The Philadelphia Eagles addressed another defensive need Friday night. 

The Eagles selected Texas safety Andrew Mukuba with the 64th-overall pick. Mukuba is the first safety the Eagles have taken in the first two rounds since Nate Allen in 2010.

Last season, the 6-foot, 185-pound Mukuba finished with five interceptions, which was tied for most in the SEC, seven pass deflections, four sacks and 69 tackles, including 41 solo. 

“I was sitting there just waiting for my phone to ring, man,” Mukuba, 22, said Friday. “As soon as I saw who it was, you should have seen how fast I jumped out of my seat. I’m excited, I’m happy. I feel like I’m in a great situation and a great position.”

Mukuba spent three years at Clemson, where he played alongside Jeremiah Trotter Jr., before transferring to Texas. Mukuba said he enjoys mixing it up against the run as well as patrolling the secondary.

“That’s just my mindset, how I go about the game and how I play the position,” Mukuba said. “You have to be fearless out there. Every opportunity I get to hit somebody, I try to do it as hard as I can. I play the game without fear. That’s what it is with me. I don’t play with fear. I fly around and have fun. I hit people.”

After parting ways with C.J. Gardner-Johnson and James Bradberry, the Eagles needed to add some depth at safety. Bradberry wasn’t a massive loss, but Gardner-Johnson’s departure definitely was. He had  12 interceptions in just 28 games in two seasons with the Eagles, so that production needed to be replaced.

Mukuba, who had a formal visit with the Eagles at the NFL Combine, will join Reed Blankenship, Tristin McCollum and Sydney Brown at safety. 

Mukuba will definitely compete for a starting safety job, but he give the Eagles great depth, too. He primarily plays safety, but doubles down as a slot corner. That is another great thing about this pick, especially with the departures of Darius Slay, Isaiah Rodgers and Avonte Maddox.

“It’s really hard to find cover safeties and guys who have the ability to come down and play over the slot, play in the middle of the field, have natural instincts, play the ball,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said Friday. “He was a slot corner at Clemson before he transferred to Texas. … He’s got ball skills. He plays with ‘mentality.’”

Ten of Roseman’s last 12 selections in the first three rounds have been defensive players – Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean in 2022, Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter and Sydney Brown in 2023, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Jalyx Hunt last year and Jihaad Campbell and Mukuba this year.  

Defense wins championships, right? The old cliché held true this season, especially in February.

“This guy, he plays an Eagles brand of football. I think, for us, the value fit the need right there,” Roseman said. “We feel like throughout this process, this guy just checked all the boxes. … We considered moving back, but we really liked Andrew and his play temperament and his play style. … He’s got a nose for the ball, and he’s got a feel for making big-time plays in big-time moments, and that’s really the skillset we’re looking for from the safety position.”

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein said Mukuba “is an undersized safety with a disappointing wingspan” and his “short arms create limited room for error as an open-field tackler” on his scouting report.

Zierlein also said Mukuba has “instinctive eyes and aggressive trigger lead to ball production” and “good awareness to route development as a high safety” and “consistently plays the throw and not the pass catcher” and is “able to adjust angles to stop ball-carriers as an alley-runner.”

Four-year starter who plays the game with the instincts and awareness of a player who has seen a lot of football. Mukuba has the athleticism to play in the slot but is best when he’s able to read the field as a “robber” and use his instincts, burst and ball skills to make plays. He moves efficiently in coverage, but that efficiency can get away from him in run support, where he races in too hot and misses tackles. Mukuba possesses the character, physicality and playmaking instincts that will draw NFL teams to him as a future starter.

Lance Zierlein on Mukuba

Size has been a weakness thrown around about Mukuba, but he and Roseman are not bothered or concerned with that.

“Size never really bothered me, to be honest,” Mukuba said. “I feel like I can still go out there and play the game at a physical level, with a lot of physicality. I still go out there and compete hard.”