Eagles CB James Bradberry in the Slot? 'Why Not?'
PHILADELPHIA – Sean Desai has brought a baseball mindset to Philadelphia Eagles training camp. The first-year defensive coordinator is tinkering like Jim Palmer in the Florida heat decades ago.
For the younger crowd, Palmer was a three-time American League Cy Young Award winner in the 1970s and a three-time World Series champion but you wouldn't have figured that out of you watched the 6-foot-3 right-hander in the spring.
That was the time to experiment and push limits in an effort to add something to the repertoire.
When the real games arrived, Palmer either added what he is working on if he liked the results or scrapped it in favor of defaulting back to his already top-of-the-line stuff.
Desai has taken a Palmer-like approach to camp by running out unique looks on occasion. One of the latest has been James Bradberry in the slot.
A second-team All-Pro last season, Bradberry is the prototypical modern outside-the-numbers cornerback in the NFL, a rangy 6-foot-1, 212-pound player with top-tier coverage instincts. Typically slot corners are smaller with better short-area quickness.
Former Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, a Baltimore native and big Orioles fan who offered up the Palmer analogy years ago, often explains that defensive football is reactionary by nature.
When the majority of slot receivers became small and shifty types, defenses reacted with coverage players with the traits to handle that kind of skill set like the Eagles' Avonte Maddox, who remains one of the better inside corners in the game.
For Desai, everything is about matchups, though. The example here would be the Philadelphia offense which will occasionally move the 6-1, 226-pound A.J. Brown to the slot to take advantage of his physicality.
The point is that Bradberry isn't moving to a new home but it's nice to have another tool in the box to react with.
“We’re just trying to find different matchups and different roles,” Desai said. “It’s about getting the best 11 on the field in different ways.
"Why not? We had some rep management things we were doing with some guys. He was not on that list. Why not test him out in there and put him in some situations?”
If it doesn't work scrap it but Bradberry seems up to the test.
While not a large sample size, the eighth-year pro has lined up inside just under 35 times a year. The assumption that defensive football is rigid is incorrect. The better definition would be weighted. Outside corners play outside the vast majority of the time but reaction means exactly that and if forced inside, that's what has to be done.
A very cerebral player Bradberry has embraced his summer challenge.
“I think I’m just adding to my overall knowledge of the game by getting some nickel reps, and the more you do the more valuable you are,” he said.
The added benefit is that by adding the reps in the summer instead of just reacting in-game on occasion, Bradberry is getting a different view of the defense which should sharpen his skills outside.
“You see things at a different angle because I’m used to seeing it on the outside," Bradberry said. “Now that I’m playing some nickel, I have to adjust to seeing routes developed behind me. I understand how offense set up schemes where they try to run somebody in front of you.”
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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
