Eagles rookie Sydney Brown getting up to speed in competition at safety

Each night after practice, Sydney Brown stands in the middle of his hotel room, staring at his iPad and pretending he’s back on the field.

The Eagles rookie is among a handful of safeties vying for a starting spot in the team’s secondary, so Brown is trying to expedite the transition from college to the NFL any way he can.

The speed of practices has been challenging for Brown, so the third-round pick out of Illinois uses the late-night visualization sessions to help himself adjust.

“I watch tape on my feet,” Brown said earlier this week. “I’m just trying to get that feel of what it’s like. Just little strides trying to get where I want to be and kind of pick up some of that game speed. ... The game’s a little bit faster. I’m trying to settle into that.”

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Brown, along with the rest of the Eagles’ defensive rookies, started training camp on the third-team unit with the challenge of working his way up. It took a few days longer than first-round defensive linemen Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, but Brown did eventually earn some first-team reps and has alternated on the second team a decent amount as well during the past few days of training camp.

When asked what Brown showed to get first-team looks, defensive coordinator Sean Desai said that his athleticism has stood out.

“You see his speed and ability to break on balls and his aggressiveness,” Desai said Friday before practice. “He’s still got to clean up some mental things, and that’s OK because we’re all there. It’s practice 7 or 8 of camp. There’s just things that we just keep on progressing. I think the exciting thing for him is he’s starting to feel more and more comfortable every day.”

Brown’s rise up the depth chart has not been linear, though. During Friday’s practice, the rookie spent most of the day back with the third team and working in with the second team for a handful of plays against the starting offense for one team period. He was with the third team during the developmental session at the end of practice when the team tackled live to the ground.

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Brown, a five-year starter for the Illini, said Thursday he didn’t take exception to his spot on the depth chart, suggesting he’d have to prove he’s worthy of a permanent promotion.

“I’m just doing what they’re telling me to do,” he said. “That’s where I start. I have to earn my respect, have to compete the right way and show that I deserve to get reps with the twos and ones, wherever they want me to be. ... If I’m with the threes today and the twos tomorrow, it doesn’t really matter, I’m just kind of taking it one rep at a time.”

The only mainstay on the back end of the Eagles’ starting defense during training camp has been Reed Blankenship. The second-year undrafted safety out of Middle Tennessee State filled in for C.J. Gardner-Johnson last season and played well enough to suggest he could be a Week 1 starter this year despite his lack of draft pedigree, and he seems well on his way to securing the job. Last year’s two starting safeties, Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps, have moved on to the Lions and Raiders, respectively.

Blankenship, 24, got meaningful playing time in the defense in five games last year, relieving Gardner-Johnson against the Green Bay Packers in Week 12 and getting his first career interception against Aaron Rodgers. He finished the year with two pass breakups and 34 tackles and has taken nearly all of the first-team reps at one of the safety spots.

“[Last year] helped me tremendously,” he said. “Especially feeling the tempo of the game. Coming from college and then going to the league, it’s two totally different tempos. You have to learn how to play it, learn your speed. Playing with James [Bradberry] and [Darius] Slay on the edges, it helps you a lot. I ask them as many questions as I can just to make myself confident.”

Opposite Blankenship, the Eagles have rotated between free-agent signee Terrell Edmunds, 2020 fourth-round pick K’Von Wallace, and Brown. It isn’t much of a surprise that Edmunds, a former Pittsburgh Steelers starter who signed a one-year deal in March, got the first crack with the starters and that Brown has gotten a few looks as well. Wallace, though, has been primarily a special-teams ace during the first three years of his career.

When asked about Wallace getting some plays with the first-team defense, coach Nick Sirianni said the former Clemson star has shown enough to get a chance to become a starter.

“You earn your first-team reps, so K’Von has done a nice job,” Sirianni said. “K’Von has done well for us on special teams these past two years, and now he’s got an opportunity. There’s some safety spots open, and he has an opportunity to be able to be in the mix.”

Wallace had a major role in the defense for two games after Gardner-Johnson’s injury before eventually being overtaken by Blankenship. Wallace said his time with the Eagles so far has similarities to his high school and college careers, each of which started with him as a backup for a few seasons before eventually becoming a starter.

“If you’re not playing to be a starter, then what [are] you out here for?” he said earlier this week. “I’m prepared. I’m ready. I’m willing to go out there and scratch and claw for that starting spot and let these coaches know that I’m ready and they can trust me.”

“I’ve always had to be patient,” Wallace added. “I always had to groom and blossom, but once that flower flowed man, it looks beautiful.”