Over the next few weeks leading up to training camp, we’ll be counting down the top 25 most important Eagles for the 2025 season.
25. Andrew Mukuba
First, he has to win the job.
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SIGN UP HERE The Eagles this offseason traded away starting safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the Houston Texans and then they used their second-round pick (No. 64 overall) to draft Mukuba out of Texas. But they’re not just going to hand him the job.
In fact, the battle for that starting safety job next to Reed Blankenship figures to be one of the most intriguing battles of training camp. According to defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, it’s a three-man race between Mukuba, Sydney Brown and Tristin McCollum.
And the Eagles aren’t going to rush to name a winner.
“It's a competition that is going to take a training camp and a few preseason games to sort out,” Fangio said during OTAs.
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During spring practices, the Eagles rotated a bunch as the safety position. While it was Brown (a third-round pick back in 2023) getting the first crack at the job, Mukuba and others got plenty of first-team snaps. There’s some projection in putting Mukuba on the list because he has to beat out those other two — but they drafted him for a reason.
And it seemed telling that they were already willing to give him a bunch of first-team reps in the spring. They brought their rookies along even slower last year.
Mukuba, 22, began his college career at Clemson and played his first three seasons there before transferring to Texas in 2024. After having just one pick during his time at Clemson, Mukuba showed off his ball skills with five interceptions and 11 pass breakups in his one season at Texas.
Mukuba (5-11, 186) isn’t a very big safety but he doesn’t play small. The Eagles think his speed and good angles make up for any size deficiencies. He clearly has cover skills but isn’t afraid to stick his nose in and make a tackle. And he shows really good instincts in coverage; he’s specially aware, which will be important in Fangio’s defense and coverages.
It’s hard to watch him play and not make comparisons to Gardner-Johnson, whom he’s tabbed to replace.
“He plays with mentality, you know?” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said after making the pick in April. “And this guy, it's just he plays an Eagles brand of football, and I think for us, you know, kind of the value fit the need right there.
"And we felt like throughout this process, this guy just did everything, checked all the boxes, and that was really what we're looking for from that position.”
It won’t be easy for the Eagles to replace Gardner-Johnson. In his two seasons with the Eagles (2022 and 2024) the Eagles went to the Super Bowl twice and he led the team in interceptions both years with six in each season.
Mukuba did play in the slot at times in college, but his best fit with the Eagles appears to be at safety, which is where he played in the spring. Last season, the Eagles relied heavily on contributions from rookies. While the Eagles aren’t going to just hand rookies jobs, they’re not afraid to play them either.
As long as Mukuba performs well in training camp, he has a really good shot at being a starter from Day 1. And that makes him a very important piece of the defensive puzzle.