Philadelphia Eagles: Week 7 could make or break Marcus Epps’ future

The NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint.

Now sure, technically, the league has fewer games than any of its other major counterparts in the United States, but that is largely offset by the physicality of the game.

So naturally, the results of any given game, whether good, bad or, somewhere in between, isn’t too indicative of a full season’s outcome, even if those final few contests seem to feel a whole lot more consequential based on the weight of what came before them. While a signature showing at either end of a spectrum could help to define a player’s seasonal value, very rarely does one game make or break a player’s season.

For Philadelphia Eagles safety Marcus Epps, Week 7 may be one of those rare exceptions.

Marcus Epps could define his future with the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 7.

Barring a surprise development, the Philadelphia Eagles will enter Week 7 with only three active safeties on their 53 man roster – Rodney McLeod, Marcus Epps, and Andre Chachere– and Elijah Riley elevated off the practice squad.

On paper, things could be worse, but with Anthony Harris‘ hands/groin making him questionable for the contest and K’Von Wallace still working his way off of IR, the Eagles will likely turn to Epps for only his seventh start in a midnight green uniform.

If he shines, his role as a steady contributor could be set for the remainder of the season, and he could even find himself a free agent priority upon the season’s conclusion. And if not? Well, he could be headed to free agency with more bad than good on his tape and watch Wallace earn a longer look down the stretch.

No pressure, right?

Now granted, maybe I’m being a bit too rigid with my assessment. Players get injured all the time, and the Eagles may again need to turn to Epps for one reason or another but assuming the rest of the roster remains healthy, will the pride of Wyoming ever have another chance to play 90-plus percent of the team’s snaps in any given game this season?

I sort of doubt it.

Through the first six games of the 2021 NFL season, Epps has only surpassed 50 defensive snaps once – logging 66 snaps in Week 3 – and has hovered right around 35 percent of the defensive snaps in those five other showings. Harris, by contrast, has played 97.9 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps and only failed to achieve perfect attendance in one game, Week 6.

If Harris is out, the onus will fall almost exclusively on Epps to fill his shoes, for better or worse.

According to our pal over at Pro Football Focus, Epps is having the best defensive season of any safety on the team not named Rodney McLeod, with his defensive rating of 65.5, 12.4 points higher than Harris, and a full 16.1 points higher than Wallace. Even if he still makes the occasional WTH play, Epps is much better suited to play in Jonathan Gannon‘s defensive scheme than that of Jim Schwartz; which makes sense, considering Garland he was drafted to play for Gannon’s mentor, Mike Zimmer.

Boy, if Epps can steady out his game, pairing him up on a low-cost, long-term deal with a certified playmaker like, say, Justin Reid, and you could really make for a nice pairing to seal off the back of the secondary moving forward (more on that here).

Will Marcus Epps ever become an NFL starter, let alone a star? Debatable. He certainly isn’t flashy but is by no means the sort of defensive liability he looked like in seasons passed. If given a full game to start on the free side, maybe the fourth-year pro could surprise fans and finally cement his place in the Philadelphia Eagles’ future. Alternately, he could stink it up, give up some huge plays to Henry Ruggs and company, and be looking for work in a few short months. Either way, this storyline will be fascinating to watch, Philadelphia Eagles fans.