PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Andrew Mukuba and the players we're watching in Eagles preseason game No. 2

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

The Eagles' second preseason game takes place on Saturday against the Browns as Tanner McKee, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Kyle McCord suit up for the Eagles in the race for roster spots. We're watching some of the Eagles' rookies, including second-round pick Drew Mukuba, who is making his preseason debut in his quest to start at safety. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Eagles play their second preseason game on Saturday against the Cleveland Browns after two joint practices with the Browns. So we're not expecting many of the starters to play in this game. But let's go around the horn. Tell me two things or players that you are most looking forward to seeing in this game. We'll start with you, Fran. Yeah, I'm going to go with the rookie safety, Andrew McCuba. The second round pick out of Texas did not play last week against the Cincinnati Bengals after missing a chunk of time here in training camp with an injury. Now back in the lineup has been up and down.

He had an interception in Thursday's practice. but also got beat for a touchdown. I'm excited to see what he looks like. I would anticipate he's going to get a lot of run in this game against Cleveland Browns. I want to see like how he's used as well. Because he's spent some time inside, whether that be nickel or dime, more likely dime.

But yeah, with the base defense, I mean, the book on McCuba is that he is a physical player despite the frame. Let's see how physical he can be. Yeah. The big thing too is like the, when you watch him at Texas, the instincts and zone coverage,

look, it's a whole different thing, getting used to NFL game speed and obviously you're learning a new scheme. How comfortable is it going to look mentally? I think that will be important to watch here on Saturday. You have any thoughts on McCubey, Jay? Yeah, I think it will be interesting to see how he does against maybe some of the bigger bodied Browns receivers. I feel like this has been on your radar.

Yeah, he has struggled at times with some of the bigger tight ends being able to just rise above him and catch passes, especially down the field in the end zone. So, you know, in those matchup opportunities against tight ends or bigger wide receivers, I do want to see Howie Ferris for sure. Okay, who is the other one that you are looking forward to seeing? I'm going to say in the secondary. I want to see Mack McWilliam. He's made the move to Outside Corner this week.

He'd been splitting time between Nickel and Outside Corner before this week. I think if he has a good preseason game, he really enters the competition for that starting outside cornerback spot opposite Quinion Mitchell. I'm intrigued by him. I feel like he has a chance here to really take, at least enter that race in a real way. And he will definitely help himself with a good performance against the Browns. Yeah, the way that they are using him after having put him in the slot for a lot of the summer, I mean, it tells me that he is in the mix to some degree. I think Vic Fangio wants to see what he can do.

And it has not been a good week for Kili Ringo and Adori Jackson and Jacorian Bennett so far. Now, those guys will all have a chance to, you know, change that story based on how they do on Saturday. But I think if Mac McWilliams looks the best of those four, then, yeah, all of a sudden, watch out. Yeah, and I mean, week one is fast approaching. Yeah, we are deep into training camp at this point. The fact that no one has separated themselves in that race between Keely Ringo, Adori Jackson, and now Jacori and Bennett, I do think that it really opens the door for someone like Mack

McWilliams, who has been making progress this summer. Now, I could tell you, I don't want to say, Tanner McKee, but I already know that Tenram Key is going to be good in this game. I mean, he's one of the 20, 25 at the worst best quarterbacks in football. He's going to be fine. I'm going to give you a low roster player. who I think has an outside chance to steal a job. Okay.

And that is Montreal Johnson, the undrafted running back from Florida, who was injured for the first preseason game and did not play. And I think if he looks good, and I think he has looked good this summer, I think he has a chance to take AJ Dylan's job. That's the number three running back for this team. Or at least make the Eagles question whether they need to put Dylan on the week one roster

because maybe they can bring him back week two and not guarantee his contract. I think Montreal Johnson has shown some niftiness between the hole, and a little bit more burst than I was expecting. So I want to see how he looks when it's actually alive. Yeah, he flashed a little bit when he was healthy. So I'm interested to see what he looks like. You know, what does he look like in the past game as well?

Is he active on special teams? These are all things that I'm interested to see from the rookie running back as well. Okay. How about you? Who's your next one? My next one, I do want to go to the wide receiver position. And one of the highlights from last game against the Cincinnati Bengals was Johnny Wilson. I almost want to see, does he have an encore here?

Because you have Darius Cooper, who I think all three of us feel pretty good, the undrafted rookie free agent from Tarleton State making the 53 man roster. I feel like Johnny Wilson also was on the 53. I think so. So now it becomes who's going to be active. Who's going to be wide receiver four? Are both guys active on game day? Cooper has gotten starting looks on multiple special teams units in practice. Johnny Wilson is starting to get worked in there.

