After four years, James Bradberry’s time with the Carolina Panthers could be coming to an end, as multiple sources told The Athletic it doesn’t appear as though the team intends to use its franchise tag on its 2016 second-round pick. The Panthers are set to begin a massive rebuild under recently hired coach Matt Rhule and has several positions of need it is attempting to address with free agency and the 2020 NFL Draft looming.
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While both sides were engaged in preliminary talks last season, those conversations still haven’t resumed with free agency around the corner, thus giving the impression that Bradberry and the Panthers will soon part ways, as paying just above $16 million on a tag for a player who’d likely walk the following offseason makes no sense for Carolina.
On Saturday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that Bradberry is seeking $15 million or more per year and is hoping to reset the market along with Dallas Cowboys cornerback Byron Jones. With the salary cap reportedly moving up to close to $200 million, if Bradberry were paid that figure, it would only count as 7.5 percent of the team’s cap.
By contrast, when Washington paid cornerback Josh Norman was $15 million in 2016 as part of a five-year, $75-million deal, he accounted for 9.7 percent of the cap that year; the cap ceiling that season was $155.27 million.
That’s why these current CBA negotiations are pivotal; a new labor agreement would positively impact pending national television deals with the NFL, which would lead to even more money flowing into the league, increase the salary cap moving forward and get players paid even more in future years with the increase in revenue.
Sources told The Athletic just under a dozen teams, including representatives from the burgundy and gold, expressed interest this week during the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this week. Some teams made it clear to the corner that he was their top free agent target, Washington’s representatives made it clear they like him, too, though the team has publicly said its first matter of business is attending to its own free agents.
During the combine, Rhule didn’t mention the Panthers’ pending free agent, and general manager Marty Hurney didn’t speak to the media. Thursday was the first day that teams could designate a player for the franchise tag, and multiple sources explained to The Athletic that the conversation between Bradberry’s camp and the team during the Combine don’t seem to point toward Carolina using the tag on the 26-year-old cornerback.
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While Bradberry has said he’d like to continue his career with the team that drafted him and alongside his best friend, linebacker Shaq Thompson, he knows this is a business. There was a possibility he and the team would move on from each other. If the team were to change its mind, however, the Panthers have until March 12 to do so.
When Rivera carried over much of his staff from Charlotte, some assumed that if Washington started making moves in free agency it would include players from his old team. Even though Bradberry is expected to command a steep price, his fit and the team’s needs meant he was always a player to be seriously considered.
During the week of the Super Bowl, Bradberry discussed his desire to play for Rivera, and the 26-year-old’s sentiment was reiterated to members of Washington’s staff. That said, his ultimate preference is to play for a team that shows they want him, and the numbers have to be right, whether it’s Washington or any other team; Bradberry believes he’s a top corner in the league and wants his contract to reflect as much.
“I would love to play for coach Rivera again,” Bradberry told the Redskins Talk podcast in Miami during Super Bowl week. “He’s a great man and a great coach. … He coached me for four years. I didn’t realize how much he meant to us until that day (he got fired). Just how he spoke to us as men. He wasn’t overly aggressive unless he needed to be. He put his foot down when he needed to be.”
With Norman’s release by Washington on February 14, the team’s other starting corner Quinton Dunbar is unhappy with the lack of guaranteed money on the final year of his deal — $3.25 million — and hinted that he wants to be traded if he can’t get a new deal. That, along with the youth at that position, Washington needs immediate cornerback help.
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During his four seasons in Carolina, Bradberry started all 60 games he played in, missing four other games in four years. He had eight interceptions and 47 passes defended. Since 2017, Bradberry’s 220 tackles are the third most among cornerbacks in the league. In a division where the Panthers played Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans, Atlanta’s Julio Jones and New Orleans’ Mike Thomas all twice, Bradberry allowed a grand total of 288 yards receiving.
The 6-foot-1, 212-pound corner, with 4.5 40 speed, allowed one touchdown, a completion percentage of just 59.8 against him, and had three interceptions on 97 targets in 2019, according to Pro Football Reference. Rivera has talked consistently about fit, and Bradberry is used to Rivera’s zone coverage. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio varies in this regard, typically employing man to man coverage schemes, though.
Ironically, Bradberry was brought to the Panthers out of Samford as a replacement for Norman, when the team rescinded its franchise tag on in him in 2016. Four years later, there’s a chance it may be deja vu all over again.
(Photo: Jeremy Brevard / USA Today)