It’s a bullet dodge, no doubt.
No doubt is the feeling here, at least.
If what is being reported as fact actually is fact, and the Eagles offered Sam Bradford a four-year contract for $72 million prior to the season, then, yeah, can’t see it any other way than a bullet dodge.
Oh, there will be rationalizations about his truly mediocre, scared-out-of-his-jock-shorts play and how he just needs some time to get it together, so we all can see the Real Sam, that special, once-in-a-lifetime quarterbacking talent that we only hear mentioned … pretty much every other NFL draft, and sometimes more than once in a single draft.
That, really, it would have been a good thing to lock him up and let him evolve and grow in Chip Kelly’s system … whatever the heck that may be.
It’s all wishful, wistful thinking by fans, media members, even "experts" based on information provided by others, analysis generated not by their own eyeballs, and a love for their favorite professional football team and their hope that it will succeed, and not trudge along in the black-holed abyss of never-ending mediocrity.
Ironic. That’s exactly what it seems keeping Bradford at the QB spot would do.
For all the debating about his numbers, and what factored negatively here and positively there, and mostly rave reviews about his talent and potential, the fact of the matter is he has shown a propensity for getting injured and picked off, and his skittish play dates all the way back to his days at Oklahoma, even as the Sooners were rolling up victories with him behind center.
Put it this way, those Halloween eyes peering out Bradford’s helmet are nothing new.
Thing is, compiling statistics and how a guy actually performs are not necessarily joined at the hip. You can play awful, toss multiple interceptions and your team still win. You can play phenomenal, toss multiple TDs and your team lose.
Bradford, frankly, doesn’t usually fall into either extreme. He typically fudges his way into the middle, right where he’s nice and comfy. The essence of mediocre.
Yes, he’s recovering from two ACL tears in his left knee. Yes, he missed a season and a half due to rehabbing from surgeries involved with those. Guess what, he also suffered a concussion in college and injured his shoulder twice, the second time requiring season-ending surgery just a few months shy of him being selected No. 1 in the 2010 draft.
That’s all part of who Bradford is, and making excuses for it, to rationalize keeping him as Eagles QB, or raising his value because he has managed to somehow remain healthy, or, gulp, thinking that giving him that kind of aforementioned coin would have been a good idea is as far removed from facing reality as you can get.
What, one 10-for-10 stretch in the preseason sold you on the guy, but Nick Foles’ 27-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2013 was a fluke? Sadly, the coach/GM/ruler of Eagles universe apparently thought the same.
Fortunately, Bradford’s agent refused the offer – thus, saving the rest of us from being guaranteed exactly what we all are looking to avoid: the Eagles mired in mediocrity as far into the future as we can see.
- Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com
No doubt is the feeling here, at least.
If what is being reported as fact actually is fact, and the Eagles offered Sam Bradford a four-year contract for $72 million prior to the season, then, yeah, can’t see it any other way than a bullet dodge.
Oh, there will be rationalizations about his truly mediocre, scared-out-of-his-jock-shorts play and how he just needs some time to get it together, so we all can see the Real Sam, that special, once-in-a-lifetime quarterbacking talent that we only hear mentioned … pretty much every other NFL draft, and sometimes more than once in a single draft.
That, really, it would have been a good thing to lock him up and let him evolve and grow in Chip Kelly’s system … whatever the heck that may be.
It’s all wishful, wistful thinking by fans, media members, even "experts" based on information provided by others, analysis generated not by their own eyeballs, and a love for their favorite professional football team and their hope that it will succeed, and not trudge along in the black-holed abyss of never-ending mediocrity.
Ironic. That’s exactly what it seems keeping Bradford at the QB spot would do.
For all the debating about his numbers, and what factored negatively here and positively there, and mostly rave reviews about his talent and potential, the fact of the matter is he has shown a propensity for getting injured and picked off, and his skittish play dates all the way back to his days at Oklahoma, even as the Sooners were rolling up victories with him behind center.
Put it this way, those Halloween eyes peering out Bradford’s helmet are nothing new.
Thing is, compiling statistics and how a guy actually performs are not necessarily joined at the hip. You can play awful, toss multiple interceptions and your team still win. You can play phenomenal, toss multiple TDs and your team lose.
Bradford, frankly, doesn’t usually fall into either extreme. He typically fudges his way into the middle, right where he’s nice and comfy. The essence of mediocre.
Yes, he’s recovering from two ACL tears in his left knee. Yes, he missed a season and a half due to rehabbing from surgeries involved with those. Guess what, he also suffered a concussion in college and injured his shoulder twice, the second time requiring season-ending surgery just a few months shy of him being selected No. 1 in the 2010 draft.
That’s all part of who Bradford is, and making excuses for it, to rationalize keeping him as Eagles QB, or raising his value because he has managed to somehow remain healthy, or, gulp, thinking that giving him that kind of aforementioned coin would have been a good idea is as far removed from facing reality as you can get.
What, one 10-for-10 stretch in the preseason sold you on the guy, but Nick Foles’ 27-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2013 was a fluke? Sadly, the coach/GM/ruler of Eagles universe apparently thought the same.
Fortunately, Bradford’s agent refused the offer – thus, saving the rest of us from being guaranteed exactly what we all are looking to avoid: the Eagles mired in mediocrity as far into the future as we can see.
- Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com
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