The Philadelphia Eagles have addressed plenty of roster needs this offseason, but there’s one glaring hole that has flown under the radar: the safety position. With the regular season approaching, the Eagles’ safety depth chart remains a legitimate concern, and it’s puzzling that more people aren’t raising the alarm about it.

Some fans might assume the Eagles can just slide cornerback Cooper DeJean into more safety responsibilities and run more base defense, but that’s not the ideal solution. DeJean is best utilized at the nickel, where he can make the biggest impact. Moving him around to patch a hole at safety would take away from what he does best, and the Eagles shouldn’t have to compromise one position to fix another.

The current safety room is shaky at best

Look at what the Eagles actually have right now. Andrew Mukuba showed some flashes last year, no doubt about it. He had some high highs, but he also had some low lows. He’s coming back from a pretty severe injury, and while he’ll probably be okay, we still need to see how he looks in Year 2. He’s young, and there’s upside, but banking on a second-year player who’s coming off an injury is a risk.

On the other side, you’ve got Marcus Epps, Michael Carter, and seventh-round pick Cole Wisniewski, who’s been dealing with an injury the last couple of weeks. So who do you trust out of this group? Epps was really good on that 2022 team, but he’s a couple years older now. He’s a solid depth piece, a good veteran to have in the room, but expecting him to be the other starter at this stage of his career feels like a stretch.

The free agent market doesn’t offer much help

And that’s part of the frustration here. The free agent safety market is essentially barren. Unless the Eagles want to take a flyer on a Donovan Wilson, bring back Terrell Edmunds, or sign a guy like Jabrill Peppers, there aren’t many options out there. I just don’t see Philadelphia being interested in any of those names. None of them moves the needle enough to justify the investment.

So the Eagles are essentially banking on hope. Hope that Michael Carter can emerge as a legitimate contributor, that another young guy on the roster takes a step forward, that Epps can just be solid enough. And probably banking on their cornerback room being elite enough to mask the deficiency, which, to be fair, we know they are.

This could become a midseason problem

This safety group is just okay. And “just okay” at a position that critical can come back to bite you. The Eagles are going to have to monitor this situation closely in the first couple months of the season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a push for someone at the trade deadline.

I just wish they would have gotten another piece this offseason. Maybe they didn’t have the cap room, the right opportunity, or the right player available. But it feels like the safety position wasn’t prioritized the way it should have been. Now all they can do is wait and see, and for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations, that’s not exactly where you want to be at one of the most important positions on the defense.