James Bradberry, Kyzir White Make Big Play in Eagles Debut

Here's a detailed look at the first pick-6 of Bradberry's NFL career and first since high school

DETROIT – Kyzir White and James Bradberry had never played a regular-season game in an Eagles uniform until Sunday in Detroit, but they made their debuts memorable by combining for a pick-six touchdown.

Bradberry had the honor of taking it 27 yards into the end zone. He entered the league in 2016 and that was his first pick-6, he said, since high school.

White made it happen, though.

The linebacker tipped the ball right to Bradberry. So perfect it was that it almost looked like he did it by design.

“Shout out to Kyzir,” said Bradberry in the postgame locker room. “I wouldn’t have had that pick if it wasn’t for him. As soon as I got around Kyzir, I saw that I had the sideline, so I got kind of excited.”

White didn’t just tip the ball after diving through the air to do it, he picked himself up and made a block on D’Andre Swift so Bradberry could gain the sideline.

“Hey, you can’t be selfish, man,” said White. “I feel like I made a good play. Bradberry capitalized off it, but then I wanted to get my guy in the end zone. First thing was to get up off the ground fast and make a block for him.

“I saw him catch it. When I was diving, I looked up and saw he had the ball. I was like let me hurry up and try to make a great block for him.”

Chauncey Gardner-Johnson had a different view.

"He could have palmed it and had the pick, but we're a team," the DB joked.

There was a third piece to the pick-six puzzle, and that was the up-the-middle pass rush from Marlon Tuipulotu, who was in Jared Goff’s face as he hurried the ball out.

Brandon Graham was a bit late to the pick-six party.

“I was on the field,” he said. “All I remember was as soon as I saw them running the opposite way, I heard the cheering, I didn’t see that Kyzir tipped the ball and then he caught it. 

"All I just remember is seeing him running and I was like, oh, and I turned and blocked a guy. We were just trying to make sure he got in the zone. My focus was making sure I had a man to block so he could get to the zone.”

White played for the Chargers last year and led them in tackles with 144.

Bradberry was with the Giants but was released because New York bungled its cap management. The Big Apple’s loss is certainly the Eagles’ gain. At least for Week 1.

Together, they made a play that helped the Eagles go to 1-0.

“That was cool, right?” said head coach Nick Sirianni. “I mean to get all those new additions to make the plays that they were making…that was a huge swing in that game, and it was great to see new Eagles doing that, and that’s why we brought them here.”

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.