"We feel like a couple of [the newly drafted Carolina Panther corners] have a chance to be really good players." –Dave Gettleman (on James Bradberry and Daryl Worley in his 2016 NFL Post-Draft press conference)

On the second day of the 2016 NFL draft, the Panthers invested their draft capital to infuse their defensive secondary with both youth and talent. With the unfortunate departure of 1st Team All-Pro, Josh Norman, many predicted this position would be addressed during the draft; however, few correctly predicted the names that Dave Gettleman and his scouting department would target – James Bradberry and Daryl Worley. While I discussed Worley in a separate article, today’s article features the 22-year old, 62nd overall selection of 2016 NFL draft, James Bradberry.

Biography and Statistics

According to Rivals, James Bradberry was a lightly recruited 2-star safety recruit out of high school. In addition to football, he also played basketball and was a member of the National Honor Society at his high school in Pleasant Grove, Alabama. Although he was promised by then-head coach, Hugh Freeze, to be given an opportunity at cornerback, he redshirted as a safety his first year at Arkansas State in 2011. With Freeze leaving to become the head coach of Ole Miss the following year and the uncertainty of whether he would be given the opportunity to play cornerback, Bradberry transferred to the FCS-division Samford. He developed into a 4-year starter at cornerback for the Samford Bulldogs. In 2012, he was credited with 32 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 2 passes defensed and was named to the Southern Conference’s All-Freshman team. In 2013, Bradberry recorded 26 tackles, 2 interceptions, and had 10 passes defensed. In 2014, Bradberry was named 2nd team All-Southern Conference, recording 25 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2 interceptions, and 4 passes defensed. Prior to the 2015 season, he was named a STATS preseason All-American. During the 2015 season, he recorded 45 tackles, 4 TFLs, 2 interceptions, and 11 passes defensed and was named to the 1st team All-Southern Conference as well as a 3rd team FCS All-American.

While Bradberry’s production may pale relative to both Daryl Worley and Zach Sanchez, in my opinion, it was primarily because he was challenged far less than the latter two players. Although Bradberry played at a lower level of competition in college, he also had some high-profile college matchups against Josh Doctson, Sammie Coates, and Kolby Listenbee. This chart summarizes the box scores of those players when facing Samford; however, it’s essential to note that this production wasn’t necessarily against Bradberry.

Physical Profile

In short, James Bradberry enters the NFL as one of its best overall athletes. SPARQ, a formula developed by Nike that summarizes player athleticism into a single value, cites Bradberry to possess athleticism in the 93rd percentile in the NFL. RAS, another athletic grading system based off of historic metrics for a specific position group, estimates Bradberry’s athleticism to be in the top 15th percentile historically for the cornerback position.

Bradberry's RAS profile: On a 1-to-10 scale, a grade of 5 indicates a prospect with "average" athleticism and a grade of 10 indicates the most athletic prospect, historically, at the position.

Bradberry stands at 6’1", 211lbs with 33⅜" arms and 9⅛" hands. The latter two values rank in the 95th and 42nd percentile respectively. Bradberry’s height and weight rank in the 71st and 96th percentiles respectively and aesthetically, he possesses a well-distributed frame. While many players approach a certain prototype regarding physical dimensions, Bradberry may represent the rare case of actually exemplifying the physical prototype, especially when considering his complementary athletic profile.

I briefly described some of the physical similarities between Daryl Worley and Josh Norman in a previous article. Now that the boundary corner position group appears to mostly be set with Bradberry, Worley, and Benwikere, I felt it would be an interesting exercise to juxtapose their physical measureables and athletic testing along with Norman’s. Most of the values on this chart are taken from either the combine or pro day (whichever value was superior). As I explained with Norman, although he left, I feel as though he left his paw prints on the Panthers organization regarding some of the physical aspects they look for when targeting corners.

Both Bradberry and Worley bear an uncanny resemblance to Norman from a height, weight, arm length, hand size, and broad jump perspective. As seen from the table, Norman, Bradberry, and Worley all share highly similar agility scores (sum of a player’s 20-yard short shuttle and 3-cone, which tests short area quickness and balance) and 10-yard splits. Benwikere is an interesting case study as the Panthers initially drafted him as a potential slot corner. While he possesses sub-optimal length, his 40.5" vertical jump tested in the 92nd percentile of all NFL corners, a indicating a superior level of lower-body explosiveness. Another interesting aspect in this graph is the relatively sub-standard 40 times. As Gettleman has repeatedly talked with this particular metric, he values tape-speed over timed-speed; this is clearly reflected by the way the Panthers drafted these cornerbacks. In my opinion though, despite the 40-times that all fall below the average for cornerbacks, all four of these corners are able to effectively carry the vertical. All things considered, at least physically and athletically, both Bradberry and Worley bear an uncanny resemblance to Norman- big corners with terrific lower body explosion, deceptive fluidity, and exceptional length.

