NEW ORLEANS — Reed Blankenship had a vision. He thinks it was a vision. It could’ve been a dream. Consciousness became a transient concept in the darkness.
The Philadelphia Eagles safety knew he was in the New Orleans Saints’ team facility. He knew he was floating in a tub of saltwater. He knew his athletic trainers had placed a cover over him, shut the lights out and turned on relaxing music. He didn’t know how long he’d been floating. He’d woken himself up snoring. He didn’t know whether or not he was still asleep.
His mind raced. His body twitched. The vision began.
A football. Spiraling. Falling. Into his hands.
A rush of blood and nerves. The roar of a hundred thousand voices. A scoreboard stating the Eagles had won the Super Bowl. Because of him. Because of his game-clinching interception.
“It’s weird,” Blankenship said on Tuesday, reflecting at a podium inside a hotel ballroom. “It’s weird how your body just goes through plays.”
He doesn’t know how the play popped into his head during a therapeutic process he underwent a few days ago. He doesn’t know how long he dwelled on the vision. He just remembers the lights flicking on, the music stopping, and the trainers lifting the cover from his head.
“I could have been dreaming,” he said. “Who knows?”
Could it be a premonition? Or could it simply be a desire he must manifest on Sunday? Blankenship knows it’s possible. His four interceptions this season ranked second on the Eagles (behind C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s six). The Eagles know it’s possible. The organization signed Blankenship to a one-year extension last offseason, ensuring that the 2022 undrafted free agent-turned-starting-safety will remain in Philadelphia through at least the 2025 season.
Blankenship remains a valuable piece of Philadelphia’s secondary, although his influence is often overshadowed by Gardner-Johnson’s flare and the emergence of cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, both finalists for the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award. Blankenship started all but two games for an Eagles defense that surrendered the league’s fewest completions of 15-plus yards (62), according to TruMedia. He intercepted Jayden Daniels, the presumptive Offensive Rookie of the Year, twice this season. He recovered the fumble that led to a late-first half touchdown, and a 14-3 lead, over the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game. He’s now in prime position to make the greatest quarterback of this era pay, on the game’s grandest stage.
Patrick Mahomes hasn’t thrown an interception since Nov. 17. He actually threw two that day; the Kansas City Chiefs lost 30-21 in that Week 11 letdown against the Buffalo Bills. The Eagles have designed their roster, system and weekly game plans in a way that thrives off the turnover margin. Only five teams had more takeaways than the Eagles (26) during the regular season. Only three teams turned the ball over fewer times than Philadelphia (12).
Mahomes doesn’t often make mistakes. Within his 17-3 career record as a starter in playoff games, the two-time MVP has thrown interceptions in only five of those games. The Chiefs lost two of them. Blankenship, a special teams role player in 2022, watched from the sidelines as a mostly flawless Mahomes flung three touchdowns in a 38-35 win over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. Blankenship started in Philadelphia’s revenge game in 2023, a Monday night victory in Kansas City in which now-former Eagle Kevin Byard picked Mahomes off in one of the quarterback’s worst performances of the season.
Blankenship has studied Kansas City’s tape over and over. He’s seen Mahomes operate from multiple formations, countless times. He’s envisioned where mistakes can happen, where he can strike from the secondary and alter the course of a Super Bowl.
Will it indeed happen on Sunday? Or will it all have been a dream?
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Zack Baun was a Saint
When Zack Baun arrived in New Orleans, he took a whiff. It smelled like something he can’t exactly describe — but it smelled like home.
“The smells bring me back to certain periods of time,” he said.
This is where he started his NFL career, in 2020 with the Saints. It’s where his son was born. It took him leaving New Orleans to become the player that was dormant inside of him, hidden for four seasons in a Saints uniform as he played out of position. It took leaving this environment and finding his way to another one to unlock his potential.
He’s an All-Pro, an Eagle — and, most importantly for the sake of his development, a linebacker, not an edge rusher. For four seasons in New Orleans, he was miscast in a role that didn’t really suit him. He was a third-round pick who never became a starter. He didn’t have a sack his first three years. He never finished a season with more than 30 tackles. In four years, he had just eight QB hits.
But the Eagles and general manager Howie Roseman saw something — a linebacker ready to breakout. So they called him on the first day of free agency and signed him to a one-year deal, a chance to prove himself and hit free agency again in 2025.
“They had a vision for me and they said I had an opportunity to make an impact on the team and that’s all I wanted to do,” Baun said.
Baun turned into one of the best linebackers in football in 2024. His numbers: 153 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss, five QB hits, five forced fumbles (he had zero in his career previously) and Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections. The gamble, taking a one-year prove-it deal, paid off handsomely, for team and player.
