Eagles’ Reed Blankenship picks off Deshaun Watson, shining in a joint practice session against Browns

Sean Desai is looking for a pair of starting safeties, but he’s in no rush to hand out labels.

Going into the first of two joint practices against the Cleveland Browns on Monday, the Eagles defensive coordinator said he wouldn’t need to identify starters at the up-for-grabs safety and linebacker spots until Week 1 against the New England Patriots on Sept. 10.

“Patriots week is still, what, three-four weeks away? That’s the time frame,” Desai said. “We don’t need to make any decisions up until then and we’re going to keep finding the best combination and keep competing.”

Whether Desai is ready to crown him or not, Reed Blankenship is putting together the type of summer that will force the new defensive coordinator’s hand. The second-year safety, who watched Saturday’s preseason opener with the rest of the Eagles’ defensive starters and has worked exclusively with the first team so far, was a standout during Monday’s practice against the Browns starting offense.

Blankenship had the defensive play of the day, picking off Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson on a tip-drill initiated by linebacker Zach Cunningham batting the pass. Blankenship also had a handful of good coverage reps later in the day, often working as a deep safety protecting the back end. It’s worth noting the Eagles defense as a whole struggled with some busted coverages and easy completions during the day, but Blankenship had a solid day.

Joint practices will serve as an important benchmark for Desai. The Vic Fangio understudy said he has installed “95 to 98%” of his defensive calls so far and would use the joint practices to determine how far along the group is at executing them. At least after the first day, the early returns bode well for Blankenship.

“I think one thing we’ll get a really great grasp of as a staff, as a team on defense is how strongly can we rely on our techniques and fundamentals,” Desai said. “This is great because it’s an un-scouted opponent. You’re not really preparing for them, you’re still in training-camp mode, but it’s a different team than the one you’ve been facing for the last three weeks. So you get to really test out your rules and see who’s really mastering it, and that’s what I’m really excited about.”

Opposite Blankenship, the Eagles continued rotating through the usual suspects on the back end, with one noteworthy addition: Rookie Sydney Brown got extended reps with the starting defense for the first time this training camp, splitting reps with veteran safeties Justin Evans and Terrell Edmunds. Brown got into the backfield on a blitz during a team session, forcing Watson off his spot.

It has been a promising stretch for Brown; the third-round pick out of Illinois led the Eagles with nine tackles in the Eagles’ 20-19 preseason-opening loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday. During the pre-draft process, Brown was billed as an aggressive safety who was prone to over-pursue tackles and whiff by some evaluators. He quieted those concerns in his NFL preseason debut, conceding zero missed tackles according to Pro Football Focus.

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“I thought Sydney’s done well,” Desai said. “He’s had a good camp, and he’s continuing to grow and learn this defense. And really, that’s all these young guys and really everybody, but it’s a bigger learning curve for young guys that come in. He’s doing everything he can to learn and grow with that.”

“In terms of [his] aggressiveness, that’s the art of a coach,” Desai added. “Sometimes their great traits can hurt us, but he hasn’t done that. He’s done a great job of just [learning] the techniques that we want, and then you have to let those guys play. That’s part of what got them here and we want their traits to show.”