defenses to consider.
College highlight reel:
Cine has good length and he had very good athletic traits coming out of college, including a 4.37 40 time.
Cine didn't play at all during the Eagles' playoff run, but the Eagles obviously felt his potential was worthy of signing him off of the Bills' practice squad, just to get a closer look at him in practice the rest of the season and during the 2025 offseason.
Sam was a 25-year-old undrafted rookie who played at three different colleges (McNeese State, Marshall, and LSU). He had a pretty good 2024 training camp for a player considered a longshot at the start of the summer. He spent the season on the practice squad, and actually had a coveted wall locker stall, a rarity for a rookie practice squad guy.
Hook was a four-year starter at Toledo who led the team in tackles in 2024 (108) and 2021 (96). He had 7 career INTs and 19 career PBUs. He is a high-energy safety who was always around the football because of his relentless motor. A quick highlight reel:
Hook likely didn't get drafted because of his unimpressive athletic measurables. Ignore the broad jump numbers in the spider chart below. They have him down for a 16" broad jump, which is obviously wrong.
If Hook is going to have a chance of making the team, he'll have to stand out on special teams.
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