They may never become the City of Brotherly Love’s comp to the SEC’s Alabama Crimson Tide, but the Temple Owls can most certainly hang their hat on the fact that they’ve built a respectable football program. If they don’t know how to do anything else, they have a knack for finding and developing linebackers. Two of the best that have come through their wheelhouse are on the current Philadelphia Eagles roster, Haason Reddick and Shaun Bradley.
They weren’t teammates long. Bradley saw four games as a freshman in 2016, Reddick’s final run with the Owls, one that produced some tasty fruit for Haason and Temple’s defense: 65 tackles, 9.5 sacks, an interception, and three forced fumbles.
Bradley stepped in after Reddick’s departure and quickly became a star, racking up 249 total tackles, two sacks, three interceptions, five pass breakups, and three forced fumbles of his own. They’ve both come a long way since then. As fate would have it, they’re teammates again, and they aren’t too far from their own collegiate stomping grounds.
Haason Reddick and Shuan Bradley hope to capture some of the old Temple magic in Philly.
Despite being in two different mindsets and on two different rungs of the roster’s totem pole heading into the 2022-2023 NFL campaign, Reddick and Bradley haven’t lost the comradery they began developing building at Temple. They’re pulling for each other’s success.
One has a lot more to lose during the coming training camp than the other. Haason Reddick, one of the Eagles’ prized acquisitions of the most recent offseason/free-agency frenzy, just inked a three-year, $45 million deal in March. He seems pretty secure and figures to start.
Philly selected Bradley 196th overall, during Round 6 of the 2020 NFL Draft. He’s shown value on special teams, playing 68% of the snaps in 2020 and 71% of the snaps in 2021, but he only saw 76 defensive snaps as a rookie. That number dipped to 55 a year ago. With the Birds adding Kyzir White in free agency and two young prospects in the 2022 NFL Draft, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Shaun earns more playing time.
One can never be too sure though. There’s a lot to be ironed out in training camp, and with Bradley entering year three, his second with head coach Nick Sirianni, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, and special teams coordinator Michael Clay, he’s more familiar with what Philly wants to do than any of the newer and younger guys.
We’ll see if that helps him out some. OTA workouts are scheduled for May 31st, June 2nd and 3rd, and June 6th through the 8th. The grind begins there. You can best believe the linebacker unit will be on all of our minds all summer.