Getty James Bradberry, now of the New York Giants
The New York Giants entered free agency with a glaring hole at the cornerback position. The team finished 2019 allowing the fifth-most passing yards in football, and had no clear starter opposite last year’s first-round NFL draft pick DeAndre Baker on its current roster.
Big Blue seemingly filled that hole when inking highly sought-after free agent James Bradberry, formerly of the Carolina Panthers, to a massive deal.
However, in ESPN’s recent Underrated, Overrated Free Agent Signings, Big Blue’s addition of Bradberry fell in the latter category. Yet, our stats would disagree.
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ESPN On Bradberry: ‘It’s a Pretty Risky Investment’
Before we get into our reasoning why the Bradberry signing is far from overrated in our eyes, let’s give you a background on why ESPN feels differently. Here’s what they had to say regarding the addition of Bradberry.
James Bradberry, CB, New York Giants
The deal: Three years, $45 million ($32 million guaranteed)
2020 NFL Free AgencyThis deal made Bradberry one of the three highest-paid cornerbacks in the entire NFL, and given his recent performance, it’s a pretty risky investment. Consider he has failed to crack a 65.0 coverage grade in each of the past three seasons, and none of those seasons ended with him ranking among the 50 best cornerbacks in the league in our ratings.
Over those past three seasons, Bradberry gave up 53 explosive plays of 15-plus yards at outside corner, five more than anyone else in the NFL in that period. The Giants’ secondary was pretty poor before the move (it ranked 30th in team coverage grade in 2019), and it’s hard to tell how much a player like Bradberry really moves the needle.
Bradberry Dominated Elite WRs in 2019
It’s evident in this column that they’ve leaned heavily on the Pro Football Focus database to defend their opinions, a database that is regularly extremely sound.
However, those numbers can at times fail to tell the entire story when you’re a player such as Bradberry, who was playing in a division in which he saw the likes of Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin each twice a year. That type of competition would deteriorate any player’s numbers.
Yet, if we step away from the solely analytics viewpoint for a minute, you quickly realize that not only did Bradberry hold his own against legitimate WR1s this past season, he dominated.
The stats below are ones that Giants fans have likely come across on numerous occasions since the signing while scrolling through the likes of Reddit or Twitter.
Jeff Ratcliffe, one of PFF’s very own, tweeted out a breakdown of Bradberry’s statistics from 2019 when covering a plethora of big-name wideouts.
James Bradberry shadows in 2019
As you can tell, the stats don’t lie. Bradberry essentially shut down the likes of Mike Evans, DeAndre Hopkins, Julio Jones, and more.
To further press home our argument, Bradberry ranks third in the NFL since 2016 at creating tight throwing windows (i.e. limited separation), according to Next Gen Stats.
The Deal May Be Expensive, But It’s Not Lengthy
While Bradberry may not be the household name that you would expect to be paid like the league’s third-richest corner, there are certainly enough statistics to back up the reasoning behind giving him such a contract.
Only time will tell if Bradberry can live up to expectations. Yet, as of now, it’s hard to knock the Giants for doling out money for a young (26-years old) productive corner on a moderately short contract (three-years) which allows him to play out his prime years in New York.
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