{"id":47038,"date":"2025-05-13T15:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/47038\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T15:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:12:10","slug":"eagles-andrew-mukuba-makes-an-exclusive-list-of-non-first-round-draft-picks-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/47038\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles Andrew Mukuba makes an exclusive list of non-first-round draft picks to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been excited about something? Have you ever taken time to do research after the fact and found out you weren’t quite as enthusiastic as you should have been? Let’s talk about the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>‘ 2025 NFL Draft class. In particular, we’ll zero in on safety, Andrew Mukuba. The story alone will force a smile across your face.<\/p>\n

Taken 64th overall<\/a>, with the final pick of the second round, this 2024 Third-Team All-SEC nod completed his NCAA run with the Texas Longhorns<\/a>. This is after a three-year ride with the Clemson Tigers. He earned Third-Team All-ACC honors in 2021 and Freshman All-American honors, and guess what? While at Clemson, he was teammates with fellow Eagles<\/a> youngsters Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Will Shipley.<\/p>\n

Andrew Mukuba earns high praise on an impressive list of NFL rookie defenders taken after Round 1.<\/p>\n

Mukuba’s stat line from his final NCAA season will impress you: 69 tackles, seven pass breakups, a forced fumble, and five interceptions, which led the SEC in 2024.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Field Yates recently pieced together an impressive read, Ranking 2025 NFL rookie impact for non-Round 1 draft picks<\/a>. Philly’s young rookie landed ninth on his list of the top rookie defenders. Here’s what Yates mentioned as his reasoning.<\/p>\n

“The Eagles’ remodel of their secondary continued into the draft, as they used the final pick of the second round on the instinctive, pro-ready Mukuba. I love his football IQ, and while Mukuba has a smaller frame for a safety (he was only 186 pounds at the combine), he packs a lot of power as a physical tackler. His versatility to play in the slot a little bit should only increase early playing time.”<\/p>\n

That should get the adrenaline pumping. Mukuba joins a safety room already housing Reed Blankenship, Sydney Brown, Lewis Cine, Tristin McCollum, Andre’ Sam, and undrafted rookie Maxen Hook.<\/p>\n

Philly traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the Houston Texans<\/a>. Mukuba figures to make that a seamless transition. He isn’t the headhunter that Brown is. Still, both will add value to this young Eagles secondary, as the new guy is a better cover guy and a phenomenal playmaker whenever the football travels into his vicinity.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Andrew Mukuba makes a list of impact rookies to watch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever been excited about something? Have you ever taken time to do research after the fact…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[913,1172,843,25,6118,7,253,16150,461,16152,881,6,242,109,2476,9716,9717,1078,16151,14602],"class_list":{"0":"post-47038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-andrew-mukuba","9":"tag-c-j-gardner-johnson","10":"tag-clemson-tigers","11":"tag-eagles","12":"tag-field-yates","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-houston-texans","15":"tag-jeremiah-trotter-jr","16":"tag-lewis-cine","17":"tag-maxen-hook","18":"tag-mukuba","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-philadelphia","21":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","22":"tag-philadelphiaeagles","23":"tag-reed-blankenship","24":"tag-sydney-brown","25":"tag-texas-longhorns","26":"tag-tristin-mccollum","27":"tag-will-shipley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114501173031126257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}