KANSAS CITY – With Super Bowl winners all over the field, the biggest play of the most anticipated game of the 2025 NFL season came from a rookie playing just his second game as a pro.
In the fourth quarter, with the Eagles clinging to a three-point lead on the road, the Chiefs had driven from their 20 to the Philadelphia 6-yard line, well within range of a tying field goal and threatening to take the lead. Patrick Mahomes threw a quick pass to tight end Travis Kelce, but the ball bounced off his hands and directly into the arms of Eagles rookie safety Andrew Mukuba, who not only held on for the pick but returned the interception 41 yards.
“I broke on the ball, and the ball was in the air,” said the 22-year-old Mukuba, a second-round pick from Texas. “I feel like I do good around the ball. The ball happened to find my hands.”
The Eagles showed last year they can have supreme confidence in rookie defensive backs, as corner Quinyon Mitchell and nickel Cooper DeJean were key parts of their run to a championship. As a new season begins, they’re again trusting a rookie in a crucial position. Sunday illustrated why they have such confidence in his still-growing skills.
“He has a knack for finding the football,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “You can see it on his college tape. Some guys have that.”
Mukuba, born in Zimbabwe, moved to the United States with his family when he was 8 years old. He discovered football in Austin, Texas, and was the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year as a freshman at Clemson. He really found himself last season when he transferred to Texas, getting five interceptions and establishing himself as an NFL prospect.
“The big thing about Drew is he came in and was a sponge with (veterans) Reed (Blankenship), Marcus (Epps), Sidney (Brown), soaking up the game from them,” Mitchell said. “He earned the coaches’ trust by going out there, playing hard and doing his job. Honestly, that was the biggest play of the game tonight. They were driving on us, and he just made a hell of a play.”
He’s still a rookie, of course, so as a crowd of reporters gathered around him in a triumphant locker room Sunday night, his teammates shouted out “make sure you tell them you got tackled by a tackle.” The reason it was a 41-yard interception return and not a 100-yard touchdown was Chiefs rookie left tackle Josh Simmons, weighing 310 pounds, leaped at Mukuba and took him out.
“I’m really mad I got caught at the end,” Mukuba said. “I really did (think he was in the clear) and I looked to my right and I couldn’t even cut back, and an O-lineman caught me. I tried to hit the gas at the last minute, but he still got me.”
“I’m definitely going to give him some stuff in the locker room for getting tackled by an offensive lineman,” said Saquon Barkley, who is the first player to win Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game honor three times.
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Mukuba had made an impact earlier in the game, as among his six tackles were a tackle for loss and his first NFL sack, split with edge rusher Z’Darius Smith on a blitz that brought down Mahomes on a third-down play. He gave credit to his teammates on the sidelines, talking to him between possessions and keeping his spirits up when other plays had gotten away from him.
“There were times I felt like there were plays I could have made and didn’t make,” Mukuba said. “I had Reed next to me telling me to stay confident and keep going. As I make more plays, I’ll gain more confidence and, sooner or later, I’ll get really comfortable.”
The entire game was a single-score affair for most of it, but Mukuba’s interception helped change that. Instead of a fourth-quarter deficit with a Chiefs touchdown, which would have made the score 16-13, the Eagles got the ball with the lead.
From there, the offense stepped up and drove 59 yards, converting a third-and-10 and then getting the final yard on a fourth-and-1 “Tush Push” run from Jalen Hurts. Philadelphia needed every point of the 10-point lead that touchdown gave it since the Chiefs rallied for a late touchdown. The Eagles were able to run out the clock to ensure a second win this calendar year over Kansas City.
“It was a changing point in the game, and I thought we needed that as a team, to finish the game out,” Mubuka said of his interception. “That’s the name of the game: you’ve got to get the ball. You’re thinking ball at all times. It’s important. It helps me a lot to be in position to make that play.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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