A will-we or won’t-we make a trade struggle went on until around 9:30 last night when the Eagles simply made their selection at #64 for Andrew Mukuba, a safety out of Texas. Full disclosure, I didn’t know who he was when he was picked, but with everything I read, the smile on my face became grinchly bigger.
How the Pick Went Down
This one was straight forward, with the final pick in the 2nd round, the Eagles selected Mukuba. Apparently, the Eagles debated trading up for a few guys but found that no one valued their 2026 selections as highly as they would (their loss). Howie loves taking picks next year because they are always undervalued for the current year. You’d think other teams would pick up on this. Word was that we contemplated moving down as well, but figured we might miss out on Mukuba in doing so. No safeties were picked for a good 20 more picks, so who knows.
Athleticism
There are two systems out there to get a sense of a player’s athleticism (other than actually watching them). The first is the spider chart which takes the raw combine numbers and compares them to other players at the position over the last 20 years or so. The wider the spider chart, the better they are comparably. Take a look at Mukuba’s (courtesy of mockdraftable.com):
That’s not exactly awesome. In fact, that’s pretty much against what the Eagles are usually known for in terms of athleticism. The good part though, he compares very similarly with former Eagle CJGJ. They are the same height and have similar profiles, though CJGJ is a bit heavier.
The other one is Relative Athletic Score (RAS) which takes the drill results and compares them to the player’s size. 10 is the highest with 9s being pretty damn athletic. Shemar Stewart and Nick Emmanwori scored perfect 10s this year, but it is not very common. Mukuba scored a 5.12 (courtesy of RAS Football):
What you can take from this is that he is small, but very fast. Not great though, especially when you consider Emmanwori was available to start the 2nd round, even if we had little chance to actually get him.
Production
The athleticism isn’t that good, but he makes up for it big time in two areas. The first is his production. He had 5 interceptions and a forced fumble last year in a pretty stacked secondary that also featured first round pick Jahdae Barron. He came up with a huge pick near the end zone against the Sun Devils in the College Football Playoff. For context, 5 interceptions ranked 4th in the NCAA and tied with his teammate Barron. The Eagles didn’t pick up steam in the interception category until late in the year (and especially the Super Bowl), but the unit as a whole was really missing the ball hawk type to really anticipate balls up for grabs. We’ll get to the other area in a minute.
Role
Howie Roseman was clear that despite Mukuba having experience in nickel coverage, he will begin his career as a safety. With the loss of CJGJ in the off season, this was clearly a position of need. Currently Reed Blankenship is the clear starter, but Sydney Brown, Lewis Cine, and Tristin McCollum will all be trying to beat out Mukuba for the other job. They didn’t use a 2nd round pick on Mukuba to sit the bench though.
Intangibles
This is Mukuba’s other big time positive. He is an off the charts character guy who has everyone from teammates, to bloggers, to Matthew McGodDamnConaughey vouching for him. Even if you were thinking that’s just platitudes from mostly the usual suspects, take a look at this video of him getting drafted. It looks like he has his entire town in an amphitheater waiting for him to get drafted. There has to be 200 people in that room! That’s too many to be just family and friends, these are well wishers who are looking out for him. That’s not nothing.
From everything that I’ve read, his only knock is his size. Other than that, his football instincts and intelligence are off the charts. He is readily coached, is around the ball, and loves to hit people too. That will all play big time in Philadelphia.
Speaking of what I read, here:
Contract
About 15 years ago the NFL instituted the rookie pay scale to basically stop outrageous rookie contracts from cannibalizing cap space. Sam Bradford was the last top pick to get a huge deal when he signed a 6/$78.5m contract in 2010. The numbers deescalate based on your pick and are tied to a percentage of the salary cap.
Mukuba will be able to sign a deal for 4/$6.83m. This will come out to just above the minimum salary each season and will not affect things too much according to Spotrac. For comparison, Emmanwori was picked at #35 and will be making about $1m more per season. The real comparison though is CJGJ. You can’t expect Mukuba to duplicate the vet’s production, but if he can be anywhere near it for a fraction of the price, you understand why all the deals were made. CJGJ signed a 3/$27m contract before last season with the Eagles. Mukuba will be making about 1/4th of that but with an extra season. The Eagles are really trying to pare down salary while keeping the talent level up. We’ll see if that’s successful here.
What Else Happened
With the 96th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, The Philadelphia Eagles…moved down to 101. Ok. With the 101st pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles…moved down to 111. That’s where the day starts off today. For their trouble they picked up a 5th round pick next year, an extra 6th (191) this season, and moved up from 134 to 130 in the 4th rounf.
The Eagles have 6 picks today including two 4ths, three 5ths, and a 6th.
Lastly…
I hadn’t even heard of Andrew Mukuba before he was picked last night. I was thinking Quincy Watts of Notre Dame the whole time. But Howie doesn’t pick guys for no reason. Despite the underwhelming athletic testing, seeing and hearing people gush over this guy was all I needed to be won over. People do not go out of their way to compliment someone they have no connection to unless they really want you to understand how that person made them feel. As Philly fans, we remember Brian Dawkins and Shane Victorino because of how hard they played. It was infectious. We tell people that you don’t understand what they were like because we want them to know it was different. That’s what it seems like people are trying to convey with Mukuba. I love it.
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Philly Front Office 
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