James Bradberry tasked with keeping Michael Thomas and his "Popeye arm" under control

[Sir Purr]

“I think the biggest thing that he does that the really, really good receivers do, is they go get the ball,” Rivera said. “He runs good routes, he runs ahead of people, but he goes to get the ball. He doesn’t let the ball come to him. That’s a quarterback’s best friend.”


Here’s Bradberry’s assessment of the 6-foot-3, 212-pound wideout: “He’s a big-bodied receiver with a huge catch radius. Strong hands. And then you add in the fact that he has Drew Brees, who throws a very accurate pass. That makes (Thomas) more dangerous.”


Saints head coach Sean Payton also makes Thomas more dangerous with the variety of ways he’ll look to involve the former first-round pick. Thomas lines up at multiple locations and his route tree has expanded over the years.


“They do a good job of finding ways to get him the rock, whether it’s lining him up at 1, 2, 3 or motioning him to get guys off of him in the press,” safety Tre Boston said. “They find ways to get Mike Thomas the ball. But for us, we have a guy in James Bradberry who we trust every time.”


Bradberry has a very respectable record against Thomas. In six regular season meetings against Carolina, Thomas has been held under 100 yards and with no more than seven catches. He did go off for 131 yards in that 2017 Wild Card playoff.


Last year, Thomas finished with 49 yards in the first outing and just 29 in the second matchup.


Combine that with his impressive record against other NFC South rivals Jones and Evans, and Bradberry, who has been at a Pro Bowl caliber level this season, has reason to feel pretty good about his standing.


“You want to earn their respect when you against those guys,” Bradberry said.


The former second-round pick from Samford has done that through the course of four seasons, and his team counts on him to rise to the occasion in these headline one-on-one matchups.


Evans, the rival from Tampa Bay, went out of his way to give Bradberry his due earlier this year. So too did San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman, a player Bradberry looked up to when he was refining his game at the college level.