The message Howie Roseman kept trying to get across when talking about Andrew Mukuba is that he plays like a Philadelphia Eagle.
All the things that Roseman, Nick Sirianni and Vic Fangio want in a defensive player, this kid has ‘em.
“He plays with mentality, you know?” Roseman said late Friday night. “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.”
The Eagles selected Mukuba, a safety from Texas, with the 64th pick in the second round. Which historically has been a pretty good place for the Eagles to draft safeties. Wes Hopkins, Michael Lewis and Brian Dawkins were all 2nd-round safeties and all of them were Pro Bowlers, and Dawkins became one of the best ever. There was also Jaiquawn Jarrett, who was a bust, and Nate Allen, who was an OK starter.
Mukuba will come in and compete with 2023 3rd-round pick Sydney Brown for a starting spot across from Reed Blankenship, and nobody would be surprised if he wins it.
“We’re looking to add competition to that position, but we really stayed true to our board at that point,” Roseman said. “We had a couple of guys there that we liked. We considered moving back. But we really liked Andrew and his play temperament and his play style and the tools that he had in his body and the mentality that he’ll bring to Philly.
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“I just think at the end of the day you watch the tape, you see with the tools that he has in his body, you know the person and he’s got a nose for the ball and I mean he’s got a feel for making big-time plays in big-time moments and that’s really the skill set we’re looking for from a safety position.
“Guys who have the versatility to play down, who can play in the middle of the field, obviously can play shell coverage. So all these things are things that he can do really well and you know we feel like this is a guy that really we had targeted there when we opened up this morning.”
Roseman said Sirianni asked him Friday morning about several players who were still on the board, and Roseman said they’d all be gone long before the Eagles picked and far above where it was possible to trade up. Presumably, guys like South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori, LSU tight end Mason Taylor and Boston College edge Donovan Ezeiruaku were in this group.
Mukuba, who spent his first three years playing slot corner at Clemson, was projected by most draft analysts as an early 3rd-round pick, so the last pick of the second round wasn’t a reach. It made sense for a player the Eagles really liked in his one year in Austin, where he led the SEC with five interceptions and showed a knack for big hits and elite playmaking.
“Yeah, like, man, this guy just can run and hit, and he has the knack to take the football away,” Roseman said. “You can tell the football is constantly on his mind, whether it’s in coverage or coming after in a tackle and being the second man in on a tackle and getting a strip attempt, like it’s constantly on his mind.
“And I just love tough players and it just oozes off the tape how physically he plays, how tough he plays, how he plays with relentless effort and throws his body around, and I love that about him.”
If there is a red flag with Mukuba, it’s his size.
He stands 5-foot-11 ½, 185 pounds, which would make him one of the smallest starting safeties the Eagles have ever had. Rodney McLeod was 5-10, 185, and he had six very good years here. No other regular Eagles safety since John Sciarra in the late 1970s and early 1980s has been 185 or less.
Of 63 safeties who started at least 10 games last year, only the Ravens’ Ar’Darius Washington was 185 or less. Only one other safety this small has been drafted in the first two rounds in the last 35 years. That was Rams 2nd-round pick Lemarcus Joyner, drafted by the Rams early in the second round in 2014. He played nine NFL seasons, starting 73 games for three teams.
When you have a player this size who’s this physical, you do wonder if he’ll be able to hold up over a long season against players who are bigger, tougher, faster and stronger than the guys he faced in college.
“I think that’s a concern with every player that you’re drafting,” Roseman said. “Obviously, it’s a physical game and injuries happen, but, you know, the guy’s been durable and he’s a heck of a player.”
Mukuba played in 50 of a possible 56 games in college. He played all 13 games at Clemson in 2021, missed two games in 2022 with a knee injury and then missed three games in 2023 with elbow, knee and ankle injuries. He played in 15 of 16 games last year for Texas, missing a win over Vanderbilt in Nashville with a knee.
“I think our fans are going to love his play style,” Roseman said. “I know that that’s what jumps off the tape to us.”
