Inside the Eagles’ intense safety competition, where ‘we’re all pushing each other’ but not everyone can win

Marcus Epps knew what he was getting into when he returned to the Eagles this offseason.

His resumé is strong — Epps was a key starter during their 2022 Super Bowl run — but he never expected the starting safety job to be handed to him. The 30-year-old knew he’d have to grind it out against his main competition, Michael Carter II, plus seventh-round pick Cole Wisniewski, veteran special teamer J.T. Gray, and long shots like Andre Sam, Kapena Gushiken, and Maximus Pulley.

Through three days of camp, the battle has been as intense as advertised.

“It’s open competition,” Epps said. “They made that clear. That’s where my focus is. I’ve always had to earn everything my whole career anyway. So we’re all pushing each other. We’re all encouraging each other.”

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That’s the right mindset to have given the competitive nature of the safety battle. Safety is currently the Eagles’ only position not set in stone. Cooper DeJean, who plays slot in nickel, holds the starting safety spot in the team’s base defense, but the Eagles, like most NFL defenses, use nickel and dime packages much more often than base. That leaves the spot next to Andrew Mukuba — the other starting safety — wide open.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who previously indicated that Epps was in the pole position, was mum on who the current leader was when asked on Thursday.

“Carter’s doing fine, too,” Fangio said. “It’s [a] competition.”

The first-team snaps at camp seem to confirm Fangio’s comments, as Carter and Epps have rotated in at safety with the first-team defense over the three days. How has this battle affected morale in the room?

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“It’s been great,” said Epps. “We’re all encouraging each other. We’re all helping each other out. But at the same time, we’re all bringing it each day. And I feel like we’re all taking the same day-to-day mindset and just trying to get better and do whatever it takes to help the team.”

On paper, Epps’ resumé is much more impressive than Carter’s. Epps has 49 starts in 94 career games with 3 interceptions and 315 career tackles. Carter, meanwhile, has 26 starts in 73 games with 2 interceptions and 233 tackles.

What’s it going to take for Epps to win the job once and for all?

“I’m just going to go out there and be me, man,” he said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time, trying to be consistent, trying to stack days. That’s where my focus is, doing anything it takes to help the team, man.”

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Asked about the battle from an outside perspective, Mukuba took a diplomatic approach, opting to instead shout out his teammates.

“We’ve got a lot of good guys in the room that’s doing good,” Mukuba said. “Epps, Mike Carter. We’ve got the young guys doing good as well, I mean, it’s a good group of guys that’s coming in, working and competing every day.

“We’ll see where it takes us.”

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The first days of Eagles training camp practice in South Philadelphia are in the books. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Olivia Reiner check in with key observations and highlight emerging early storylines to kick off unCovering the Birds’ coverage of the 2026 season.  unCovering the Birds is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts. Look for new episodes throughout the season. We're always looking for mailbag questions! Hit Jeff up on his socials, or drop a question in the comments. Jeff could answer it in a future episode! Listen here.

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