Every major landmark moment of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ offseason seems to trickle into the next. We were all hyped and/or pumped up about the NFL Scouting Combine, the NFL Draft, rookie minicamps, and offseason workouts. Nothing has disappointed us, and now, that each of those stages is behind us, leaving almost as quickly as they arrived.
Thoughts have been on the coming NFL season since Philly underwent the roster haul of all roster hauls. There are new faces in old places. The defense looks a lot better than it did in mid-April, and though every day is a gift, we’ve all had thoughts of skipping a few, just to get us to that game in Week 1 versus the Detroit Lions.
Did we mention we’re pumped? If this team pulls off some coup and lands a star safety, the adrenaline may never level out again.
Eagles have two of the NFL’s top 22 cornerbacks per Pro Football Focus.
Speaking of excitement, perhaps you’ve heard? The Eagles have two of the NFL’s best players at the cornerback position now, following James Bradberry‘s release from the New York Giants and acquisition by the Birds, continuing Philly’s Voltron-like roster reshaping.
He joins the already beloved Darius Slay. Just 32 games into his tenure in midnight green (that includes last year’s playoff game), he’s done nothing but solidify himself as one of the top players in the game at his position. Recently, Pro Football Focus’ Anthony Treash tossed him into the ‘elite’ category in his outside cornerback ranking.
We know… Duh! How’s that for analysis? We’re just having some fun of course. In all seriousness though. Here are some of his reasons for making that distinction:
"“Big Play Slay” is coming off the highest-graded season of his NFL career. He played far less at the line of scrimmage and worked in off-zone more than in any other season of his tenure, and it paid dividends.Slay was rarely caught out of position and didn’t let anything up for most of the season. His 86.2 coverage grade as an outside cornerback led the NFL, and he ranked 11th in both yards allowed per outside-coverage snap (0.79) and percentage of outside targets to result in a first down or touchdown (29.4%). While Philadelphia’s new defense struggled at times, it continues to bring out the best of Slay."
The aforementioned James Bradberry cracked the list as pro football’s 22nd-ranked corner. Here’s what Treash offers as his defense.
"Bradberry enjoyed a career year in his first season with the New York Giants in 2020. He turned in a 79.8 PFF grade, well over 10 grading points ahead of his previous career-best. Unfortunately, Bradberry reverted to his older form in 2021 and saw his grade fall 17 grading points. He still ranked well above the 50th percentile in outside coverage grade thanks to 17 combined pass breakups and interceptions, but he also tied for the most touchdowns allowed (8). The new Eagle will always be a productive player, given his physicality, but it’s going to come with some bust tendencies."
You won’t see any challenge flags tossed from this direction for any of that. We expect a huge season from James, especially if he spends a lot of time traveling with every opposing offense’s second-best receiver.
Might Philly send both of their starting cover guys to the Pro Bowl. At the risk of being disrespectful to Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown, which isn’t the intention at all, we might be talking about the best cornerback pairing that this team has had since Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor. That’s our story, and we’re sticking with it.