“It’s interesting because I talked to (Eagles linebacker) Oren Burks about this,” Baun said. “He was in a similar situation, played special teams in Green Bay for four years. You can go one of two ways, you can bet on yourself and sign a one or two year deal and say I’m going to continue to try to play linebacker. Or you can say I’m going to play special teams. We both bet on ourselves to play linebacker and it’s not losing faith in yourself and betting on yourself through it all.”
But being back in New Orleans, it’s hard not to think about how the Saints got it so wrong — and how the Eagles capitalized on their mistake.
“I knew physically I had the capability to be a good player,” Baun said. “It just took me a while to get going mentally and transition from different positions on defense and try to get used to coverages, schemes, run fits, my eye progression, stuff like that. Physically, I knew I had the tools but it was getting in the right situation and being in the right headspace to do it.”
For what it’s worth: He doesn’t blame the Saints.
“When I was here I didn’t know what I needed,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was an on-the-ball ‘backer or and off-the-ball ‘backer. I just knew that it didn’t necessarily feel right. Maybe I wasn’t getting it right away but time ran its course, I continued to work on my craft and get better at all the things so that whatever opportunity came after I could take advantage of it.
“I blame a lot of it on myself and my development, getting in my own way. I had great coaches, it was a great scheme, but I kinda blame myself for getting in my own way.”
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Sweating a new contract
Eagles edge rusher Josh Sweat switched agents on Monday, a significant move ahead of Super Bowl LIX and an offseason in which his contract is scheduled to expire.
Sweat attempted to downplay the move during Philadelphia’s media availability on Tuesday.
“Shoot, I’d already forgot,” Sweat claimed. “You just reminded me. That’s why I got it out of the way early. I mean, I’m already worried about this, focused on this game, but I haven’t even been worrying about it.”
Oh, what a day can do for the memory. Perhaps no one noticed that the news was first floated by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, fresh with a quote from Sweat’s new agents, Drew Rosenhaus and Ryan Matha, that said Sweat “clearly is one of the very top free agents.” Perhaps Eagles general manager Howie Roseman didn’t see it, nor any other NFL executive who might be in need of an edge rusher in the upcoming free agency cycle.
Sweat certainly hasn’t forgotten what happened last offseason. Haason Reddick, a Pro Bowler in both of his seasons in Philadelphia, attempted to secure a lucrative contract the Eagles weren’t willing to offer. Reddick was traded to the New York Jets for a conditional third-round pick in 2025. The Jets didn’t agree on Reddick’s value either, kick-starting a dramatic holdout during which Reddick dumped his agents, hired new ones and eventually settled for a one-year, $9 million deal.
The agents Reddick hired? Rosenhaus and Matha. Sweat switched to the same agency after working with Klutch Sports, an agency he signed with just over a year ago.
“I just felt like it was the best choice for me, best move,” Sweat said.
Will Sweat have better luck than Reddick? The Eagles signaled that they’d be parting with Reddick last offseason by awarding Sweat $9.5 million guaranteed in a renegotiated contract that was already set to expire after the 2024 season. The Eagles then splurged on Bryce Huff, spent a third-round pick on Jalyx Hunt and entered the year with a group of pass rushers that included a veteran likely playing in his final season (Brandon Graham) and a former first-round pick who still needed to develop (Nolan Smith).
Huff, Hunt and Smith are the only players under contract with the Eagles beyond this season. Sweat led the team with eight sacks, and he also supplied nine tackles for loss. Neither total cracked the top-25 in the NFL. It’s not likely Sweat, who was last named a Pro Bowler in 2021, will be seeking out a contract as lucrative as the one Reddick wanted, but it’s still not certain whether the Eagles will agree on his value. Sweat made it clear he’d prefer to stay in Philadelphia.
“I mean, yeah, but I can’t really … you know,” Sweat said. “Whatever happens, happens.”
The Eagles are scheduled to enter the offseason with $18.1 million in available cap space, according to Over the Cap. Huff’s cap hit increases to $7.5 million. Roseman said Saturday that “the story’s yet to be written on Bryce,” although the executive admitted he was “stubborn” on such matters. Roseman won’t readily call it a failure to have given $34 million guaranteed to a pass rusher who underwent midseason wrist surgery, recorded 2.5 sacks in 12 games and has yet to develop into the every-down edge rusher the Eagles believed he could become.
Still, the Eagles will carry more than three edge rushers in 2025. If Sweat demonstrates his value in Super Bowl LIX, it’s possible the Eagles will find a way to bring an in-house project (Sweat was a 2018 fourth-round pick) back on a second contract extension. It’s also possible that Super Bowl exposure could help Sweat find a new deal with another team.
“Teams love winners,” Sweat said. “Every team’s looking to change their culture and stuff like that. So, it’s definitely a bonus for sure.”
(Photo: Gus Stark / Getty Images)
