Sam Bradford Takes First Team Reps For Eagles, Still Not Fully Recovered From ACL
Sam Bradford of the Philadelphia Eagles has begun the road back from his second ACL surgery.
NFL is reporting that Bradford, who basically switched jobs with former Eagles quarterback and new Rams quarterback Nick Foles, has been taking snaps with the first-team offense during the beginning of the second week of organized team activities. Even though Bradford is taking reps, Eagles’ head coach Chip Kelly is taking is slowly. Bradford is coming back from his second ACL surgery on his left knee in two years.
Bradford tore his left ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) during a week seven loss in 2013 to the Carolina Panthers, 30-15. Bradford successfully completed the surgery and rehabilitation, but tore the left ACL again in the preseason last year. At the end of the year, Kelly pulled the trigger on the trade for Bradford, sending Foles, a fourth-round pick in 2015 and a second-round pick in 2016 in exchange for Bradford and a 2015 fifth-round pick.
Both Bradford and incumbent returning quarterback Mark Sanchez, who took over for Foles after Foles was injured last year, split first-team drills. Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow split second-team snaps.
“He is on schedule,” Kelly said last Thursday. “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.”
According to Philly, Bradford, who is scheduled to make $13 million a year this year, is going to be running the offense, most likely. Still, Bradford will not be able to much with the offense while he goes through the secondary phase of the rehabilitation, the performance rehab. There are still 105 days until the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons, so there is no panic yet.
Kelly and the Eagles were well aware of this when trading for Bradford. Kelly still feels that there will be no problems when Bradford is cleared to play. In the meantime, Sanchez is at the ready to assume the role until Bradford is ready. Sanchez, who played the last nine games of 2014 due to Foles’ broken collarbone, went 5-4, with 14 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 2,418 yards, and a quarterback rating of 88.4.
When Kelly was asked whether or not he was worried about Bradford not getting any time working with an offense that is unfamiliar to Bradford, Kelly felt that Bradford would have no problem acclimating to the new offense.
[Image courtesy of 6abc.com]
