25. Eli Stowers
<\/a>24. Marcus Epps<\/p>\nThe Eagles have a ton of talent on defense but if there\u2019s one question that\u2019s a bit of a question mark, it\u2019s probably safety.<\/p>\n
Drew Mukuba returns for his second NFL season and will be one of the Eagles\u2019 starters. Mukuba suffered an injury last November but had been trending the right way. (You\u2019ll see him a bit later on this list.)<\/p>\n
But the Eagles have another starting spot open after Reed Blankenship left for Houston in free agency. Blankenship got a three-year deal worth around $8 million annually from the Texans. The Eagles could have paid Blankenship that money but they\u2019re prioritizing other players who have or eventually will get paid.<\/p>\n
Still, that departure leaves a starting spot open and Epps is the frontrunner to take it. Could he lose the job to a guy like Michael Carter II? Could the Eagles still add another safety? Both are possibilities. But based on spring practices, this is going to be Epps\u2019 job to lose.<\/p>\n
After Mukuba went down last season, Epps did an admirable job filling in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pleasantly surprised,\u201d veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. \u201cMaybe surprised is the wrong word because I just really didn’t know him. But when he had to play last year, he came in and showed his experience, showed his instincts that he has for the game. I was pleased with the way he played last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn’t considering him an old player at this point, but he’s obviously a veteran. I think he’ll do fine. I’m not sure what his injury history has been, but I think if he stays injury-free and if he wins the job, we’ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Epps, 30, came back to the Eagles just before last season after he was released by the Patriots. He initially signed to the practice squad but was promoted to the 53-man roster and ended up playing in 12 games with 4 starts last season and he started the playoff game against the 49ers.<\/p>\n
In those 12 games last season, Epps had 21 tackles and a tackle for loss. He was unspectacular but solid. And that might be all the Eagles are asking him to be again in 2026.<\/p>\n
Because this is a starting gig, but Cooper DeJean is going to play safety next to Mukuba in the Eagles\u2019 base package. That means that Epps (or whoever wins this job) is going to play around 75-80% of the Eagles\u2019 defensive snaps.<\/p>\n
If you remember, Epps has been a full-time starter with the Eagles before. Back in 2022, Epps started all 17 games in the regular season and all three in the playoffs in that Super Bowl season. After that year, Epps left in free agency to join the Raiders, where he was a full-time starter in 2023 and 2024 before tearing his ACL in Week 3 of the 2024 season.<\/p>\n
That 2022 season was the best of Epps\u2019 career. That year, he had 94 tackles, 4 TFLs, 6 pass breakups and a forced fumble while helping the Eagles get to a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the next few weeks leading up to training camp, we\u2019ll be counting down the top 25 most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7353,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-221367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eagles-analysis","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}