Did the James Bradberry-to-safety experiment hit setback?

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There were going to be some bumps in the road for James Bradberry as he transitions to a new position.

We saw one on Thursday night.

The veteran defensive back didn’t hate everything about his performance in the Eagles’ 14-13 win over the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. But his game ended on a sour note.

“I did all right,” Bradberry said. “I had some good drives. My last drive, I didn’t really like.”

Bradberry’s last drive was the Patriots’ only touchdown drive of the game. On the same series, he missed a tackle and then was caught in no man’s land on a QB touchdown run.

The missed tackle came when rookie Ja’Lynn Polk put a juke move on Bradberry and then on rookie Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Both moves had the Eagles’ defenders flying by the rookie. Bradberry actually brought up the missed tackle when he was asked about the touchdown.

“Starting off, I had a missed tackle in the open field,” Bradberry said. “I gotta come to balance, get my feet up under me, make sure I secure the tackle.”

What happened on the Drake Maye touchdown run?

“In the red zone, we was in a zero,” Bradberry said. “I had pushed the D-end over to another gap. His responsibility was contain on the quarterback so I got him out of his responsibility and I didn’t realize that was going to now be my responsibility because I was in his gap.”

Maye scampered into the end zone for a touchdown.

Bradberry, 31, has been a cornerback in the NFL for the first eight years of his career, so playing safety is new. And even though he could theoretically still back up at corner, he’s playing full-time safety right now.

This time last year, Bradberry was relaxing in the preseason with the rest of the Eagles’ starters on defense. This year, after an awful 2023 season at corner, he’s fighting for a job as a backup at a brand-new position.

“I understand what happened last year and where I’m positioned at right now,” Bradberry said. “And that’s part of the position I’m in right now.”

For the most part, Bradberry hasn’t looked out of place at safety during practice. But the games are giving him an opportunity to play the position against a different scheme and different personnel. On one hand, those looks against something different are good. On the other, Bradberry thinks that in the regular season with game planning, he’d be able to study more.

But we don’t know if Bradberry is even going to be on the roster in 2024.

Perhaps he really can be a backup safety. But Bradberry is still learning that position and hasn’t played a single special teams snap in his two years in Philadelphia.

“Of course, I feel like I have to earn my spot on the team,” Bradberry said. “That’s what I’m trying to do right now. But I just gotta take it back to my rookie year.”

At times, Bradberry’s NFL experience shows. He has been a second-team safety all training camp and he has made some plays during practice. And he didn’t look out of place in the first preseason game. But a few bad snaps against the Patriots on Thursday night were glaring.

This is an experiment and it looked like it in New England.

“My past experience is corner,” Bradberry said. “So based on my seven years of experience, I was able to anticipate and have a feel for the game at corner. Now I’m at safety, so it’s different. My angles are different, my coverage responsibilities are a little different. So just being in those positions and seeing and then learning from my mistakes and applying it to the next game.”

To Bradberry’s credit, he has handled this summer as well as anyone could hope. He was actually the one who suggested the move to safety when he saw the writing on the wall at cornerback. And he’s embraced the switch.

Bradberry knows it might be his best chance to stick in Philly and maybe even keep his NFL career going.

Is he enjoying safety?

“Yeah, it’s smooth right now,” he said. “I ain’t really have too many issues with it.”

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