Philadelphia Eagles: Blake Countess’ departure good for Johnathan Cyprien

The Philadelphia Eagles have released veteran safety, Blake Countess. Now, Johnathan Cyprien benefits from the departure.

Safety depth has been quite an issue for the Philadelphia Eagles over the past year. While they do have one of the top-end safety tandems in the league with Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod, they don’t exactly have the most reliable depth behind them if they were to get hurt.

The Eagles found that out first-hand last year when Rodney McLeod went down with a season-ending knee injury. Though they did have Corey Graham, who’s had starting experience before — but it was very clear that Graham was not up for the challenge of taking on McLeod’s role.

This year, the Eagles have been on a search for the next Corey Graham and then some. First, they inked former Minnesota Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo to a one-year deal. At this point, it’s understood that Sendejo is going to acquire all of the rotational reps.

What happens behind Sendejo, though? Well, it was an open battle between veterans. Notably, former Los Angeles Rams safety Blake Countess, former Tennessee Titans safety Johnathan Cyprien, and two-year Eagles veteran Tre Sullivan have been fighting for the fourth spot.

On Tuesday, one of them lost already. After suffering a hamstring injury last week, the Eagles figured it would be best to hit Blake Countess with an injury settlement. Considering the significance of these soft tissue injuries, and an immediate need to find depth at safety, holding onto Countess just didn’t make much sense for the Eagles moving forward.

The official word

For the second time in his young career, the Eagles showed Countess the door. Initially, they released him back in 2016 when he was a sixth-round draft pick. Now, the safety battle just got a whole lot smaller without Countess in the mix, and it likely benefits Johnathan Cyprien the most.

The former Titans safety joined the Eagles slightly late into camp, but he made his presence felt almost immediately. With his high-energy play, and his will to get physical at the position even during meaningless practice reps, Cyprien made it clear he wants a roster spot.

He won’t be handed the spot, but it’s quite obvious that veteran will have the upper-hand in the battle against a young Tre Sullivan. While Sullivan has been a part of the Eagles for a while, the team has made it very clear that they won’t waste a roster spot on him.

Cyprien’s chances of making the team were unclear when he was initially signed. Seeing as though he hasn’t played since 2017, nobody knew what to expect upon his arrival in Philly. With Countess gone though, it’s become evident that Cyprien went from a camp body to a potential substitute in the regular season rather quickly. We’ll see how the battle plays out in the next three weeks.