Category: Eagles/NFL

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.”

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?

“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.”

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.”

A second consecutive offseason shoulder surgery forced Jihaad Campbell to miss most of the on-field portion of the Eagles’ spring program. Campbell’s time away from football during chunks of this offseason was somewhat forced, but also intentional, the 22-year-old linebacker said Thursday.

College football at Alabama bled into the pre-draft process. Then came his left shoulder surgery following the scouting combine, an injury that likely caused him to slip a little bit in the draft before the Eagles traded up a spot to pick him at No. 31 last year.

Then came that rehabilitation process, rookie minicamp, gearing up for his first NFL season, his first NFL training camp, and a rookie season that saw him filling in as a starter for the recovering Nakobe Dean, taking snaps as an edge rusher when the Eagles were banged up, and eventually finishing the season as a backup.

Campbell, a South Jersey native, said he spent some time during the offseason and after his right shoulder surgery — which he called “a little fix-up thing” — doing some “spiritual grounding” and “self-critiquing” in an effort to “double down on myself and understand how I can be the best version of myself.”

He’s now two practices into his second NFL training camp. He should feel more comfortable now, more secure in his role, than he did one year ago, considering there is little doubt whether he is the starter or not. He will line up next to Zack Baun, and he does not have a Nakobe Dean-like player looking over his shoulder, working his way back from an injury to take snaps away.

Campbell’s own ailments, he hopes, are in the rearview.

He showed up to camp this week a little bigger than he had been. Baun noticed. Campbell said he put an emphasis on getting stronger as he recovered from surgery. Baun said Wednesday, after the first practice of camp, that he can see Campbell’s growth not just in his body, but in the meeting rooms, where Campbell has a better understanding of the defense, having played in it last year at multiple positions.

“I’m just glad he’s working hard and knows he’s still got some room for improvement,” Baun said.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Thursday, though, that Campbell playing a few games primarily on the edge stunted his development at inside linebacker last season. The days of Campbell cross-training on the edge are over. He may blitz some, sure, but he’s an inside linebacker.

Asked if he agreed with Fangio’s assessment of last season, Campbell said: “Whatever Vic says, right? He’s the big dog. I believe in Coach Fangio, his process, his understanding of how he actually wants things to look like for his defense.”

Fangio’s defense is being stressed a little more in camp so far. The Eagles have a new offense under first-year coordinator Sean Mannion, and they’re implementing a new scheme, one that the Eagles typically have only seen against select opponents in the past. Baun said playing linebacker against an offense that runs from under center and utilizes more play action and wide-zone blocking in the running game requires “good eyes.”

Practicing against this type of offense should help the Eagles prepare for some of their opponents. The Eagles play principles of the Sean McVay-Kyle Shanahan scheme, and their schedule includes matchups against offensive coaches that hang from branches of that tree (Arizona, Houston, Jacksonville, Seattle).

Campbell said he feels more comfortable in his second season, even against a new offense, dissecting formations and understanding what an offense is running and what it’s trying to do.

Campbell wasn’t playing poorly when Dean — who now is with the Las Vegas Raiders — supplanted him as the starter last season. He forced a fumble in his first NFL game, had an interception in Week 4 in Tampa, piled up a season-high 11 tackles in Week 5 vs. Denver, had solid reps in coverage, and, later in the season, while filling in for Dean in Buffalo in Week 17, showed his speed when he raced past multiple players to recover a Josh Allen fumble.

He finished the season with 80 tackles in 17 games (10 starts). Pro Football Focus grades are far from gospel, but Campbell was the sixth-ranked off-ball linebacker through eight games before Dean took over, and he finished the season graded 14th overall among players at his position.

The offseason then featured another surgery, clarity on his role when Dean left in free agency, and a return to the No. 11, a number he wore in high school and college.

What’s next?

“When you’re a young linebacker, you want to improve on so many things,” Campbell said. “You want to grasp information from a lot of different things, a lot of greats, kind of steal their game, watch film. That’s what I’ve been doing during the offseason.”

Inspired by Pro Football Reference’s “Cups of Coffee” database, The Inquirer identified more than two-dozen living players who appeared in just one NFL game — and played that game as an Eagle. We’re seeking to tell some of those stories in our semi-regular Cups of Coffee series.

Marty Horn stayed ready.

After four record-setting seasons as Lehigh’s quarterback, Horn had his sights set on the NFL. The North Jersey native was brought to training camp twice by his hometown New York Jets, but didn’t make the roster in 1986 or 1987.

Horn kept training, hoping for another opportunity in the NFL, which was essentially the only game in town. The USFL had just folded, leaving a massive void in secondary football leagues until NFL Europe debuted three years later in 1989.

“No one really had anywhere to go,” Horn remembers.

Soon after, the league’s largest-ever labor dispute gave him his big break. The NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) went on strike after Week 2 of the 1987 NFL season, protesting the absence of free agency for players. Five years prior, the union went on strike for improved revenue sharing, and seven games were wiped out. This time, team owners played hardball. As rumblings of a potential strike grew louder, it became clear that the NFL’s full slate of games would be played, regardless of who was playing in them.

