Why Bradley Roby decided to join the Eagles after four weeks (yahoo.com)

Bradley Roby admitted it was a little weird to watch the first four weeks of the NFL season from his couch.

But he had a plan.

“I was really just waiting for what I feel like was the right situation,” Roby said on Wednesday. “I really wanted to win a championship. I got one in my career and I’ve been thirsty to get back. I really only was considering the teams that I felt could make it to the Super Bowl.”

Roby said other teams had shown interest, including the Saints after playing for them the last two years, but he wanted to remain patient. He thought the right opportunity would present itself and he thinks he found that in Philadelphia.

The Eagles this week signed Roby to their practice squad and he was on the practice field wearing No. 33 on Wednesday. The plan is to get the veteran up to speed and eventually make him active on game days.

Roby, 31, admitted he didn’t believe his veteran teammates back in 2015 when they told him to cherish the playoffs. In his second NFL season as a first-round pick out of Ohio State, Roby and the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers.

In Roby’s seven NFL seasons since then, he’s been back to the playoffs just once.

“Yeah, you think it’s automatic,” Roby said. “It’s funny, the guys kept telling me, they were like, ‘Robe, cherish this. This is not common. This does not happen every year.’ And I’m just like, ‘Whatever. It’s going to always be like this.’ And then I played a 10-year career. It’s very tough to get back. I’m just really ready to play in big games and playoff games and do what we can to get back there.”

With a 4-0 record and coming off a Super Bowl appearance last season, the Eagles obviously have high expectations this season.

But in Week 2, the Eagles lost nickel cornerback Avonte Maddox to a torn pec that required surgery. He’s likely out for the rest of the year. In his absence, the Eagles have been using a combination of players to replace him but the most common recipe has been to play James Bradberry inside on nickel downs. When that happens, Josh Jobe replaces him outside.

The problem with that is that Bradberry was a second-team All-Pro as an outside cornerback last season and the Eagles gave him a three-year, $38 million contract this offseason to play outside. They’re probably not getting enough out of him in the slot.

That’s where Roby comes in. During his nine-year NFL career, Roby has played both outside and as a nickel.

If Roby can assume the nickel corner spot for the Eagles, it would allow Bradberry to go back to his more natural position full-time.

“That’s the plan,” Darius slay said. “We’ll just see how it goes and we’ll see what coach wants to do.”

With Slay and Bradberry the Eagles have one of the best duos of starting cornerbacks in the NFL. With Maddox, they formed one of the strongest trios. We’ll find out soon enough if Roby still has enough left to round out a strong trio yet again.

But teaming up with Slay and Bradberry was another reason he decided to come to the Eagles.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a dope combination, I feel,” he said. “That was one of the reasons I decided to do that, because there’s nothing like playing with other elite guys.”

The Eagles want to give Roby a chance to learn the defense and get into football shape but he doesn’t think it’ll take too long. There’s only so many coverages you can run, Roby said.

And during these first four weeks of the season at home, he was staying in shape and preparing for his next opportunity, whenever it presented itself. He also feels like his legs are pretty fresh after missing the first four games.

“I waited for the right time,” Roby said. “I feel like now is the right time.”