Everyone knew the Eagles needed a safety going into the draft after trading CJGJ at the start of free agency. They ended up drafting Andrew Mukuba out of Texas with the final pick in the 2nd Round. He isn’t the athlete that Nick Emmanwori is or has the upside of Malaki Starks, but everything we’ve heard of him is that he is a leader who gets around the ball. Everyone loves the guy. The intention is for him to start right away in the spot vacated by Gardner-Johnson. That seems very simple, but his future with the Eagles is incredibly important. Let’s look at why. But first, some preamble…
First Thing’s First, He Needs a Contract
A few years back, the NFL did away with a free market for draft picks and institued a rookie wage scale. For the most part, there is no longer any haggling over the dollars in a rookie contract. This has lead to almost every draft pick in the 1st Round and Rounds 3-7 being signed. Wait, so no 2nd rounders? That’s strange. Well, it’s not no second rounders, two have been signed: Carson Schwesinger of the Cleveland Browns and Jayden Higgins of the Houston Texans. The hold up is that those two guys were signed to fully guaranteed 4-year contracts by their drafting teams. That sounds great and all except that has never happened before.
Now if you are a 2nd round pick, what are you supposed to do, just sign the same old non-guaranteed contract you’ve been offered like some idiot? No agent worth his commission can allow that to happen, they would be deservedly fired immediately. The 3rd pick in the 2nd round was Nick Emmanwori by the Seattle Seahawks. Why should he settle for any less of a guarantee than Higgins who was picked one spot ahead of him? You can see how this is a domino effect waiting to happen. The situation has now been going on about 2 months and we are still in a holding pattern.
The Chargers started training camp this week and pick #55 Tre Harris was not in attendance. He is the first official holdout of the 30-man group. He likely will not be the last unless someone down the list folds. I am hoping it will be Howie Roseman. I want the players to see that the Eagles are the ones working in their best interests. Make no mistake, if Howie gives pick #64 Andrew Mukuba a fully guaranteed contract, the precedent will be set and everyone else will fall in line.
Eagles Salary Crunch
Howie Roseman is an elite salary cap manipulator, but even he must reckon with the amount of talent he has to pay in the future. So much of this roster is already playing under large contracts but more are on the way like Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell, and Cooper DeJean. These players will be paid at the tops of their markets starting next year for the first two and then the year after for the next two. Because you cannot let talents like them leave, you need to save money elsewhere. That is why Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, CJGJ, and Mekhi Becton are no longer Eagles.
One person I expected to get a contract extension this offseason was Reed Blankenship, but that hasn’t happened. As a prediction, I had him getting around 3/$21m. Unfortunately, after the Jevon Holland and Travon Moehrig deals, the safety market really advanced. Apparently the two sides have barely been in contact. A deal over $10m AAV has probably been floated and that just doesn’t make sense for the Eagles in an early extension. He is still under contract this season but will be a free agent next year. I’ve been beating the drum that the Eagles pay great players, not good ones. No disrespect to Reed, but he is good not great.
Where Mukuba Comes In
The Eagles need to get Mukuba on the field because he is desperately important to both the current team and the future. He is expected to be one of the starting safeties this season and how he acclimates to the role will shape the future.
If Mukuba takes to the job and shows the kind of acumen even close to what Mitchell and DeJean flexed last season, then the Eagles have another stud on their hands. If that happens, that makes Blankenship expendable. The team will be very happy to hand the keys of the position over to Mukuba, let Blankenship walk, collect another comp pick, and then draft someone else to be his running mate (I am assuming Sydney Brown will never “put it together”). Doing this will not only mean that the defense has another alpha talent, but a cheap one for the next several years. They also would not have the Blankenship contract on the books not making all the dollars that much tighter.
However, let’s say Mukuba doesn’t perform this season. If he is just “okay” or even bad then the Eagles have a problem on their hands. Blankenship would now be holding all the cards in extension talks. Assuming continued solid play, he would command a contract in the Holland range of 3/$45m+. The only times the Eagles pay for “good” talent is when they have to. That’s why the Eagles brought back CJGJ before last year. The safety position was thin and they needed him. Well, if Mukuba doesn’t hit, they will be in the same position to bring back Blankenship. Can the team afford everyone? Probably not. It would be awful to see the team have to play games with any of the other 4 guys because Mukuba didn’t pan out and they had to pay Blankenship. I suppose they could just be bad at safety, that’s an option. As Quez Watkins showed us though, having a weak link at a position could be the difference in winning a championship.
We Just Saw This with Nolan Smith
The Eagles signed Bryce Huff last season because they thought they needed another EDGE defender. What they saw from Nolan Smith’s rookie year was simply not encouraging. This forced them to go out and sign “good” but not “great” Bryce Huff. Well Huff washed out spectacularly and the Eagles didn’t miss a beat because Smith blew up. All of a sudden, they had another great talent on their hands in Smith and he will need to be paid. Getting off the Huff contract was immediately a big problem due to its future cap concerns. All the contract cutting this year was necessary because Smith entered the extension thought process.
In the End
There is always the chance that Mukuba flames out and they want to cut him before his final season. If he has that guaranteed contract, that screws up their books by a couple million dollars and that could be all the difference. The odds of that though are slim. The Eagles are very good at drafting and setting a precedent based on your own quality decision making is a good idea. Pay Mukuba now so he doesn’t miss any time this offseason. He is simply more important than anyone realizes, but of course the Eagles know that.
Philly Front Office 
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