With eyes on rookie Carson Wentz, it was starting quarterback Sam Bradford who was impressive and turned some heads at Eagles training camp Thursday at the NovaCare Complex.
Bradford, who turns 29 in November, is entering his second season with the Eagles, but this year’s training camp has been different for the seventh-year veteran. Last training camp, he was working his way back from a torn ACL that forced him to miss the previous 1½ seasons, all while learning a new system with a new team.
Now healthy and with a full season in midnight green under his belt (and a new two-year, $36 million contract), it’s easy to see how far Bradford has come since last summer.
“I just feel much more comfortable in the building,” Bradford said.
Bradford has been solid throughout camp and stood out Thursday (see Day 10 observations). He was confident, poised and had great command of the first-team offense, and at times showed why he is a former No. 1 overall draft pick.
Bradford threw the ball extremely well, with arguably his best toss of the day coming on a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Matthews in the corner of the end zone during 11-on-11s.
“He’s extremely sharp and made the plays when they were there. He took good shots, took good chances,” Matthews said. “You love to see that efficiency from your quarterback, just coming out here, just competing. It’s real fun to watch.”
Although Bradford is in his first season in Doug Pederson’s offense, he's enjoying the traditional, slowed-down tempo as opposed to Chip Kelly’s fast-paced, no-huddle system.
“It’s definitely easier to come to the side and talk about plays, just because you do have more time, and then when we huddle, obviously you can hit guys with key points on certain plays,” Bradford said. “It is nice to be able to come together in the huddle, to have the time after you have a [second] to talk to people and really kind of get on the same page.”
Bradford also likes the way he’s been challenged in practice by the Eagles’ defense — and specifically the safeties. He said Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod “may be the best” safety combination in the NFL right now.
“You would much rather have things tough in practice than get to a game and realize, ‘Woah, practice has been really easy, this is really tough,’ so I think as many challenging situations as we can put ourselves [in] during practice, I think it makes [us] better,” Bradford said.
Last season, Bradford improved as the season progressed and finished with 3,725 yards passing and 19 touchdowns in 14 games while recording a career-high 65.0 completion percentage. He managed to do all that with a shaky receiving corps and even shakier offensive line. Now Bradford is more comfortable, the offensive line is stronger and the maturing wide receivers hopefully will eliminate the drops that plagued them last year.
“As accurate as he is, we gotta be extremely technical, you gotta be detailed,” Matthews said. “If Sam is expecting you to be in a certain spot, you gotta be there, because if you’re not there, it ain’t coming to you. He wants to be efficient, he wants to be accurate, so it’s just us taking it upon ourselves to have that same mindset.”
After a rocky offseason, Bradford has developed a key mindset of his own.
“I think I just learned to just take it day by day," he said, "and that’s really all I’m really about is coming out here each day and getting better."
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