It was against that backdrop that Horn’s phone rang. On the other end was Eagles general manager Harry Gamble, who was familiar with Horn because of his time coaching Lafayette, Lehigh’s bitter rival. It all happened in an instant. Days after Week 2’s conclusion, hundreds of retired NFLers, ex-training camp signees, CFL players, and former college standouts had jobs in the league. Just over a week later, they took the field.

The roster turnover the league experienced was completely unprecedented. Approximately 15% of the union’s players decided to suit up through the strike. Two teams didn’t have any players cross the picket line — one of which was the Eagles.

On Horn’s first day on the job in South Philadelphia, he entered a locker room with 44 players just as new to the team as he was.

“It was kind of fun getting to know all of these guys,” said Horn. “There were all different walks of football life. It was pretty cool.”

But what Horn remembers most from his first day is the presence of head coach Buddy Ryan… or rather the lack thereof.

“He didn’t even coach us for the first two weeks. He said, ‘We’re not going to play a game; you guys aren’t going to play a game,’ so he didn’t coach us. And then when we got to game week and the team said we’re going to play the game, he was like, ‘Oh, you know what, we better start coaching these guys.’”

Across the Eagles’ three “replacement” games, only their first, a matchup with the Mike Ditka-led Chicago Bears, took place in Philadelphia. To describe the level of fan excitement as apathetic would be generous. While nearly every team saw a dip in attendance, nowhere saw one more dramatic than Philadelphia. The NFL averaged over 17,000 fans during week one of the strike games, but just over 4,000 fans entered the Veterans Stadium gates to see the Bears dominate the replacement Eagles 35-3. Horn believes that the biggest factor in the low attendance was Philadelphia’s identity as a union town, which he got a good look at when observing the scene outside of Veterans Stadium on gameday.

“It was crazy, you know. They circled the stadium with truckers’ unions and all that, and made it really difficult for people to get in,” said Horn. “We had to switch hotels in the middle of the night because they were going to block the buses from going in.”

As Horn arrived to practice the day following the loss, he noticed a shift in Ryan’s attitude toward the team. As the players gathered in the locker room, they realized that none of them had received their game checks. Once Ryan caught wind of the situation, he issued the team stern instructions.

“He was like, ”Don’t set foot on that field until you get your paychecks.’”

Once Ryan told management why practice had yet to begin, the paychecks suddenly materialized.

“It was funny because Buddy Ryan was such a players’ guy, and once he realized we had to play the games, [his] player-coach mentality took over.”

Regardless of how hard the Eagles practiced, their next game against Dallas would be an extreme challenge. The difference between the two weeks was night and day; Dallas had 21 players cross the picket line, including four Pro Bowlers. In Irving, things were business as usual, and over 40,000 fans made their way to Texas Stadium to see the Cowboys play the Eagles.

As expected, the Cowboys cruised to a relatively stress-free win. But the lopsided 41-22 score provided Horn the opportunity to make his NFL debut. With 6:51 left in the fourth quarter, it was the North Jersey native jogging in from the sideline, which signaled an informal concession by the Eagles. Dallas didn’t get the memo and kept all of their starters in.

“I found that a couple of years ago … there is a picture of me getting sacked by Too Tall Jones. That was my claim to fame,” joked Horn, who was featured on the front page of The Inquirer’s Monday sports section.

Jones, who stood 6 foot 9, made three Pro Bowl teams and totaled 106 sacks across a 15-year career.

Besides getting to play against Dallas, one of Horn’s favorite memories from his month as an Eagle was practicing with the non-replacement team. The league and the NFLPA came to an agreement before the next scheduled game against the Green Bay Packers, but the replacement players were kept around as it was too late for the union’s players to get into game shape and play that Sunday.

As the “real Eagles” began to arrive back to the facility, their biggest objective was to help their replacements win a game that held the same importance as any other.

The Birds ended up losing that game in overtime, 16-10, and it spelled the end of the road for Horn and nearly 1,000 other replacement players across the NFL. Looking back on his experience, Horn couldn’t have enjoyed the five weeks more.

“They bused us into practice every day, and you know, we just partied at night and hung out with the guys, and people didn’t really care,” Horn said. “We were just young football players having a good time.”

His biggest regret? Not taking his jersey.

“At the end of the game, you all throw your dirty uniforms in a pile… and the equipment guy came in, and he was like, ‘If anyone steals their jersey, if it’s not in this pile, we’re gonna dock your paycheck $350 bucks,’” Horn recalled. “I should’ve kept my jersey, but I didn’t.”

Following his playing career, the former Eagle picked up work in a variety of fields. Primarily, he returned to his family’s restaurant business in North Jersey, eventually owning the two properties alongside his brothers Don, Peter, and Jimmy.

On the NFL side, Horn has remained a fan of the Eagles long past his playing days. In addition to playing for the Birds, Marty’s son, Shane, attended Alabama, and he enjoys rooting for Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith, and the team’s other ‘Bama alums.

