Sam Bradford is being eased into practice

The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is not being rushed into Eagles OTAs, and his rehab is going according to schedule.

The Sam Bradford Era in Philadelphia is starting the same way the Bradford Era ended in St. Louis. Bradford is recovering from an ACL tear that kept him out of the 2014 season entirely for the St. Louis Rams, and because of his recovery will not be able to participate fully in the Philadelphia Eagles OTA workouts.

Eagles head coach Chip Kelly assuaged the fears that Bradford wouldn’t be ready to suit up in time for the Eagles. Hey, he’s got to preserve that 58.6% completion rate.

From NFL.com:

"“He is on schedule,” Kelly said of Bradford’s recovery from knee surgery. “We all think there’s three phases: There’s medical rehab, there’s performance rehab and then there’s prepare to play. He’s probably right at the tail end of medical rehab. He’ll probably start throwing some 7-on-7 next week, but I think he’s right on schedule in terms of where he is.”"

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Chip is of course purposely excluding phases 4-6.

Medical rehab
Performance rehab
Prepare to play
Installation of titanium bionic knee
Bionic knee impact testing
Re-injury

With the departure of Nick Foles to the Rams through the trade that swung Bradford, the Auto-Destructing Quarterback will be competing with the murderer’s row of Mark Sanchez, Matt Barkley and (ahem) Tim Tebow at quarterback.

Of those three competitors, Sanchez is the most dangerous candidate to supplant Bradford. He was serviceable running the Eagles offense under Kelly, and has shown more of an ability to handle pressure than the Eagles former starter in Nick Foles. With the Rams offensive line looking like a leaky levee, Foles may be in for a worse time than Bradford.

But unlike Foles or even occasionally Sanchez, Bradford hasn’t shown that he can be more than a middle-lower class starting quarterback in the NFL. He struggles to be efficient passing the ball, and he rarely challenges the defense down the field. The hope is that a strong rushing attack led by DeMarco Murray and (an ideally healthy) Ryan Mathews will open up passing down the field for Bradford, but past experience says that the quarterback’s presence will make the offense easy to contain. His career yards per completion average is 6.29, which would have ranked him 32nd, ahead of only Blake Bortles and Derek Carr.

Starting off injured will only reinforce the simplicity of the offense. Eagles fans have no reason to panic, but they do have room for some healthy doubt regarding Bradford as their starting quarterback.

[H/T: NFL.com]

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