Numerous prospects can fit a ‘physical prototype’ for a certain position; however, only a select few can truly define the term. In my opinion, the Carolina Panthers are fortunate to have two such players that fall into this latter category - Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly. At least physically, James Bradberry potentially becomes the third player on Carolina’s roster that defines the physical prototype for the position.

Film Notes and Fit

I briefly explained in a previous article about Daryl Worley’s responsibilities in West Virginia’s Cover 3 defense. To quickly recap, the standard Cover 3 has both cornerbacks playing off by 7-10 with outside leverage on the outside wide receivers. WVU’s Cover 3 defense utilized spot drops where the defensive backs’ initial responsibilities were to cover a designated zone of the field, then read the quarterback, and finally matchup M2M if a receiver entered the zone. In a nutshell, Worley was asked to play press-man coverage or perform spot drops into deep zones. Although Samford’s defense operated on many Cover 3 principles, philosophically there are clear distinctions with the WVU Cover 3 defense that Daryl Worley operated in.

An example of Carolina's Cover 3

In some ways, at least schematically, I feel that Bradberry might be better equipped than Worley to handle the transition to Carolina’s defensive scheme because of how he was deployed in Samford’s defense. First some brief exposition regarding Samford’s defense and specifically, Bradberry’s responsibilities within this defense.

Samford primarily operated a Cover 2 zone and the Seattle Seahawks’ Cover 3 matchup zone defense that implements a healthy mix of pattern matching (as opposed to spot dropping). As I mentioned in Worley’s article, spot dropping means that defenders focus on landmarks and adjust coverages based on which receivers enter their zones. Pattern matching, on the other hand, indicates that the defense adjusts based on receiver route concepts as they release from the line.

Although, it’s an over-simplification in some ways, here’s a quick summary of some of the rules regarding running a ‘pattern matching’ zone defense. Generally speaking, the primary aspect the defender is tasked with performing off the snap is watching receiver releases from the line. Specifically, they need to determine quickly whether the receiver is running vertically or not. For teams unable to run multiple route combinations from a given stem, the benefit of using a pattern-matching defense is that it can effectively predict and guard against any play that offense may use. Further, even if the release doesn’t give away the route combinations, the defender only has to guard against 2 or 3 routes (as opposed to 10 or more routes), which also enhances their anticipation and reaction speed.

This chart summarizes the responsibilities of the cornerback within the pattern matching defense. His primary responsibility is to key on his opposing receiver and identify whether he is going vertical. If he is, the cornerback’s primary responsibility is to stay with him. If the receiver breaks in his route (not going vertical), and an adjacent receiver is running a vertical route, the cornerback must pick up the receiver going vertical. If neither receiver is going vertical, the cornerback is free to jump the breaking pattern of his directly opposing receiver.

Within this defense, Bradberry was used as both a strong-side and weak-side cornerback within Samford’s scheme. In addition to the zone responsibilities in both the Cover 2 and Cover 3-matchup zone that involved these pattern-matching principles, he was often tasked with playing press-bail, press-man, and off-man coverages (very similar to how the Panthers used Josh Norman). Further, Bradberry was often given the assignment of guarding the opponent’s best receiver. This versatility and intellect alone to be able to play both man and zone coverage effectively and in a pattern-matching defense is a rare quality in a cornerback prospect, and one that Bradberry possesses.

Bradberry exhibiting terrific physicality and patience against a double move.

The first aspect that stands out to me when watching Bradberry is his patience. In my opinion, this is perhaps the single most overlooked and vital trait of any elite cornerback regardless of scheme. The ability to be patient is what separates players such as Darrelle Revis, Richard Sherman, Josh Norman, Aqib Talib, and Patrick Peterson from everyone else. It’s evident from watching Bradberry that the coaches at Samford did a phenomenal job stressing the importance for their defensive backs to be patient and only to react only after a receiver has revealed their intentions. Bradberry’s patience allows him to play under control, with tremendous balance, and presents a mental fail-safe mechanism that prevents him from getting beaten over the top against strategies such as double-moves. He also appears to stay calm, focused, and possesses a short-memory after positive and negative plays, which is another essential trait necessary to play cornerback in the NFL.

