The Philadelphia Eagles made the move to acquire quarterback Sam Bradford from the St. Louis Rams in exchange for Nick Foles. It was a move that made most of the Eagles’ fan base scratch their heads, and even more get angry with general manager and head coach Chip Kelly. He is coming off of back-to-back seasons in which he tore his ACL, and that was a major concern for Philadelphia.
Bradford is expected to be the starter, although he isn’t likely to play in early preseason action. Kelly would rather hold him out and save him for the regular season, and is more comfortable because he has reportedly been “ecstatic” about what Bradford has done during the early stages of training camp thus far.
Re: Chip holding Bradford back. Understandable, but not ideal. #Eagles feel they can do because I hear they’ve been ecstatic about his play.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) August 14, 2015
Whether or not Bradford can keep that up the rest of the way until the regular season is up for debate, but the news certainly sounds good right now about him.
During the 2013 season, which was the last time Bradford played in a regular season, he ended up throwing for 1,687 yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions before going down with an injury. He certainly looked to be playing better than he had earlier on in his career, but he hasn’t been healthy since. It was extremely disappointing for the Rams, and they finally decided to cut their losses and move on.
At 27 years old, Bradford still has plenty of time to get his career turned back around. He sounds like he’s back to full health and ready to take on the Eagles’ starting job, but only time will tell whether or not he can truly lead the Eagles back to being a playoff team.
Kelly did the right thing by bringing superstar running back DeMarco Murray on board, and he will be able to take a lot of pressure off of Bradford. Philadelphia is going to run a fairly fast offensive system, and if Bradford’s knee stays healthy he will fit very nicely into it. Assuming he’s given good protection and the running game stays consistent, there is absolutely nothing holding Bradford back from having a big season.
Expect to see the Eagles take a step forward with this year if Bradford stays healthy. He has a very nice arm and has been extremely underrated due to past injuries. Doctors have said he is just fine and this report from training camp makes it very clear that he is already proving to the rest of the team why Kelly made the move for him.
