Philadelphia Eagles: Shaun Bradley needs your Pro Bowl vote

In 2019, the Philadelphia Eagles had five players who made it to the Pro Bowl: Fletcher Cox, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, Lane Johnson, and Rick Lovato.

That’s a lot but wasn’t atypical for the Eagles during the back half of the 2010s.

From 2015-19, the Eagles had their players selected to the Pro Bowl 24 times, with nine unique players adding that particular feather to their respective caps. They had a Pro Bowl quarterback in Carson Wentz, four Pro Bowl offensive linemen, a Pro Bowl tight end in Zach Ertz, and a pair of Pro Bowl defenders in Fletcher Cox and Malcolm Jenkins, who both excelled under ex-defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz.

All in all, not too shabby. While it was unfortunate to see the team’s Pro Bowl streak come to an end in 2020, the team was, like, really bad with few bright spots worthy of recognition, so that’s to be expected. With the Eagles having already surpassed their 2020 win total with four more games left to play, the team very well may have a bounceback season both on the field and during awards season, as players like Jason Kelce and Darius Slay are very well positioned to earn Pro Bowl gold once more.

But there’s one more player who could, and probably should, join them at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in February, a player who has only played zero offensive snaps and only 28 defensive snaps so far this season.

Shaun Bradley is the Philadelphia Eagles’ new special teams ace.

When the Philadelphia Eagles drafted Shaun Bradley 196th overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, expectations weren’t particularly high.

Sure, as a proud alumnus of Temple University, fans in the City of Brotherly Love wanted nothing more than for Bradley to beat the odds and become the team’s next great linebacker, especially since the team has been absolutely starved of talent in the middle of their defense for years, but the Westhampton, New Jersey native wasn’t even the first player at his position selected by the Eagles, let alone one deemed a future starter.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein gave Bradley a 5.59 grade, which equates to “Chance to make end of roster or practice squad,” but the veteran talent evaluator did laud the former Owl’s special teams ability and love of the game.

As it turns out, Zierlein was correct. Bradley did make the roster and immediately saw playing time for the Eagles’ special teams unit in 2020, playing 268 snaps (68 percent) under Dave Fipp, versus only 76 for Jim Schwartz. From there, Bradley stepped up his game even more for first-year special teams coordinator Michael Clay, where he’s only 27 snaps shy of tying his snap total from a season prior with four games left to play and has the second-most special teams snaps of any player on the team behind only Andre Chachere.

Fun fact: The Eagles actually have three special teams players who have logged at least 74 percent of the team’s snaps in Chachere, Bradley, and rookie cornerback Zech McPhearson. In 2020, the team’s leading special teams snap player was Alex Singleton at 67 percent, with Bradley right behind him at 64 percent.

Through Week 13, Bradley has 18 total tackles, eight on defense – which is very impressive, considering his snap totals – and 10 on defense. He’s been an impactful performer on kick returns, kick coverage, punt returns, and punt coverage, and has even been on the field for 48 field goal/extra-point attempts, which surely won’t impact his Pro Bowl odds but shows the 24-year-old’s versatility.

If you can log a few special teams tackles over a full season, most would consider the campaign a success, averaging nearly one per game is very impressive and clearly explains why the Eagles offered up Bradley as their special teams Pro Bowl candidate.

Before we know it, Pro Bowl voting will be over. Before that happens, click here, fill out a ballot loaded up with members of the Philadelphia Eagles, and hope that Shaun Bradley and company make it to Vegas early next year.