Want James Brabury? Well, you caught him!
Howie Roseman made many Philadelphia Eagles fans very happy on Wednesday morning by signing a one-year contract with the free agent, who was a cornerback, reportedly worth $ 10 million. UPDATE: Adam Shefter says the contract is worth $ 7.25 million, guaranteed by another $ 2.5 million “up”.
We previously downplayed the Eagles as Bradberry’s most likely landing site. Here I am stupid and wrong:
The New York Giants officially released James Bradbury on Monday. This after he tried to exchange him, but failed to find a team that wants to take on his difficult contract ($ 13.4 million base salary).
Bradbury will not be cut because he is a bad player. It’s more about New York valuing $ 10.1 million in the space they cleared by letting him go. It’s not like Bradbury thought he was a long-term figure for the Giants, given that he turns 29 in August and would be a free agent after the 2022 season.
It is true that Brabury has not come out of his strongest year. He allowed a 93.0 rating on submission – his highest score in four seasons – and missed 21.7% of his attempts to cope. Not great.
On the other hand, it’s not as if many players excelled in a terrible Giants team last year. And Bradbury was a Pro Bowl defender back in 2020.
One would expect Bradbury to have a relatively competitive market now that it is free to sign with any team. Eagles are hardly the only list that can afford more help in a cornerback.
For that reason, I don’t expect Philly to be Brabury’s landing favorite. The point here is that the Eagles, who are ranked 22nd with $ 10.2 million, will not break the bank to sign it. If in the end it turns out to be more affordable than expected, then, of course, it might happen. But I think the Eagles will eventually be surpassed.
Part of my skepticism stems from the fact that Eagles is really talking about his young group of defenders. They seemed to want to see what these boys could do in the camp, and they hoped one of them would stay.
And maybe that was really their plan until a much better alternative like Bradbury came along.
In any case, the Eagles will move forward with Bradbury and Darius Slay as their starting external defenders in 2022. This is a pretty good duo! One of the best CB tandems in the NFL … at least on paper. Not to mention the presence of Avonte Maddox, who is coming out of the season of his career in the slot.
The Eagles still have some basic safety issues with Anthony Harris and Marcus Epps as backstage starters. But adding Bradbury to the mix certainly improves Philly’s secondary perspective.
Brabury’s signing puts more pressure on Jonathan Gannon to do better this season. The Eagles probably didn’t reach the level of their talent last year. With Birds adding Bradbury, Haason Reddick, Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean, their defenses should not be as vulnerable as they sometimes were in 2021.
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