Eagles S Andrew Mukuba: Second-Year Step-up Expected For No. 21 Player

Just as he was gaining consistency as a rookie, Andrew Mukuba suffered a season-ending injury.

Rookie Drew Mukuba gets instruction from DB coach Christian Parker during Day 8 of Eagles training camp. | Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

He finished his rookie season out of sight and mostly out of mind after a devastating injury in Week 12 against the Cowboys. Safety Andrew Mukuba wasn’t seen again after that until cleanout day, when he was spotted wearing a boot to help stabilize a fractured ankle and fibula repaired during surgery.

He is expected to be ready to go when players report to training camp on July 28.

That doesn’t mean he will stay ready. Last year, he got banged up during camp and missed some time, leading to a halting start to his rookie season. Meaning he was up and down but had been gaining more consistency as the season got deeper.

“As you guys know, last year, his season-- first off, his training camp was interrupted by a couple injuries that kept him out for two different lumps of time,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said in the spring. “Started off the season up and down, had some shaky plays. But I felt like the last five or six games prior to him getting hurt, he was coming on and hopefully he'll be able to pick up from there. He's had a rehab-dominated offseason, but he's been out there with us these last couple of weeks. He's not 100 percent yet, but he will be soon.”

A Healthy Mukuba Could Be Answer At Safety

Eagles rookie S Andrew Mukuba. | John McMullen/Eagles On SI

Mukuba is expected to be one of the starters at safety. He played 100 percent of the snaps in five games last year, including two of the final three, and probably would have played in that game except that he got hurt. That experience is expected to pay dividends this season.

For that reason, Mukuba claims the No. 21 spot on the top-25 list of the best current Eagles. The list was compiled by the staff at Philadelphia Eagles on Sports Illustrated. Players were ranked from one through 25, with first place landing one point, second two points, and so on down to 25 points for 25th place. Thirty-points were given to a player who appeared in the top 25 but didn’t get a vote from one of the three voting members – Jeff Kerr, John McMullen, and Ed Kracz.

Mukuba collected 65 points. As a rookie second-round pick, without having played a game, Mukuba was tied for 25th in last year’ rankings with fellow rookie and first-round Jihaad Campbell.

So far, this year’s list looks like:

No. 25 – Tank Bigsby

No. 24 – Jake Elliott

No. 23 – Makai Lemon

No. 22 – Braden Mann

21 – Mukuba