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Eagles QB Sam Bradford wows teammates in practice
August 8, 2015, 8:00 am
http://www.csnphilly.com/football-philadelphia-eagles/eagles-qb-sam-bradford-wows-teammates-practice?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahooSam Bradford, who is coming off two ACL tears in a span of 10 months, has impressed his Eagles teammates and coaches so far during training camp. (USA Today Images)
The Eagles’ quarterback competition might be open, as coach Chip Kelly has insisted, but Sam Bradford may be slamming the door closed on Mark Sanchez.
Bradford appeared in total command of the huddle during Friday’s training camp practice at the NovaCare Complex, making sharp throws and dazzling teammates while Sanchez, his only competitor for the starting job, endured ups and downs (see 10 observations).
Bradford, who’s coming back from two ACL tears in a 10-month span and wasn’t medically cleared for full practice until the start of training camp, shined in the 7-on-7s, team drills and was the only quarterback to lead the offense to paydirt in the hurry-up drill near the end of practice.
“He was throwing lots of touchdowns today,” right tackle Lane Johnson said. “He’s very accurate. I haven’t seen accuracy like that from a quarterback in a long time.”
Bradford, who’s shown as-advertised accuracy throughout camp, came out firing, starting with the first set of 7s. He arced a pretty fade over rookie cornerback Eric Rowe into the hands of Riley Cooper down the left side and then rifled his next pass in the end zone to tight end Trey Burton.
He connected with Burton again during a red-zone 11-on-11 drill for another touchdown and found Seyi Ajirotutu in the left corner of the end zone for another.
“In OTAs he had to stand back a lot,” Johnson added. “Now he’s getting out here and getting his confidence in. He looked sharp today. Just accurate with the football. Hs arm is super strong. He makes quick decisions. I think he’s getting a lot of his confidence back.”
Near the end of practice, the Eagles conducted a hurry-up drill with Bradford leading the first team, Sanchez with the second and Matt Barkley with the third. The drill simulated real-game action.
With the ball near midfield and 63 seconds on the clock, Bradford converted a 3rd-and-4 by finding Darren Sproles over the middle before spiking the ball to stop the clock with 10 seconds left.
On the next snap, a busted coverage resulted in Brent Celek wandering down the right sideline with nobody from the defense within five yards. Bradford quickly spiraled the ball to the veteran tight end for the easy touchdown.
“He’s a leader,” Celek said. “Obviously we all know he’s a great quarterback. He’s got all the skills. I think his calmness about him, he’s going to be a great player, of course.”
The preseason opener is more than one week away and Kelly has insisted that Sanchez has every opportunity to win the job if he’s better than Bradford, whom Kelly gave up Nick Foles and a second-round pick to get.
It couldn’t have helped Sanchez’s cause that he forced a pass into double coverage and had the ball picked by Jaylen Watkins on the second offense’s first play in the hurry-up.
Bradford also showed more emotion after his touchdowns as he’s starting to carry himself like the franchise quarterback he’s hoping to become under Kelly.
Quiet by nature, Bradford’s personality hadn’t come out during the spring camps, when he took only a smattering of first-team reps in the final three-day minicamp after watching most of the OTAs from the sidelines.
“It’s changed,” Johnson said. “It’s definitely changed. He was just trying to learn the ropes back then. He wasn’t as vocal. Even in the huddle he’s a lot more vocal. You can just see it in his eye.”
Teammates have raved about Bradford’s accuracy and strong arm, two strengths that helped him win the Heisman as a junior at Oklahoma and become the No. 1 overall pick by the Rams in 2010.
Injuries derailed his career in St. Louis, but for all the talk about his accuracy and arm, Bradford has won just 18 of his 49 career starts and has completed just 58.6 percent of his passes.
Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, who was Bradford’s first offensive coordinator in St. Louis, suggested that Bradford’s statistics are a byproduct of an inadequate supporting cast.
“It takes two to tango when we’re talking about completion percentages,” Shumur said. “We do know he’s a very accurate passer, and in the progressions that we’re running he’s displayed an ability to throw the ball accurately and on time for us.”
Although the Rams were 3-4 in 2013 when Bradford tore his left ACL, Bradford’s numbers weren’t bad. He was completing a career-best 60.7 percent of his throws and had 14 touchdowns to just four interceptions, putting him on pace for the most touchdowns and highest completion percentage of his career.
But another ligament tear in the same knee last August in a preseason game led to another lost season and the Rams decided to trade him to the Eagles instead of carrying his $12.95 million cap figure in the final year of his deal.
“I think experience makes us all better,” Shurmur said. “It’s not always pretty. There are times when you’ve got to experience, I like to think, sometimes when you have some things go wrong it ends up being sort of a blessing because you learn from them.
“I think just in the time that we’ve been together here in Philadelphia, I think he’s gotten his body and his knee right, and you can see he’s executing out here at a high level.”
AgamemnonI watched the Eagles game and Bradford was very impressive. He even stood in and took another hit–and got up.
I really don’t believe it is an exaggeration to suggest that IF he stays healthy he will put up MVP type numbers this year.
I actually have more faith in him staying healthy than most, I think. I just think the 2 knee things were freak non-contact injuries (technically there was contact in each case but the contact wasn’t the issue, it was trying to right his balance with an awkward angle and the leg bending wrong. 70% of knee injuries are non-contact. That was true of J.Long and Palmer too.)
And I always expected him to play well. Unlike some, I thought he already showed it with the Rams (in those games from 2012-13 where they had BOTH a healthy OL and a running threat). Though of course the Eagles are loaded on offense while the Rams never were, so he will show it more than he did in St. Louis. But IMO it was there.
HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean I dislike the trade. I fully get the trade. Regardless what I personally think of the injury issues, the Rams were in a position to calculate risks. They could not keep him because the odds do not look good. Phil was in a much better position to risk those odds.
Foles and Bradford are interesting comparisons, but to me it amounts to this. Foles is a much better fit in St. Louis than he was in Phil…whereas Bradford is a much better fit in Phil. than Foles was.
It’s a long story but it amounts to this –>
Fits for Rams: Bradford, Foles
Fits for Eagles: Bradford
Mis-fit for Eagles: FolesKelly, like McD, is a system first offensive guy and he needs a system-fit qb, and Bradford has what he needs.
The Rams just bend their offense around the skills of the qb, and are far more pragmatic that way than the “system first” types.
The upshot is, the trade makes perfect sense.
I’ve said this before but this may be the only win-win qb swap in NFL history.
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Yeah, all that and we got a 2cd round pick. I remember the popular opinion at the start of last year was that we should just cut Bradford because of his salary cap hit. Well, all we needed to do was convert Quinn’s roster bonus to a prorated bonus and we would be precisely where we are now in relation to the cap. We would have been 2 million short in 2016, 17, 18, and 19, but our cap space of 4.6 this year would have been the same.
Agamemnon
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