Bradberry exhibiting his ball skills and making an interception on former Auburn quarterback, Nick Marshall while covering Sammie Coates downfield

The second aspect that really stands out with Bradberry are his ball skills. His catch radius, ball-tracking, competitiveness at the catch point, high-pointing, and timing when breaking up potential catches are all high-caliber. I also appreciate how Bradberry is a major contributor on special teams for Samford. As he learns and catches up to speed in the NFL as a cornerback, he’ll be able to immediately contribute on special teams.

Ultimately, my favorite aspects about Bradberry are his toughness and unique physical traits (which translate to the field). Bradberry possesses a good identity of who he is as a player – a big, lengthy, and aggressive corner. As a converted safety, Bradberry has an element of physicality to his game that is uncommon to cornerback prospects. Playing in a conference with two triple-option offenses, Bradberry had ample opportunity to display his downhill burst and hone his aggressiveness as a run defender and edge setter. As a run defender, he does a good job keeping his eyes on the backfield and possesses a strong feel of leverage, tackling angles, and filling lanes. Additionally, he shows a promising feel for shedding and evading blockers as well as using the sideline. This also translates to how reliable of a tackler he is, especially in space. In terms of playing cornerback, this physicality is also evident with how he presses and jams receivers at the line and re-reroutes them. Combined with his immense length and powerful hands, Bradberry can completely stifle receivers off the line or against the sideline. Overall, he displays the tools and mindset to potentially develop into one of the better press-man, press-bail corners in the NFL. While the Panthers drafted Bradberry to play cornerback, in a worst-case scenario, I believe Bradberry would be able to potentially shift to safety (although he mostly played corner, he was also asked to play as a single-high safety in the Senior Bowl).

In terms of how his physical tools translates to the field, I think his coach at Samford and former NFL defensive back, Sam Shade described it best,

"I played with some really good corners in the league – four years with Champ Bailey in Washington. Just watching guys like him, and I’m not saying James is on that level, but for a longer corner, James is light on his feet. Most longer guys are a little more robotic, they’re not as smooth."

Personally, I detest making player comparisons as it often sets unrealistic expectations on how a player’s career will unfold; however, aesthetically, I believe that Sam Shade is on point – James Bradberry is a big corner with surprisingly light feet and fluid hips. While larger corners struggle moving laterally and with transitions, when Bradberry plays with consistent footwork, he displays relative ease in moving in these directions. His 3-cone time also indicates a player that who possesses strong COD and hip flexibility.

In my opinion, Bradberry’s biggest issues as a player stem from his relative novelty to the cornerback position. As a converted safety, while there are benefits with his aggressive mindset to the cornerback position, tackling, and his ability to defend the run, Bradberry requires both coaching and time to cement his overall feel for the position. For example, while one of his best attributes is his patience, at times, it hurts him as he’ll give up too much cushion on underneath routes and in off-coverage. While the mental approach of patience is commendable, Bradberry has to learn to balance this a bit better with selective aggressiveness, route anticipation, and trusting his instincts to react to what he feels and sees in front of him. I believe this will come with experience, work ethic, and coaching. Selective aggressiveness and route anticipation also ties into another area of improvement for Bradberry with his ability to read the hips on receivers of smaller, quicker receivers. In a typical Cover 3, cornerbacks typically play outside leverage, so they are often at a disadvantage against inside-breaking routes. The only manner to overcome this is with route anticipation and selective aggressiveness. Because Bradberry lacks the experience in making these decisions, he often gives up the inside release and positioning on inside-breaking routes. To further tie in with this issue, he needs to develop a more consistent feel for body positioning in routes. He also has to work on his press technique. Although he’s physically gifted and is able to overcome shoddy technique in certain cases, to be able to thrive consistently in the NFL, he needs to learn and implement better and more consistent punch timing and hand placement.

Bradberry showed systematic growth during the Senior Bowl Week at reading and reacting to inside-breaking routes.

Similar to Worley, I feel like Bradberry’s biggest area for improvement is in his footwork. While he’s capable maintaining a low center of gravity, he’s often too high. Similar to Worley, this compromises his natural athleticism, COD, recovery speed, and transition ability. While some may categorize this as hip stiffness, in my opinion, this is more a matter of inconsistency than biomechanical inability, as I also believe to be the case with Daryl Worley. Bradberry is capable, of staying low with his footwork, sinking his hips, and exploding out of his transition, closing, recovery, or laterally.

There are also some minor nitpicks regarding consistency of willingness to support the run, some inconsistency with his tackling form (periodically drops his head), and providing help on the backside of the play, but I suspect none of these to be particularly glaring issues as he enters the NFL.

