Last season around the time, Eagles starting free safety Reed Blankenship was fighting for a roster spot. The undrafted rookie free agent out of Middle Tennessee State battled hard in the preseason and would make the team.
In 2022, Blankenship replaced an injured C.J. Gardner-Johnson in Week 12 against the Green Bay Packers. In that game, the second-year safety became the first undrafted rookie to intercept the great Aaron Rodgers.
This season, Gardner-Johnson is gone, and now Blankenship is the starter for the Eagles.
On Tuesday, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni discussed Blankenship’s rise from just making the team to being a starter in Philly.
“Yeah, it’s funny, I’m looking at my talk to the team for tomorrow night, and there’s some similarities of tomorrow night’s talk and last year on the third preseason game’s talk,” Sirianni said. “I’m looking at Reed’s — because we kind of said, ‘Hey, Reed is going to play in the third preseason game. What are you going to do tomorrow to take advantage of your opportunity and make this team?’ Looking at his college highlights we showed some of his college highlights, and we showed his stats. He had like 419 tackles in five years at Middle Tennessee State.
“So obviously he was all — why I say all that was it was exciting to look back at that and see us highlighting [WR Britain] Covey and Reed and them going out and taking advantage of their opportunities and making the team.
“But Reed has always had this playmaking ability, going back to the 419 tackles at Middle Tennessee State. He just keeps developing.
“One compliment you can give a guy that in our locker room is like, man, he’s just a good football player, and he’s just a good football player, and that’s how I feel about Reed, and he’s continuing to get better. He’s continuing to see everything as a safety and make strides there in his football IQ.
“I’m obviously pleased with where he is right now and the growth that he’s had in the past year.”
Opposite Blankenship is a rotating cast of characters at the strong safety position for the Eagles, but the one constant has been Blankenship.
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