Philadelphia Eagles: Jaquiski Tartt and James Bradberry are reunited

One day after taking their first L of the offseason with a new, outline-less watermark logo – I kid, but only slightly – the Philadelphia Eagles recaptured some goodwill by doing the one thing any fan of the franchise has been clamoring for since the end of the 2022 NFL Draft: They signed a safety.

Yup, you read that correctly; Howie Roseman looked at his roster, noticed the one question mark on the defensive side of the ball, and signed one of the best players left on the open market at their position of need in now-former San Francisco 49ers strong safety Jaquiski Tartt, a former second round pick out of Samford University.

Hmm… didn’t the Eagles sign another player out of Samford, a player who called the small, Alabama-based college home in the mid-2010s no less?

If your answer to that question was James Bradberry, then you are correct; the collegiate Bulldogs were teammates from 2012-14 and became the rare Samford defenders to get drafted into the NFL Draft on Day 2. And now, as teammates once more, the duo re-form a tag team that worked incredibly well in the Southern Conference.

Two Bulldogs are better than one for the Philadelphia Eagles.

In the modern day NFL, all safeties aren’t created equal. Some are built for the box, while others are slot-based coverage specialists, and others still work best when deployed deep either as a center fielder or in a two-safety shell.

For the Philadelphia Eagles, their biggest needs at safety are the last option; they need good but not elite athletes who can cover half of the field, savvy defenders who know where to go deep in zone, and even sure enough tacklers who can provide support versus the run on a few seconds notice.

Fortunately, Jaquiski Tartt fits that bill.

A strong safety who was sort of the swiss army knife of the San Francisco 49ers’ safety pairing opposite former first round pick Jimmie Ward, Taratt deployed both deep and in the box under defensive coordinator-turned-head coach Robert Salah and linebacker-turned-defensive coordinator-turned future head coach DeMeco Ryan. Though his production wasn’t dominant or of an All-Pro caliber at any point in his career, he did set a new career-high 66 tackles in 2021, and other than an almost-interception he dropped versus the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs, his final season in San Francisco was arguably his best; leaving the seaside city on a high note if nothing else.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Taratt has surrendered the third-lowest completion percentage of any safety in the NFL since 2019? Because, according to PFF, that is very much the case.

Alright, so Tartt is an off-ball safety who is good in coverage, a strong hitter, and a snap eater who has logged at least 57 percent of the Niners’ defensive snaps since being a second round pick out of Samford. All in all, not too shabby for a mid-June signing indeed.

Will Jaquiski Tartt beat out Marcus Epps or even Anthony Harris for a starting spot in the Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive secondary? Potentially so, potentially not; the team clearly knows what they have from camp so far and felt that bringing in Tartt was a worthy proposition. Either way, after rolling into the season with a clear question at the top and bottom of their safety depth chart, landing a player like Tartt undoubtedly makes the team better.