Eagles have landed ‘a warrior’ in safety Sydney Brown, his college coach says

Ahead of his third-round selection in this year’s draft, safety Sydney Brown received a “red star” ranking on the Eagles’ draft board, a designation historically reserved for the team’s top prospects in the class.

According to general manager Howie Roseman, a “red star” player “exemplifies what it means to be an Eagle — “great character, captain, testing numbers, intelligence, plays the way it should be played, practices the way it should be played.”

Brown, taken 66th overall, arrives in Philadelphia after an illustrious collegiate career at Illinois that ended with his earning All-Big Ten honors in 2022.

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His journey to this point, though, is remarkable.

Brown grew up in a single-parent household in London, Ontario, with his mother, Raechel, and his twin brother, Chase, and sister, Mya. When Brown was a child, his family was forced out of its apartment after Raechel was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare autoimmune disorder, and lost her job. The Browns were living in a homeless shelter when Raechel, wanting a better situation for her sons, helped them fill out the necessary paperwork to apply for scholarships to attend St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton, Fla.

St. Stephen’s went undefeated in the twins’ junior and senior seasons, winning a pair of Florida I-A championships. Sydney Brown rode that success to a commitment to Illinois, where he played for coaches Lovie Smith and Bret Bielema.

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When Bielema was hired in 2021, he brought on Ryan Walters as his defensive coordinator.

Ahead of meeting his new players, Walters recently said in a phone interview, he received headshots and names of everyone on the team for him to study and memorize. Walters can vividly remember when he first came across Brown’s photo.

“It’s funny because I had a roster with everybody’s picture on it, and Sydney’s picture is from his freshman year,” Walters said with a laugh. “So he had no facial hair, he had long hair in a man bun. He’s thin. He’s got this immature look about him. So he kind of looks like a yoga instructor.

“I’m wondering, ‘Who’s this kid from Canada that they’ve got on the roster here that’s going to be teaching me in my hot yoga class?’ Then the first time I got to see him in person, they were just doing baseline testing. … Sydney takes his shirt off and he’s like chopped up. So I’m like, ‘OK, he’s not a yoga instructor, he’s a bodybuilder.’”

Later that day in spring 2021, Walters addressed the defense for his first time as Illinois’ coordinator. Ahead of his team meeting, Walters allowed players to mingle so he could check their demeanors from across the room. With a majority of guys joking around, Walters was taken aback by Brown, who was seated in the front row of the auditorium, studying his new playbook.

“Sydney was stone cold, no grin, no banter, no nothing,” Walters said. “He was all business. And he was all business all the time. So I knew this dude had a chance to be a pro. You don’t look like that without being meticulous [about] how you take care of your body. So I knew he was disciplined in that aspect. Then the attention to detail he gave during meetings, I told my staff, ‘[Shoot,] we have a chance to have a pro football player right here.’”

Walters described Brown as a player who’s “never going to shy away from challenges.”

“It’s in his DNA where he’s not going to run from anything,” said Walters, now the head coach at Purdue. “He attacks adversity head-on and doesn’t make excuses about anything. When he was wrong, he would own it. He enjoys working on things that he’s not good at. He enjoys the dissecting of his game. He really enjoys the process. So many people in today’s society are so obsessed with the outcome and the results that they lose sight of the beauty of the process, and how it shapes and molds you. Sydney is the complete opposite.

“Where Sydney is mature beyond his years is: He understands the necessity, reality, and importance of the process. That’s what I appreciated the most about him as it pertained to him being an athlete.”

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The Eagles are hoping to have gained a future longtime starter in Brown, who became the team’s highest-drafted safety since Temple’s Jaiquawn Jarrett, a second-round pick in 2011. Brown led the Big Ten with six interceptions, and his athleticism score from the scouting combine ranked first among all prospects at defensive back in this year’s class, according to Next Gen Stats.

Walters was effusive in describing Brown’s style of play.

“You’re going to see somebody who plays with one speed all the time — his foot is full-throttle on the gas,” Walters said. “He doesn’t hesitate. When he reads and dissects plays, he goes. He plays with confidence because he prepares the right way. On game days, he’s supremely confident. Fearless, tough as nails, cerebral. Just a warrior. He’s a throwback player in terms of he’s not going to miss a rep in practice, he’s not going to miss a rep in a game, he’s going to play through injuries, he’s a throwback in that sense.

“Philly fans are going to love Sydney Brown.”