Craig James is here to stay, Philadelphia Eagles fans.
For much of the 2019 season, Craig James was a running joke for a solid segment of the Philadelphia Eagles fanbase.
A midseason addition forced into action due to a string of injuries at the cornerback position, James’ presence on the active roster, and on the field as a starter in a Week 5 blowout win over the New York Jets, signified a serious problem with the Eagles’ roster composition. Like fellow emergency performers Ryan Lewis, Robert Davis, and Deontay Burnett, many assumed that the Eagles would eventually move on from James once they solidified their roster with a deeper pool of talent – rendering his NFL career at yet another crossroads.
Welp, apparently no one told that to the Eagles, as it looks like James is not only here to stay but destined for an even bigger role in this his second season in midnight green.
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It all started on September 4th, when the Eagles signed James to a one-year, $1.52 million extension to remain with the team through the 2021 season. That move, as unlikely as it may have seemed sixth months prior, set the stage for the releases of both Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas, leading to James potentially locked in as the Birds’ top exterior option behind Avonte Maddox and Darius Slay. Granted, could the Eagles always opt to roll with Jalen Mills at CB3 if something were to happen to Maddox or Slay, as he has 2,551 snaps of experience playing perimeter corner in Jim Schwartz’s scheme (more on that here)? Most definitely, but even so, that doesn’t take away from James’ accomplishments.
You see, on September 9th, the Eagles officially named James one of their eight captains alongside Carson Wentz, Jason Kelce, Jason Peters, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Rodney McLeod, and Duke Riley. Is James – and Riley for that matter – an unusual name on a list featuring some of the Eagles’ premier players? Maybe so, but if you listen to Jim Schwartz gush about James, maybe it shouldn’t be.
While James was surely named a captain due to his special teams prowess a la Chris Maragos or Kamu Grugier-Hill, Schwartz declared the former Southern Illinois UDFA “one of the team’s most improved players and that he looks like a whole different player in camp compared last season” per our friends over at Eagles Nation. Measuring in at 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, James ran a 4.50 at Northwestern’s Pro Day, and turned enough heads to initially land with the Minnesota Vikings in 2018.
Are those measurements elite, amazing, or prototypical? No, but they are solid. James isn’t too short to keep up with your average outside receiver, doesn’t run a 4.6 like some cornerback of yore, and has a competitive edge that just screams ‘Jim Schwartz guy’. I mean think about it, you have to be one tough, committed individual to start your career off at a Power 5 program like the University of Minnesota, transfer to an FCS program to prove his mettle, and then works their way up from an under the radar camp invite to a kingslayer of sorts.
For Craig James, the tough part is over. He beat out the odds, made the Philadelphia Eagles roster, and even earned a captainship with less than a year in our fair city. Now all he has to do is go out each and every week and play his heart out on the field. If he does that, the fans will come around, as there’s nothing Philadelphians love more than a hard-nosed, blue-collar player who’s worked for everything he has.