James Bradberry flashes a wry smile.
He knows he intercepted all-pro, trash-talking, NFL MVP, future and present franchise quarterback Cam Newton during the first practice of the Carolina Panthers training camp this week. He knows Newton wasn’t happy about it. But did he know that the quarterback who hadn’t thrown very much since offseason shoulder surgery was going to throw a short pass? Did he jump the route with that knowledge? The second year cornerback takes a moment to think about his answer before replying. “Our coach is always telling us to pay attention to that and be slow coming out of your backfield so it was a little of that and also because we know Cam, we knew he wasn’t going to throw deep on the first couple of plays,” Bradberry said, “During the play, I just read the quarterback. I got my eyes back to the receiver, he broke it off and I broke towards him. I looked back and the ball was there. He didn’t throw it as fast as he normally does, but I feel I had a good break on it as well.”
Ranked the best rookie cornerback in the NFL last season by Pro Football Focus, he isn’t listening to folks who say he’s “the real deal” (like newly signed corner Captain Munnerlyn did yesterday) or being called the Panthers next breakout star. He’s more focused on the future. No matter how many interceptions he had last year. “My goal is to be the best I can be, and progressively get better. I want to do a lot better than I did last year. I feel like I missed some plays and some interceptions so I want to get my hands on some more balls. I don’t have a set number of interceptions I want, I just want to catch everything that comes to me.”
“I hear things from time to time, but I really can’t pay attention to that because at the end of the day I’m not going to go up against my teammates,” when asked about his excellent practice play, “I am going to go up against other players and the overall atmosphere will be different. It really doesn’t matter if you play well during practice you have to play well during the game.”
“I tried to watch film a lot and listen to my coaches, but there was a lot going on with me trying to learn the defense and playing against top-tier talent every game, and overall speed of the game. Now I feel more comfortable and things are starting to slow down a lot.”
And have to play well he will, especially with two games against the loaded passing games of the NFC South on the schedule. While he says the most complete wide receiver in the division is Atlanta’s Julio Jones, “I am aware of all of the receivers in our division. I know we have to play against Ted Ginn again. I am interested in playing him because I enjoy being around him a lot, and he helped me out a lot last year,” Bradberry said, “I like playing against Mike Evans because I feel like that was one of my better games last year and was a challenge. All of the guys we play in our division honestly.”
The wrist that he broke during OTAs earlier in the summer won’t bother him as he moves into the regular season, saying the wrist doesn’t hurt anymore and he is wearing a cast that is thinner than the one he wore earlier strictly as a precaution. Bradberry is feeling confident about the upcoming season, feeling a lot better than the 23-year-old did last year due to his expanded knowledge of the Panthers’ system and things “starting to slow down” for him.
And yes, like everyone else involved with the Carolina Panthers, from the hot dog salesman in Section 531 to the head coach, Bradberry has an opinion on the electric rookie Christian McCaffrey. “I haven’t been face to face with him yet, I catch him from another point of view when I am trying to chase him down. I saw him make a move on Luke today and another lineman, and he made a pretty sharp cut that made me go ‘ooohhh ahhh’ when he did it so he looks pretty sharp.”
Luckily, he only has to play against him in practice.
Nice write up!
I really liked the “It really doesn’t matter if you play well during practice you have to play well during the game.” Quote from James.
Excited to see our young corners take the next step this season.