Taking a closer look at Eagles' intriguing safety competition

We’re getting close to Eagles training camp so we’re taking a look at some notable camp competitions.

We already looked at RG, RB and WR3.

Up today: Safety

The Eagles this offseason lost both of their starting safeties from the 2022 season when Marcus Epps signed with the Raiders and then C.J. Gardner-Johnson signed with the Lions. The Eagles were interested in bringing back Gardner-Johnson and offered him a multi-year contract early in free agency. But eventually the Eagles pivoted and re-signed James Bradberry and moved on from Gardner-Johnson, who had to take a one-year deal from the Lions. Give Howie Roseman credit for not bucking to CJGJ’s demands but now the Eagles have to replace both spots at the position.

Let’s look at the players:

Reed Blankenship
Age: 24
Experience: Year 2
Size: 6-foot-1, 203 pounds

This time last year, Blankenship was a little known and underpaid undrafted rookie out of Middle Tennessee State. But once the pads came on in training camp, Blankenship began to stand out and earned his spot on the roster. Eventually, he earned his active spot on game days and when he was needed to fill in on defense, he was more than up for the challenge. And late in the season when Avonte Maddox was missing with an injury, the Eagles thought enough of Blankenship to keep him on the field and move CJGJ down into the slot. Maybe it was his five years of college starting experience but Blankenship never looked out of place during his rookie season.

As a rookie, Blankenship ended up playing in 10 games with 4 starts. He had 34 tackles, 1 interception and 2 pass breakups. While it was obviously a small sample size, he ranked as the No. 9 overall safety in the NFL, according to ProFootballFocus. The majority of Blankenship’s snaps (71.4%) came from the free safety position.

During OTAs, Blankenship was lining up as one of the two starting safeties, along with Terrell Edmunds.

Terrell Edmunds
Age: 26
Experience: Year 6
Size: 6-foot-1, 217 pounds

The Eagles signed a bunch of players to one-year low-risk, high-reward contracts this offseason and Edmund was a part of that bunch. His one-year deal is worth $2 million and includes just $600K in guaranteed money. Not bad for a guy who has 75 starts under his belt in five NFL seasons. This offseason, Edmunds talked about how much he is looking forward to a fresh start in a new city.

The Steelers drafted Edmunds in the first round (No. 28) back in 2018 and he played his first five seasons in Pittsburgh. He never became a star, nor did he live up to his draft pedigree, but Edmunds was a reliable starter during his years in Pittsburgh and had at least 68 tackles in all five of his seasons.

He also had 5 interceptions, 5 sacks, 26 pass breakups and 15 TFLs in his Steelers career. Since 2018, there are five safeties in the NFL with at least 400 combined tackles, 5 INTs and 5 sacks: Edmunds, Harrison Smith, Jordan Poyer, Budda Baker and Adrian Amos.

It’s worth noting that while the Steelers did move Edmunds around quite a bit in 2022, he has the reputation of being a box safety and that’s still where he got the most play last season.

Sydney Brown
Age: 23
Experience: Rookie
Size: 5-foot-10, 211 pounds

The Eagles drafted Brown out of Illinois with the No. 66 overall pick (third round) in April and called him a red-star player — a player who exemplifies what it means to be an Eagle. He was a prospect a lot of folks in the Eagles’ organization really fell in love with during the pre-draft process.

“Sydney Brown was a passion player for a lot of people in this organization,” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said during the draft. “He was a red star guy. And I think just a tremendous person with obviously really good athletic tools, leadership ability, and for us, just excited to get him in the building.”

Like Blankenship last year, Brown comes into the NFL with a ton of college experience as a five-year starter. He had 320 career tackles and 10 career interceptions, including 6 in 2022. Brown was known for his physicality at Illinois and showed off his ball skills as a senior. Then he showed off his athleticism at the combine.

For the most part, Brown played in the box during his later years at Illinois, which he says was more of a product of what they asked him to do. The Eagles got a closer look at his versatility in Mobile at the Senior Bowl and came away impressed with his ability to play in the post as well. 

The rest

The Eagles have a few other safeties on the roster who are fighting for spots. K’Von Wallace is back for another season after playing well on special teams and on defense in limited chances last year. The Eagles also signed former second-round pick Justin Evans to a one-year deal. The Eagles have liked Evans for a while and he adds some depth. Evans didn’t play in 2019 or 2020 but played in 15 games with 4 starts for the Saints last year.

Outlook

It seems like the trio of Blankenship, Edmunds and Brown will be competing for the two starting gigs in training camp, although new DC Sean Desai does have a history of implementing some three-safety looks. During OTAs, we saw Blankenship and Edmunds running with the first team and that’s likely what we’ll see as training camp begins. It’ll be fascinating to follow this to see if Brown ever gets a chance to mix in. The Eagles would probably love to get him on the field at some point but if Blankenship and Edmunds are playing well in front of him, that might not happen. Maybe Brown turns into the Nakobe Dean of 2023. And then after that, there's a possibility that Wallace and Evans are fighting for a roster spot.

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