James Bradberry Has Made Peace with Being Cut by the Giants
PHILADELPHIA – A.J. Brown wanted to show the Titans they made a mistake, and the Eagles WR made them pay in a 35-10 win last week.
James Bradberry said his situation is different as the veteran cornerback prepares to play the New York Giants, a team that put him out the curb like so much garbage this offseason. The Eagles were happy to play trash collector and scoop him up.
“He was a receiver that was looking to get paid by them,” said Bradberry at his locker on Wednesday afternoon about Brown’s situation. “I don’t know the situation with the organization (Tennessee), but he didn’t end up being paid, he got traded.
“Me on the other hand, it was a decision caused by the salary cap. I got released because of the salary cap, and we weren’t winning.”
Bradberry added, though, that he has come to peace with the Giants’ decision to let him go.
“I looked at the decision they made and I don’t look at it as the Giants making the decision,” he said. “I look at it as the team saying that, pretty much that my talent wasn’t needed for the team anymore. So that’s how I approached it.”
Bradberry’s view of the move south on the New Jersey Turnpike from North Jersey to Philly is more pragmatic, not revenge oriented.
“I mean, what’s our record right now?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m 11-1. So really, I’ve been focused on playing for the Eagles. I really haven’t been worried about the Giants, but I am excited about playing a divisional game and competing, and hopefully getting a win.
“When I first got (to New York in 2020), I thought it was going to be a better team with me. We didn’t do that, so I’m glad to be part of the Eagles right now.
“…I have come to peace with it. Us winning a lot of football games has helped me with that. I’m part of the Eagles. We’re winning. And I’m trying to keep that going.”
Certainly, the Eagles are happy with Bradberry and the winning he has helped them achieve.
He and Darius Slay have been the perfect complement to each other and have helped the Eagles’ pass defense rise to the top of the NFL rankings.
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“I think when I was in Carolina and we drafted Dante Jackson, I think me and him complemented each other well, just like me and Slay complement each other,” said Bradberry.
“It was a little bit of that when Adoree (Jackson) got to the Giants, with me and him. Of course, it was a different scenario because it takes a team to win a football game, and we just didn’t have the team to win games.”
The Giants are better this year, sitting at 7-4-1 and hoping to throw an obstacle in the Eagles’ plans for earning the top seed in the NFC playoffs, not to mention the NFC East title.
As for Bradberry, he only signed a one-year contract, and with the way he has played this season, could be in line for a big payday either in Philadelphia or elsewhere.
“I’m open to staying here,” he said. “It’s going to be business first and it has to make sense for me to stay here. And of course, they have to want me to stay here.
“Winning is definitely a part of the decision for me, but there are more variables, too, that I really don’t want to get into. But that’s one of them, for sure.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