Horn also had a reunion with his alma mater, Lehigh, serving as the football color commentator for 20 years. But the broadcast side wasn’t the only connection the Millburn High School alum maintained to football. Horn worked as an assistant coach at Madison High School for 20 years before stepping away after the 2025 season. Horn always enjoyed seeing the reactions of his players who found out he made it to the league.

“Every once in a while they’d come in when they do a Google search on [my] name, and they were like, ‘Coach, I didn’t realize you played in the NFL.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, I played during the strike. I never made an active roster,’” recalled Horn. “But they got a kick out of that. It gives me a little more street cred.”

Howie Roseman said Wednesday the pectoral strain that landed 29-year-old edge rusher Jonathan Greenard on the Physically Unable to Perform list isn’t a “long-term injury.”

But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be able to participate in training camp.

On Thursday morning, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio noted that it “remains to be seen” whether Greenard will return to the practice field before Week 1 against the Washington Commanders. Still, like Roseman, Fangio didn’t express too much concern over Greenard’s absence from practice.

“He’s a veteran player, so he knows the league, knows how to play,” Fangio said. “But we’re going to be asking him to do some different things that he hadn’t had to do in his career, and that’s really what he’s going to be missing with this time off. He’s going to miss a good bit of camp.”

Those different tasks include dropping into coverage. Greenard has taken 203 coverage snaps throughout his six-year career, according to Pro Football Focus, but he is new to Fangio’s scheme and the way he coaches the responsibilities at each position.

Regardless, Fangio said he thinks Greenard is capable of dropping once he is back on the field.

“But he’s got to learn it,” Fangio added. “And the only way you learn it is to do it. He does a good job in the meetings. He’s paying attention. He’s focused, watching practice. But it’s not the same.“

The Eagles acquired Greenard this offseason from the Minnesota Vikings and signed him to a four-year extension, identifying their top edge rusher after Jaelan Phillips departed for the Carolina Panthers in free agency.

Greenard’s absence in camp will lead to opportunities for other players. Third-year edge rusher Jalyx Hunt had a strong start on Wednesday, winning a handful of reps against Jordan Mailata. Fangio said he thinks Hunt is “very capable” of having a big year after he led the team with 6½ sacks last season.

Fangio also lauded 27-year-old A.J. Epenesa, whom the Eagles signed in June. While he said it “remains to be seen” how Epenesa can help the depth of the group in the absence of Greenard, he made a strong impression on the first day of camp.

“For a guy that’s being asked to do a few things that he’s never done before, I thought he did a nice job [on Wednesday] with it,” Fangio said. “He was very encouraging.”

Safety competition continues

Throughout the offseason program and during the first two days of training camp, 30-year-old Marcus Epps has been holding down the starting safety spot alongside Andrew Mukuba in nickel defense.

Cooper DeJean is still occupying the starting safety spot in base defense, then shifting to the slot in nickel. Despite the continuation of those trends from the offseason program to training camp, Fangio wasn’t ready to anoint Epps the starter in nickel on Thursday.

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

Carter, 27, has rotated in at safety with the starting defense over the last two days. While the competition remains open for that spot in nickel, Fangio seemed to stand firm on keeping DeJean at safety in base instead of outside cornerback, a role he occupied last year.

Unsurprisingly, Fangio is more inclined to keep Riq Woolen on the field for every down than he was Adoree’ Jackson, who came off in base in 2025.

“But things can change,” Fangio said. “If we lose guys or guys aren’t playing good.”

Baun to wear green dot

Zack Baun enters the 2026 season with a new responsibility. Well, a semi-new responsibility.

Fangio revealed that the 29-year-old inside linebacker will wear the green dot on his helmet as the primary signal-caller for the defense, a responsibility that was previously held by Nakobe Dean.

The job isn’t totally foreign to Baun. While Dean was sidelined for the first five games of 2025 and didn’t take a defensive snap in the sixth, Baun was tasked with relaying the play calls he received through the radio in his helmet.

Fangio expressed his confidence in Baun at mastering any challenge within the defense, not just his newest full-time responsibility.

“Whatever you ask Zack to do, if he’s not good at it right now, he’ll fight through to get good at it,” Fangio said.

Money matters

Jalen Carter became the highest-paid defensive tackle in league history when he agreed to terms on a four-year, $152 million ($106 million guaranteed) extension on Tuesday.

Fangio reiterated Roseman’s remarks on Wednesday, when the general manager emphasized that he paid Carter based on his future performance, not on what he has accomplished in three seasons with the Eagles.

“Obviously, Howie’s confident that in this case, hopefully, he’ll pick his game up even more,” Fangio said.

Carter won’t be the only Eagles defensive tackle looking to elevate his game in 2026. Moro Ojomo, who turns 25 in August, is headed into a contract year. With extensions looming in the not-so-distant future for 2024 draft class members such as Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, Fangio made his feelings about Ojomo’s future in Philadelphia clear.

“Howie needs to save some money for him, too,” Fangio said.

Ojomo had a breakout season in 2025, finishing second on the team with six sacks. But as the Eagles defense becomes more expensive, it is unclear if Roseman will prioritize keeping the 2023 seventh-round pick out of Texas beyond this season.