PHOENIX -- Eagles cornerback Darius Slay couldn’t believe his eyes and his ears.
The prime meat of the NFL’s free-agent market had been picked over, the draft had passed and teams were heading into their spring minicamps when Slay got word that the Giants had released James Bradberry.
The Eagles pounced on the opportunity to add the Pro Bowl cornerback with 15 career interceptions by signing him to a shrewd one-year deal worth $10 million, which was $1.7 less than the Giants dead money salary-cap hit for Bradberry last season. It was a move first-year general manager Joe Schoen had to make in an effort to clean up the cap mess left behind by his predecessor Dave Gettleman.
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Nevertheless, it still had to be painful for Giants fans to watch Bradberry go to an NFC East rival and become a second-team AP All-Pro while also helping the Eagles get to their second Super Bowl in five years.
But one teams pain is another team’s gain and Slay still can’t believe both his own and the Eagles’ luck in landing Bradberry.
“I was very, very happy,” Slay said Tuesday at the Eagles’ Super Bowl resort hotel in the picturesque Arizona desert. “I still to this day am shocked that he was available. And then we get him and he has an All-Pro year. It’s just crazy. I have so much respect for him. I’ve been watching his game for so long and I’m so thankful he came here. He made my job a lot easier.”
The Eagles signed Bradberry nine days after his release and Slay said he was involved in the short recruiting process.
“I told him, ‘You come over here, man, and we can be the best (cornerback) duo in the league,’ and we are the best duo in the league,” Slay said. “On top of that, we’re in the Super Bowl. It’s the first Super Bowl experience for both of us and we’re one of the best pass defenses in the league and we have one of the best pass rushes in the league, so we’re doing things big. I’m thankful that he came here and we’re looking to finish this thing off.”
Interestingly, Pro Football Focus gave Slay and Bradberry identical 73.9 grades this season, which was tied for 18th in the NFL. They both finished with three interceptions and Bradberry added a fourth in the Eagles’ NFC Divisional Game victory over the Giants last month. The only two cornerbacks from the same team rated higher were the Minnesota Vikings’ duo of Duke Shelley and Patrick Peterson, who were fourth and 13th, respectively. The Vikings, however, were eliminated by the Giants in the wild-card round.
Bradberry, 29 and in his seventh season, admits that things could not have worked out any better for him.
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“It worked out perfectly,” he said. “It was a blessing in disguise. At the time when I was released, I didn’t look at it like that. I was anxious and a little worried. I was worried about who would have money for me and how things would shake out. Of course, I didn’t want to go back to a lower salary. I was trying to make money.”
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman made the deal work for both Bradberry and the Eagles by including four voidable years, plus a signing bonus of $6.215 million, a base salary of $1.035 million and incentives of up to $2.5 million that the veteran cornerback undoubtedly reached. The voidable years allowed the Eagles to take a cap hit of just $2.278 million this season.
Bradberry returned a Jared Goff interception for a touchdown on opening day against the Detroit Lions and as his first season with the Eagles progressed, he realized he was in the midst of something spectacular.
“Of course when I got here and I looked at the roster on paper, it definitely looked good,” he said. “When we started playing games, I saw different ways that individuals were special and why certain units were special. The receivers made plays week in and week out. The defensive line made plays week in and week out. And I just tried to put myself in a place to make plays on the ball.”
As special as this season has been for Bradberry, Slay and the Eagles, they all know this could be a one-and-done deal.
The Eagles have some difficult free-agent decisions to make, including and especially Bradberry, and a star quarterback in Jalen Hurts, who will soon eat up a lot of salary-cap space when he signs his next deal.
“It might be hard (to keep Bradberry), because he’s always been a number one corner in my eyes,” Slay said. “We’re just 1-A and 1-B. He’s not concerned what he’s going to do in the offseason right now because he’s focused on this game, but he has a real, real big payday coming.”
Could that payday possibly come with the Giants?
Bradberry, of course, was not thrilled with the timing of his release in the offseason, but he was not surprised that it happened. Schoen first tried to trade the elite cornerback before releasing him.
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“My mindset is I try to treat this like a job,” Bradberry said. “I try not to think about the logo on the side of my helmet. I just try to go out there and do my job because that’s what they pay me to do. It wasn’t about me wanting to stay or wanting to leave in New York. I understood how the salary cap works and I understood how much I was supposed to be making and how much of it was guaranteed.
“When I saw halfway through the season (in 2021) that we were losing and that things weren’t going to turn around due to injuries and what not, I foresaw what was going to happen. I knew I wasn’t going to be part of the team, so I wasn’t surprised when it happened.”
That doesn’t, however, mean that Bradberry has closed the door on a return to the Giants, a much-improved team that will now have more cap space and a need at cornerback.
“I try to be an open-minded guy, so the possibilities are limitless when it comes to free agency and where I end up,” Bradberry said. “It just depends on who wants me. I still have friends (with the Giants) and my DB coach (Jerome Henderson) is still there and he’s a great coach. I miss playing under his tutelage. I can’t make any promises, but I’m open minded.”
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Bob Brookover can be reached at rbrookover@njadvancemedia.com.
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