Philadelphia

Nigel Bradham Aims to Fix One Obvious Flaw in His Game

The Eagles wouldn't have won their first-ever Super Bowl without Nigel Bradham. 

Let's go ahead and get that out of the way. He was a huge piece of Jim Schwartz's defense and took on an even bigger role when Jordan Hicks was lost for the season with an Achilles tear. From then, he took over headset duties, which was very important. 

But after singing his praises last week, Schwartz did bring up the one thing that Bradham really needs to improve. 

"I think the No. 1 thing that we'd like to see him do a little bit, and the thing is, he's got really good hands, but he needs to finish more of the plays that he could have made for us," Schwartz said. 

Yeah, he does. 

Bradham agreed. The 28-year-old signed a new contract this offseason to stay with the Eagles, but he might have earned himself even more money if he just would have held onto the ball in 2017. 

In his six-year career, Bradham has just two interceptions - one in 2014 and one in 2016. But when we went back and watched his film from last season, he left at least four interceptions on the field. 

This first missed opportunity came really early in the 2017 season, long before we knew the Eagles were a Super Bowl-caliber team. In fact, it came at the 12:49 mark of the first quarter in the season opener in Washington. The shame of it is that Bradham played this perfectly, dropping about eight yards into coverage and stepping in front of Terrelle Pryor. 

It was third down, so it was still a good play and the Eagles got the ball back after a punt. But this early in the scoreless game, it was a wasted chance to really flip the field. 

This next one came at the 9:42 mark in the second quarter of the Eagles' huge Week 14 game against the Rams in Los Angeles. The Eagles won the game to clinch the division, but Bradham missed two chances. 

This first one came on a 1st-and-5 from the Eagles' 6-yard line. Bradham made a great play to backpedal into the throwing lane. It wasn't a complete gimme, but this is a huge play if he makes it. Because he didn't, the Rams scored a touchdown two plays later. 

This is the second possible interception Bradham couldn't bring in against the Rams and it actually happened a little later in the second quarter, at the 2:56 mark to be exact. 

Another one that's not a complete gimme because he's moving backward, but this one goes right through Bradham's hands. 

This one ultimately didn't matter either, but man, it had to hurt for Bradham to drop this one. And at the time, it looked like it would matter. This play came on 1st-and-10 with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter as the Eagles were clinging to a 34-29 lead against the lowly Giants. Eventually, the Eagles forced a turnover on downs to basically end the game, but this would have added an exclamation point because Bradham would have walked into the end zone for his first career pick-six. 

It's good that Bradham knows there's a pretty obvious flaw in his game. That's the first step. 

So how does Bradham plan on correcting the problem? 

"Just continuing to work, repetition, staying on the JUGS," he said. "Just continuing to stay at it. Looking the ball in. I think that was the main thing for me last year, just looking downfield before I caught the ball. Going back and looking at the tape and just trying to correct that. Just get those corrections, man, because I have to have those picks." 

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