Ex-Giants in Super Bowl: Kadarius Toney, James Bradberry helped new teams

Feb 6, 2023 - 1:00 PM

Several former New York Giants, including a couple of prominent ones, are on the 2023 Super Bowl rosters for the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Let’s take a look at those players and their contributions.

Kansas City Chiefs

WR Kadarius Toney — Yes, the Giants’ 2021 first-round pick is in the Super Bowl. Yes, that makes pretty much every Giants fan feel some sort of way. What way you feel is entirely up to you.

If we’re being honest, the Kansas City version of Toney has been pretty much what he was in New York. Occasionally productive enough to hint at the ability to be a real difference-maker, but frustratingly injury-prone.

Toney caught 14 passes, two for touchdowns in seven regular-season games with the Chiefs. He missed three games with a hamstring injury and played 20 or more snaps just twice.

In Kansas City’s Divisional Round victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Toney had five catches for 36 yards, a run for 14 yards and three punt returns for 23 yards. Against the Cincinnati Bengals in the Conference Championship Game, he caught one pass, played four snaps and exited with another hamstring injury and an ankle issue to go along with it. Toney did not practice all week as the Chiefs began their Super Bowl preparations and is currently listed as questionable for the game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Andy Reid has gotten production out of Toney, when Toney was healthy enough to get on the field. He hasn’t, though, been able to magically sure Tony’s availability issues. GM Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll tried to make it work with the 2021 first-round pick. It just didn’t.

WR Marcus Kemp (practice squad) — Was with the Giants during training camp. Played in three regular games for the Chiefs without catching a pass. Has 47 games of regular season NFL experience and has been in nine playoff games, all with Kansas City. Injuries to Toney, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman forced him into action in the Conference Championship Game, where he caught his only pass of the season.

NT Danny Shelton (practice squad) — Shelton was terrible for the Giants last season, his only year in New York. I didn’t know he was still in the league until finding his name on the Chiefs’ practice squad roster. He was active for one game, playing nine snaps with no stats.

Coaches

Steve Spagnuolo is still Chiefs’ defensive coordinator. He is joined on that staff by defensive backs coach Dave Merritt, who held that job from 2005-2017 with the Giants.

Philadelphia Eagles

CB James Bradberry — The cap-strapped Giants had no alternative but to let Bradberry go last offseason. Unfortunately, he landed in Philadelphia. More unfortunately, he had a career year and was named second-team All-Pro.

Bradberry had an interception of Daniel Jones in the Giants’ Divisional Round loss to the Eagles. Bradberry called helping to knock the Giants out of the playoffs “a top three moment in my career.”

DT Linval Joseph — Has played limited snaps in nine games (including the playoff game vs. the Giants) since signing with the Eagles midseason. When Giants GM Joe Schoen was saying at his season-ending press conference that there were players he wanted to add during the season but couldn’t because of cap restrictions, I couldn’t help thinking that Joseph was one such player. The Giants needed defensive line help, he was available, and he had the best years of his career with the Minnesota Vikings under the tutelage of Giants defensive line coach Andre Patterson. The $2.187 million deal he got from Philadelphia ($1.687M base, $500K pro-rated bonus) was out of the Giants’ price range, though.

Coaches

Alex Tanney (assistant QB coach) — Tanney was Davis Webb before Davis Webb — a long-time backup who rarely saw the field. He is also now doing what Webb could be doing soon, coaching. He has been on the Eagles’ staff for two years.