No one should be fearful of Marcus Epps increased role with the Eagles

Marcus Epps was on the field for the Eagles’ defense more often than some of you would like to believe he was.

Marcus Epps’ role a season ago was obvious. With all due respect to both Rodney McLeod and Anthony Harris, the former was aging while the other was starting to show some early signs of deterioration of play.

Marcus was asked to join the rotation to provide quality minutes, and he did so admirably, racking up 62 total tackles, including 39 of the solo variety to go along with five pass breakups and an interception.

All of those represent personal bests as the former Wyoming Cowboy appeared in 16 games with three starts. For the season, he was on the field for 505 defensive snaps, roughly 48% of the team’s total. He also saw the field for 244 snaps (59% of the total number).

Why are some of us acting like this guy played a fourth of the snaps or less? Marcus Epps is battle-tested, and rather than ask if he’s ready. Maybe we should be asking something else. What happens when he gets more playing time?

He flourished under Jonathan Gannon in his first season under the first-year defensive coordinator. Successful arguments can be made for there being a high chance of seeing great play continue and increase if we take a smaller portion and extrapolate that over 18 weeks and 17 starts during a 17-game season.

Our guess is he’ll be fine. In a recent sit-down with members of the Philly media, the fourth-year veteran had this to say:

"The coaches, they’ve expressed confidence in me. Obviously, I have a lot of confidence in myself, but you know, it’s just like any other year. I still have to come in and prove it. I still have a lot to prove so I’m just focused on taking everything one day at a time, trying to continue to get better every single day. There’s still a long time until the season, so that’s where my focus is right now."

We definitely don’t see any concern or worry on his face. Marcus Epps is all smiles and stress-free, and every lover of Eagles football should feel the same way. Again, something tells us that he’s going to be fine.