Conclusion

Juxtaposing both James Bradberry and Daryl Worley, ranging from the physical, the athleticism, their strengths, and their areas of improvements as players, it becomes pretty evident how Dave Gettleman had similar round grades for both players. Specifically regarding their issues surrounding their footwork, I’m reminded of a quote Gettleman mentioned in his pre-draft press conference in 2015 about defensive backs,

"We were looking at the corners at Indy, and they do a backpedal and turn drill. So there’s 54 corners in the two groups. I’m up there with Ron (Rivera) and Sean (McDermott). We’re watching, we’re kibitzing back and forth, so I ask, "How many of these guys really know how to backpedal?’ Sean said, ‘Of these 54 guys, 11 know how to backpedal.’ So I said, ‘Ok. How many have the athletic ability to learn how to backpedal?’ That’s what you have to find out. You have to eliminate the ones that don’t have the athletic skill set to do it, and you have to look at who can we teach? Who can we coach? That’s where the scouting comes in. They don’t do it well cause they don’t have to do it at the college level. They’re not asked to do it. So those are the kinds of things that you’ve got to think about. It’s a different game, and we just have to really, thoroughly investigate"

Bearing this perspective and considering their similar issues with footwork, I feel it becomes straight-forward to rationalize why they made the selections of Bradberry, Worley and Zack Sanchez in the draft this year. If nothing else, I feel like this draft gave us a bit of insight regarding what traits the Panthers value when selecting corners and what areas of improvement they perceive as resolvable.

Had James Bradberry attended a larger school and received more national publicity, it’s highly likely that he would have been a first round pick and viewed in a similar light to a player like Eli Apple, a top 10-cornerback pick who was drafted more on his promise than his reality. From a physical and athletic profile, from the intellect he displayed playing both pattern-matching zone and man-coverages at Samford, from a football foundation and skillset perspective, Bradberry possesses every necessary trait to potentially develop into a top-flight NFL corner.

Unfortunately, along with some of his issues as a player, which revolves primarily around his relative inexperience for the position, Bradberry also has the additional hurdle of transitioning from a significantly lower level of competition. Although he exhibited promise during some high-caliber matchups against players like Josh Doctson, Sammie Coates, and Kolby Listenbee and elicited praise when performing at the Senior Bowl against higher competition such as Sterling Shepard, it’s doubtful that he’ll be ready to contribute from Day 1 for the Carolina Panthers at cornerback by that fact alone. Although the Panthers had success with Coastal Carolina product, Josh Norman, it’s also difficult to ignore that even with the uber-talented Norman, it took his failures as a rookie and the greater parts of 2½ seasons on the roster to eventually meet the promise he exhibited as a prospect.

The Panthers' recent 2nd round picks (left to right): Kawann Short, Kony Ealy, and Devin Funchess

Another aspect to consider is that Dave Gettleman’s track-record with 2nd round picks has been extremely impressive. Kawann Short has developed into one of the most dominant interior defensive lineman in the NFL. Kony Ealy has shown considerable improvement throughout his first two years and if he sustains this rate, he’ll develop into a high-caliber defensive lineman. After some early growing pains, Devin Funchess flashed incredible promise during the 2nd half of last season that he will hopefully build upon. All of Gettleman’s 2nd round picks have two notable aspects in common – all possessed immense upside as prospects; however, they were all integrated into the field in a highly conservative fashion. As Bradberry falls into this exact mold, I expect the Carolina Panthers to follow a similar template when working him into their defense.

Bradberry has a chance to potentially develop into the caliber of player whose jersey number he's inheriting (Josh Norman)

Ultimately, I don’t know how long it will take for Bradberry to catch up to the NFL from the smaller level of competition. In theory, this process should be hastened as the defense he’s transitioning from at Samford conceptually resembled the Panthers defense in some essential ways. That said, given some of his relative inexperience at cornerback and the fact that there is ALWAYS a transition period with small school prospects, Panther fans expecting him to immediately fill the void left by Norman might be slightly disappointed. Hopefully, Bradberry’s development process will further be expedited behind one of the best fronts in the NFL and under the tutelage of one of the best defensive backs coaches in the NFL, Steve Wilks. Everything considered, if Bradberry delivers on his promising technical foundation and elite physical makeup, in my opinion, he has a chance to develop into one of the most dominant defensive backs in the NFL, and perhaps even a comparable player to the player whose jersey number he decided to inherit.

Time for the highlights!

Other Notes:

Kevin Norwood Edition

Daryl Worley Edition

Zack Sanchez Edition