Does he start in some of these special teams packages here in this game? These are some of the little things that can determine jobs. Maybe both guys make the 53, but who's going to be active, who's going to be inactive? Those are the things that can get decided in these preseason games as well. Yeah. Listen, Johnny Wilson and him working this week with Jalen Hertz even more. I think it was indicative of the fact that he is probably going to be on this team. But yeah, I think the thought of Johnny Wilson, can he give you the upside as a receiver that you were hoping when you drafted him?

Let's see how he does in this game. Over to you, E.J. Yeah, you know, Fran mentioned that these games can determine jobs. I know that we wouldn't, maybe we don't need to talk about Tanner McKee, but I want to see Dorian Thompson Robinson. I feel like he's making a lot of progress on this third quarterback job, the emergency quarterback on game day. And I feel like he has a chance to really sew this up over the next couple of days.

And really, probably the next week, I feel like he's looked better than Kyle McCord. I understand the team-building argument for keeping McCord over Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He's had preseason games before in the past where he's created a lot of buzz. I feel like you could have a chance to do that against his former team even. That's true. And now I won't use my pick on this, but I am also very interested to see how Kyle McCord looks in this competition.

Neither of them got a ton of playing time in that first game. I expect we'll see a little bit more. We haven't seen a ton of them during the joint practice. Well, that's the thing. They got, you know, a handful of reps, if any, this week, they joined practices. So they need to get the work in. And listen, I think, I still think Kyle McCord is going to win that job,

but I could certainly be wrong. Something to watch. I'm going to watch. Okay, I will give you, you know, I'm trying to think about like the, You know, I want to see how Brett Tooth does if he gets the full run. Is he going to actually be the left guard until Lyndon Diggerson comes back? But I kind of want to see how those other rookie offensive linemen do. Now, Miles Hinton, I think is, I feel pretty strongly the most likely of these guys to make the team.

He has worked exclusively at left tackle. He got a little bit of time this week in the joint practices when Jordan Mila took some plays off. But Cameron Williams got a lot of time too. I still think that Hinton is the most likely of those guys to push. And then I also want to see Daryon Kahnard, who it feels like is being groomed to be like the top backup on game day. Where does he play? Left guard, right guard. Does he bounce around a little bit?

So, you know, I'm always looking for the offensive lineman when we actually get to see the live football action. What's your gut tell you on Tooth? My feeling is he probably doesn't play, right? I think he does play. Interesting. That could be wrong. Because I feel like often what you see is like if you know, if you're not going to play one and we want to play all of them. We want to play the guys he's going to play with.

I don't think you're going to put Jordan Mila out there after getting. They're the reps that he got this week during the joint practices. Same with Cam Juergens. I still think he's going to, I think he's going to have to play. Yeah, maybe. I also think it's like it's part of the conversation between Stout and Howie,

like about like who, who should get this job. I like how he's going to want to see him. I don't know. Yeah, it'll be interesting. You know, Lane Johnson had dropped a nugget this week.

They're just taking a look at the, uh, the swing tackle competition. So you mentioned all these names. All these guys are going to be competing for that job. Anybody else that you guys have your eyes on? just quickly. Smile Mondin.

It was a little bit of a welcome to the NFL moment for him last week against Cincinnati. What does he look like? He's had a, you know, by all accounts, has had a pretty good summer. So what does he look like in his second preseason game?

I mean, you know that I'm watching Brandon Johnson. Know that? This stud undrafted nickel out of Oregon by way of Duke. I'm interested to see him. Anybody else for you, E.J. I mean, I'm just going to play the hits.

Like I feel like if Jehad Campbell does get some of it, I want to see how he looks. And then Keely Ringo. I mean... Yeah, no, listen, this is part of the story. I could see Kili Ringo getting a lot of run in the game, especially with his recent maybe demotion during the joint practices. So if he gets a lot of playing time,

maybe he can kind of dig himself out of this hole. Okay. Was there anybody from the Browns this week that you are interested to see? Can I tell you? I mean, for the fifth overall pick, I was a little bit uninspired by Mason Graham. Yeah, he didn't flash much the day. We watched him.

He made one nice play on Thursday, sniffing out a screen to Dallas Scott. But I don't know. He's no more Ojomo. He's no more Ojojomo. And Tyler Steen handled him very well. Yeah. Okay. I guess that'll do it.

We will have you covered with full coverage of the second preseason game for the Eagles on Saturday at all PHLY and on our PHY YouTube page. Like the video, subscribe, all that good stuff. We'll see you later.