Eagles Mailbag: What’s the Hold Up With Reed Blankenship’s Contract Extension?
Training camp is well underway for the Philadelphia Eagles as the defending champions (don’t let them hear you say that) continue to prepare for the regular season. Philadelphia’s first preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals is just days away, which should help provide clarity for several position battles.
While Eagles general manager Howie Roseman made plenty of moves in the offseason, there are still several spots up for grabs on Philadelphia’s final 53-man roster. In my latest Eagles mailbag, I’ll discuss the current state of the roster, potential moves and much more.
1) Based on how well Tanner McKee played to end last season and is reportedly performing in training camp this year, it would likely take a massive offer. Yet considering how much the Eagles value backup quarterbacks, I doubt that they would entertain an offer for McKee that didn’t start with at least one day two draft pick.
2) The Reed Blankenship situation reminds me a lot of the T.J. Edwards situation back in 2022. After Philadelphia signed Edwards as an undrafted free agent, he spent four seasons with the team, developing into a key starter on defense for the Eagles and seemed to deserve a hefty contract extension…yet it never materialized.
Fast forward to 2025 and Blankenship finds himself in a similar situation. Everything that he has done on and off the field seems to warrant him signing a contract extension to remain in Philadelphia. Yet the Eagles didn’t discuss a contract extension with Blankenship during the offseason, according to a source.
It seems like Roseman is content allowing Blankenship head into a contract year in 2025. The Eagles likely believe they’ve already gained a ton of value from signing Blankenship as an undrafted free agent and could gain a compensatory pick from his departure in 2026, which is what they did with Edwards.
It’s entirely fair to argue against that idea, especially given Blankenship’s level of play and importance to the defense. Yet the Eagles have invested relatively high draft picks in both Sydney Brown and Drew Mukuba and likely want to see what they can do moving forward.
While Sydney Brown seems to be in the lead early in training camp, there is still plenty of time before Week 1. At this time last year, it seemed like Devin White was clearly going to be one of Philadelphia’s starting inside linebackers and we all know how that situation ended up playing out.
Regardless of who wins the starting job at safety, I believe both Brown and Drew Mukuba will see the field a decent amount in 2025. The Eagles could use a variety of dime packages to get all three safeties on the field and utilize their versatile skillsets and ability to line-up all over the field.
One of the main reasons that I was high on Brown coming out of Illinois was his versatility. According to Pro Football Focus, Brown played over 700 snaps in the box, at slot cornerback and as a deep safety during his time at Illinois. If healthy, I believe he’ll finally be able to put that versatility on display for the Eagles in 2025.
To be completely honest, I thought Kelee Ringo was going to have a stranglehold on the starting job by this point in training camp. The fact that Ringo is still splitting reps with Adoree’ Jackson is a bit concerning. Yet I’m not sure that Roseman will make a significant addition at cornerback right now.
The best case scenario remains that Ringo wins the job and starts at outside cornerback over the next two seasons on a rookie deal. My guess is that Roseman will continue to let the battle play out and if he’s really unhappy with the result, we could see a C.J. Gardner-Johnson or Jahan Dotson-esque trade in late August to help address the issue.
While I’ve seen several Eagles reporters mention their concerns about the EDGE situation, I remain high on Philadelphia’s current group. Nolan Smith should be fine for Week 1 and Jalyx Hunt continues to impress. It seems like Josh Uche is starting to separate himself from the rest of the pack and I’m excited to watch Antwaun Powell-Ryland during Philadelphia’s preseason games.
In the words of Allen Iverson: “We talking about practice. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. We talking about practice.”
In all seriousness, it’s hard to be too concerned about any of the struggles during training camp. Especially with players that we’ve seen perform at the highest level on the NFL’s biggest stage. Training camp is the time to work things out and make mistakes, therefore, I’m not concerned at all about the first-team offense.
I’ll be publishing an article that dives into this a bit deeper soon but the first and second preseason games are especially notable when figuring out which players will make Philadelphia’s final 53-man roster. Here’s one stat to tease my upcoming article:
35/50 non-specialist players (70%) that made the Eagles initial 53-man roster played in Philadelphia’s first preseason game in 2024
I wouldn’t expect to see any offensive starters for the Eagles during the preseason, outside of maybe Tyler Steen. Yet if Steen doesn’t play, that’s a clear sign that he has won the starting job at right guard. In 2024, the only offensive starter that played during the preseason was Mekhi Becton, who played eight snaps in the first preseason game and then sat out Philadelphia’s last two preseason games.
The defense is an entirely different situation, as Vic Fangio elected to play nearly every starter during the preseason in 2024. It’ll be interesting to see if that strategy remains the same this season or if that was simply to help players get familiar with Fangio’s scheme during his first season in Philadelphia.
It doesn’t seem like any of the injuries that the Eagles are currently dealing with would be categorized as major. Nick Sirianni has done a really good job of giving players days off to rest and managing their workloads since arriving in Philadelphia. Jihaad Campbell, Nolan Smith and Nakobe Dean all entered training camp recovering from injuries and seem to be trending in the right direction, which is obviously great news as well.