Safety Terrell Edmunds was used to competing against players on the Eagles. Playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers in last season’s Week 8 game, Edmunds found himself going against wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Edmunds also took part in Smith’s celebrity softball game in Allentown last summer, going against Eagles players who were all on Smith’s team. After watching from the outside, Edmunds now finds himself being on the same side.
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Edmunds signed a one-year deal with the Eagles Friday, with expectations that he will be a starter for a defense that lost former starters C.J. Gardner Johnson and Marcus Epps. Speaking for the first time as an Eagle, Edmunds said watching the Eagles players at the softball game and in other encounters was one of the reasons why he signed with the team.
“That day, you could just tell how close they really were,” Edmunds said. “It wasn’t just, ‘I’m your teammate and then I go home.’ Those guys out there at the softball game, even though they tried to stack their team, they just had a good time out there playing together, and you could just tell that they were competitive. That’s something that you want in any team, seeing people that want love to go out there and compete and love to go out there and work and get each other better.”
The Steelers made Edmunds their first-round draft pick in 2018, and he spent the first five seasons of his career in Pittsburgh. Last season, Edmunds started in 15 games, finishing with five passes defended and 70 tackles. He also proved that he was an effective blitzer when called upon to rush the passer, getting two sacks and three pressures in 10 blitz opportunities, according to Pro Football Reference.” However, Edmunds seemingly knew his time with the Steelers was coming to an end and he would be signing elsewhere when he tweeted his goodbye to Pittsburgh Thursday.
“I had five great seasons with the Steelers,” Edmunds said. “I met some great teammates, and they have great coaches and a great culture over there. But when I came over here and I spoke to all of the coaching staff when I talked to some of the guys on the Philly team, it just really bought me into it and now I’m bought in and I’m just ready to work and ready to come here and just give everything I got.”
Edmunds has lined up at free safety and has played closer to the line of scrimmage, positioning himself to go against slot receivers and tight ends, which Gardner-Johnson did a lot last season for the Eagles. That flexibility can give new defensive coordinator Sean Desai some creativity when it comes to varying the coverage looks a quarterback would see.
Signing with the Eagles also will give Edmunds another chance to face off against his brother Tremaine, a linebacker with the Buffalo Bills. The brothers played together at Virginia Tech, and both left the same year.
“Now we help each other out all the time,” Edmunds said. “He and my older brother (Trey), we are workout partners in the offseason. We’re always around each other in the offseason. We play cards together to keep the competitive juices rolling. Being able to play against them, these last few years haven’t been so good because we only won one time, so he had the bragging rights from the family. But hopefully we can change that now and really go out there and get up to them.”
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Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.
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2023-03-25 10:30:00Z
CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5qLmNvbS9lYWdsZXMvMjAyMy8wMy9ob3ctZWFnbGVzLWRldm9udGEtc21pdGhzLXNvZnRiYWxsLWdhbWUtaGFkLWEtcm9sZS1pbi10ZXJyZWxsLWVkbXVuZHMtc2lnbmluZy5odG1s0gGDAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5qLmNvbS9lYWdsZXMvMjAyMy8wMy9ob3ctZWFnbGVzLWRldm9udGEtc21pdGhzLXNvZnRiYWxsLWdhbWUtaGFkLWEtcm9sZS1pbi10ZXJyZWxsLWVkbXVuZHMtc2lnbmluZy5odG1sP291dHB1dFR5cGU9YW1w
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