What Drew Mukuba's pick-six says about the state of the Eagles' young secondary

New York Times

17 hours ago

PHILADELPHIA — Eagles general manager Howie Roseman accepted a considerable risk during his maintenance-oriented offseason when he traded away C.J. Gardner-Johnson. The safety provided both the swagger and volatility the Eagles' defense wanted to reclaim. That Roseman spent a second-round pick on Drew Mukuba to backfill the trade signaled how much the team valued the role Gardner-Johnson fulfilled. The Eagles hadn't picked a safety that high since 2011. But there was still no certainty that a rookie could even closely approach the team-high six interceptions Gardner-Johnson recorded in 2024.
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Who could have predicted Mukuba would record a pick-six in his preseason debut? Saturday's play surprised Mukuba himself. Mukuba, playing from the right post on the first play of the second quarter, surged near the left flats and jammed Cleveland Browns receiver Diontae Johnson. Underneath, edge rusher Azeez Ojulari was defending tight end Blake Whiteheart. Still, Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel wound up and flung the football their way. Mukuba stole the pass on a dead sprint. No Browns player had a chance of stopping him. Johnson and Whiteheart were still expressing their frustration as Mukuba weaved into the end zone.
'I was surprised he was throwing it because I was literally right there,' Mukuba said. 'He ended up throwing it. And as soon as I caught it, I already had in my mind that I gotta get in the end zone.'
And we're on the board 🫡 pic.twitter.com/i5wbE4yXlw
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 16, 2025
Mukuba, who moved to Austin, Texas, from Zimbabwe in elementary school, had never returned an interception for a touchdown before. The former Texas Longhorns safety got close when he snagged a batted pass against Florida last season, but a wide receiver tackled him before he could break into the open field. All Mukuba had to do this time was cut to the left of Gabriel. Mukuba looked over his left shoulder twice and spread his arms like wings.
'That's the feeling that I wanna have all the time,' Mukuba said. 'There's gonna be many more for sure to come.'
The Eagles are counting on that pronouncement to come true. Their drastic improvement in the secondary last season was one of the main reasons they won Super Bowl LIX, and they can't afford a significant regression during their title defense. The organization coveted Mukuba's coverage abilities and ball skills during the draft process. Upon drafting Mukuba, Roseman said it's 'really hard to find cover safeties.' That Mukuba led the Southeastern Conference with five interceptions checked the takeaways box within Eagles coach Nick Sirianni's chief priorities. Mukuba, who later scooped up a fumble in the Eagles' 22-13 loss to the Browns, may have gained an edge as his position battle with Sydney Brown enters its fifth week.
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'(Taking the football away) is always at the forefront of our mind,' Sirianni said. 'But that doesn't mean you don't account for everything in it as well.'
How has everything in it looked so far? The Eagles entered the weekend knowing how precarious their secondary could be without Mukuba in the lineup. Mukuba missed their preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals due to a shoulder injury he sustained in the first week of training camp, and Joe Burrow went 9-for-10 passing for 123 yards and two touchdowns in his only two drives. Gabriel is no Burrow. Johnson is no Ja'Marr Chase. But Mukuba's promising characteristics are taking shape after his first true week of practice since his injury. He's revealed a proficiency in both making plays and bouncing back from poor ones. In Wednesday's joint practice, he allowed a touchdown to rookie tight end Harold Fanning Jr., then intercepted a pass that bounced off the hands of a Browns receiver. Three plays before Saturday's pick-six, Mukuba allowed an 18-yard pass along the right sideline.
'We want that for all of our guys: to be able to play the next play,' Sirianni said. 'To be able to go out there after an interception and play again — or after a big play, right? That's part of mental toughness of being able to be in the moment and fix the mistakes later.'
Drew on the recovery 🙂‍↕️ pic.twitter.com/YBcuA1NM6h
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 16, 2025
Course correction will be a major theme for an Eagles secondary that got significantly younger. Fourth-year starter Reed Blankenship, 26, is the eldest of the unit's returning starters. Second-year cornerback Quinyon Mitchell is being trained in a new role to travel with receivers. Second-year nickel Cooper DeJean is playing safety for the first time in base packages. If Mukuba wins the safety battle, he'll be the first rookie safety to start in Week 1 in the Sirianni era. If Brown wins, he's a 2023 third-round pick who missed the beginning of last season recovering from an ACL tear. Four of the five players in the cornerback battle opposite Mitchell are younger than 25. Mistakes will happen. Who can learn from them the quickest?
That question is most pronounced when discussing the team's CB2 spot. Jakorian Bennett, whom Roseman acquired last week to stimulate the position battle, rebounded from a bad Wednesday practice by demonstrating consistent coverage and good open-field tackling. Adoree' Jackson and Kelee Ringo started, but Bennett subbed in for Ringo to begin the second defensive possession. Gabriel almost immediately targeted Bennett, striking Diontae Johnson on a short curl toward the left sideline. Bennett swiftly made the tackle, limiting Johnson to a three-yard gain (that was negated by an ineligible downfield pass penalty). Tackling is a key evaluation point in the secondary. Fangio wasn't so much upset last week that Ringo surrendered a catch to Ja'Marr Chase along the left sideline as he was that Ringo took a bad angle on a missed tackle that turned into a 36-yard touchdown.
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'The fastest way to end a play is to get a guy on the ground,' Ringo said. 'And you gotta be able to execute that. You gotta do that at a high level, you know? And typically, statistically, when teams lack that, they can have rough days.'
Bennett was the most reliable tackler at cornerback on Saturday. He was also aggressive in pursuit. He appeared to have his breath knocked out while chasing down a 29-yard gain by Kaden Davis along the right sideline. Bennett missed three plays. In the second half, Bennett wrapped up Davis on a quick second-and-21 throw that picked up five yards. Nickel defender Parry Nickerson then tackled Gage Larvadain on an 8-yard slant to force a punt.
Bennett also improved in coverage with a high dose of reps. It was clear that defensive coordinator Vic Fangio wanted a larger sample size to evaluate the 24-year-old who's still digesting his playbook. Bennett played in seven of the defense's 11 series. Rookie Mac McWilliams played opposite Bennett for six of them, then remained on the field with Eli Ricks for the final two possessions, which totaled 12 plays. On the third defensive series, Bennett, playing right corner, chased down Browns wide receiver Gage Larvadain on a deep crosser and swatted the pass incomplete. The play was almost identical to the touchdown Bennett allowed when Larvadain got ahead of him on a deep crosser in Wednesday's practice.
The Eagles were otherwise inconsistent with their downfield coverage. They allowed four passes of 15-plus yards. (They averaged 3.6 per game in 2024, per TruMedia.) Rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell's sack on the game's second play set up a third-and-10 situation, but Browns tight end Blake Whiteheart separated from Jackson in the middle of the field to move the chains. On Cleveland's third drive, on third-and-2, Browns receiver Jamari Thrash got ahead of Ringo on a short crosser that turned into a 19-yard gain. Ricks allowed a 26-yard pass over the middle in the fourth quarter when he didn't stay with Lavardain on a scramble drill.
Bennett's response against the Browns is a favorable development in a cornerback battle that's mostly been foreboding. Mukuba's pick-six supplies evidence that the Eagles can avoid the shortfall in interceptions they experienced in 2023 (when they recorded nine total), which provoked Roseman to sign Gardner-Johnson in the following offseason. Whether the Eagles establish confidence in their starting secondary by the time they close the preseason against the New York Jets on Aug. 22 remains a decisive factor for their season.
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