Mukuba’s Monster Debut: Eagles Rookie Delivers Pick-6, Fumble Recovery vs Browns

The Eagles’ safety battle has been one of those interesting position battles for the defending champs in the 2025 training camp. The former Texas Longhorn, Andrew Mukuba, after his performance in the team’s matchup vs the Browns. It looks like he’s the guy lining up opposite Reed Blankenship at the safety spot on September 4th over the third-year veteran Sydney Brown. Let’s dive into the performance vs Cleveland a bit more for the young safety. 

The Pick 6 that Started to Raise Eyebrows for Eagles Fans 

It was the opening play of the second quarter for the Browns, as rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel was rolling out to his left and tried to fit a throw to his tight end on an out route. The ball was slightly overthrown enough for the Texas project to slide in between the two Cleveland players and haul it in with enough momentum to take it 75 yards to the House to get the Eagles crowd excited for a bit was the highlight of the day for the Eagles in the loss to Cleveland. 

It was a great sight to see the first two picks of the Philadelphia 2025 draft class in he and Jihaad Campbell, both running alone towards the end zone on that play, as well as both guys are looking to step up right away in their rookie seasons. Another interesting tidbit we would learn about after the game was the fact that Mukuba told NBC Philadelphia’s Dave Zangaro afterwards that this was his first pick-6. He also mentioned that he’s going to frame the ball. 

The Mukuba Fumble Recovery 

The Fumble Recovery was also another huge moment for the rookie in this performance, the fumble was caused by Gabriel not completely performing the handoff clean as the ball scooted forward, our hero of this story, would dive forward on the football and clean up the turnover for the Eagles to round out his performance on the day in this crucial measurement stick for the young rookie in terms of the safety battle. 

Final Thoughts

Andrew Mukuba has officially arrived in the eyes of Eagles fans now after this crucial performance against Cleveland. Many Philadelphia fans now want the team to name him the starting safety after that performance. It remains to be seen what Vic Fangio and Nick Sirianni will do with him and Brown after this game in terms of the depth chart in the number of weeks.

But if I had a say as a fan, I would put the former Longhorn as the starting safety right away after this brilliant performance. For more great NFL content like this, follow along with Total Apex Sports throughout the entirety of the 2025 NFL Season.