Eagles Safety Waited For Call That Never Came On Cutdown Day

Reed Blankenship left everything he had on the field in the preseason finale back in 2022 against the Miami Dolphins. He had a solid summer as an undrafted free agent from Middle Tennessee State, so there was already some buzz that he would make the team, but nothing is guaranteed. Especially when you arrive with hat in hand, looking for a job after not being drafted.

Not that he listened to any of the buzz.

“I’m my biggest critic,” he said, following the Eagles final preseason game against the Jets. “It’s hard for me to take praise at times because if you take praise, you’re going to be complacent. I try to learn from my mistakes. Mistakes live in my head rent free. I want to build off of them, and I want to learn from them. When I accomplish that, I feel like I’ve hit a milestone. So that’s what I continue to do to this day.”

This day is Year 4 for the safety. He has started 15 games each of the past two seasons after starting just four as a rookie. He may even be named a team captain this season.

He didn’t play a single snap in New York on Friday night. In Miami four years ago, he played 73 percent of the snaps in a fight to win a job along with Jaquiski Tartt and others, including K’Von Wallace, who was a fourth-round pick of the Eagles two years earlier.

Reed Blankenship Remembers Cutdown Day Like It Was Yesterday

“I remember it just like it was yesterday,” said Blankenship of that final exhibition game in 2022. “I felt like I played every snap, and by the end of the game, I’m like, ‘If they don’t like me, I’m sure somebody will.’ I left it all out there. So, if it was my last snap, it was my last snap, and it wasn’t meant to be. If somebody likes me, they’re going to pick me up. So, I left it all out there, and here I am.”

The Eagles haven’t had an undrafted free agent make as big of an impact since Blankenship. Ben VanSumeren was a UDFA in 2023 and he was solid on special teams, but a knee injury has robbed him of time, and he will be a full-time fullback this season.

Whatever happens with the handful of remaining undrafted free agents who made it through Monday’s first wave of cuts – players such as receivers Darius Cooper and Taylor Morin, running back Montrell Johnson, offensive lineman Hollin Pierce, cornerback Brandon Johnson, and safety Maxen Hook – there won’t be much sleep over the next however many hours are left until rosters are due by 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

“I didn’t know I was going to have a spot until 4, 4:30, whatever it was, at the Marriott over here (at the airport),” said Blankenship. “After that time, I guess it was 4:30 or 5, when I didn’t get a call, I’m like, ‘Have I made it or not?’ It’s surreal.

“I was nervous. I was up here alone. I was talking to my agent and calling my parents. You’re just sitting there waiting. You’re waiting on a call because that's what I’ve been told. You wait on that call. And if you don’t get a call, then you’re in the clear.”

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