Eagles' Sydney Brown Reveals His Learning Process: 'That's How I Work'
PHILADELPHIA - It was an eye-opening look at a rookie player with physical gifts during a red-zone drill at Philadelphia Eagles training camp this past week.
Kenny Gainwell took an inside hand-off for a sweep to the opposite side of the field and Sydney Brown locked in, exploding to the football with the kind of burst the Eagles are desperately searching for at safety.
Now a third-year player who’s seen a little bit, Gainwell showed patience, made a subtle juke with his inside shoulder before resuming his westward path and all of a sudden Brown was barrelling toward the ball carrier on a bad angle. Just like that, a tackle for loss ended up with other defenders having to make up for Brown as Gainwell turned toward the end zone.
The No. 66 overall pick in April’s draft and is a so-called red-star player (a perfect fit on and off the field) for the organization. By now many believed Brown would be on his way to becoming a Week 1 starter by now at a position where the Eagles need to replace both 2022 safeties: C.J Gardner-Johnson and Marcus Epps.
Brown is still among a handful of players in the mix for what is probably one spot now because second-year player Reed Blankenship has seemed to seize one of the spots with a steady camp in which Blankenship has taken all the first-team reps.
From there, it’s been veteran free-agent signing Terrell Edmunds and incumbent K’Von Wallace getting most of the work opposite Blankenship and also working in tandem as hybrid safety/linebackers in defensive coordinator Sean Desai’s big-nickel looks.
Brown started on the third team and now is mixing in with some second-team looks. His first-team action could be counted on one hand and like has more to do with quick rotations than anything else.
The promise remains but the Eagles aren’t skipping steps like many outside the building wanted them to.
“You see his speed and ability to break on balls and his aggressiveness,” Desai said Friday before practice. “He’s still got to clean up some mental things, and that’s OK because we’re all there. … There’s just things that we just keep on progressing. I think the exciting thing for him is he’s starting to feel more and more comfortable every day.”
Like most NFL rookies Brown, a London, Ontario native, is dealing with the everyday ancillary issues any young man has to conquer when arriving in a new city. Typically he has always had his twin brother, Chase, as a sounding board but he’s with the Cincinnati Bengals trying to make it as a running back.
“I’ve always had my brother with me throughout this entire process. It’s a little different being without him,” Sydney said. “I don’t think I’ve felt overwhelmed. This is a learning process. There’s a learning curve to this.”
Brown describes himself as a more visceral learner which could be impacted by an Eagles schedule heavy on classroom work and less so on grass time.
“That’s just how I work. I like observing,” Brown said. “I like seeing how people go about their business. I’ll ask questions when I’m extremely curious, but I don’t want to knock anyone (off) their routine, and I don’t want to be a nuisance in any way.”
Brown has already learned firsthand that you can’t skip the daily grind in order to fulfill any outside projections.
“What I can do now is focus on where I am today, and trying to get from Point A to Point B rather than trying to get Z,” Brown said. “You gotta take the steps to get to where you want to be and trying to rush through that sometimes is not the right way.”
The Eagles still believe Brown will get where he needs to go but the timetable is probably getting pushed back from Week 1 of his rookie campaign.
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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
