Owner Jeffrey Lurie (left) and right-hand man Howie Roseman are leading the Eagles' move into the future ... again.
BY THE NUMBERS Pre-Bye | Post-Bye STARTS 7 | 7 WINS 3 | 4 PASSING YARDS 1,766 | 1,959 PASSING YPA 6.45 | 7.59 COMPLETION % 62.0 | 68.2 TD-to-INT 9-10 | 10-4 WHERE HE RANKED IN NFLPASSING YPG 12th 266 1-Ben Roethlisberger, 328 PASSING YPA 25th 7.0 1-Carson Palmer, 8.7 COMPLETION % 11th 65.0 1-Kirk Cousins, 69.8 TDs 22nd 19 1-Tom Brady, 36 PASSER RATING 26th 86.4 1-Russell Wilson, 110.1 | The head drops forward, and shakes slowly from side to side. Disgust. Disappointment. Dismay. All tend to materialize a little too often with yours truly when it comes to Philly sports. Not so much with what goes on with them, but how they’re viewed by the people who support them, who sustain them, who even survey them. Not for nothing, but we live in one effed up community that seems to rationalize negatives into positives and downplay positives as a means to prepare for the potential negatives. All the while letting emotion, the whole bone of this bizarre control-freak contention, run rampant anyway. Change is the one constant. The fear of it, and the call for it. It’s weird, people. Just freakin’ weird. What hits hardest today is the reality hitting home once again that the people in charge of organizations that cause so much commotion in the area are as guilty as anyone else of not stepping back and seeing the big picture. For seven years, we witnessed Ruben Amaro run the Phillies as a fan would, developing man-crushes on certain players, and unwarranted disdain for others, that dictated decisions he made that completely derailed a championship-caliber team … in rather swift fashion. Now, being honest, we’re seeing much the same with the Eagles. Or we're just finally noticing what has been going on for awhile. Put it this way, if the name “Sam Bradford” is mentioned in the same sentence as the moniker “franchise quarterback” at any point owner Jeffrey Lurie or right-hand man Howie Roseman speaks, without the word “NOT” prefacing it, a muzzle and straight jacket should be the first order of business before either slaps a long-term contract in front of the young man, or a short-term tag. Either will come with a hefty price, and collateral damage throughout the locker room. Yeah, OK, fans getting lost in hope is one thing. But those who run the show, who need to have a business acumen coupled with expert eyes to determine reality from pie-in-the-sky BS, getting caught up in that is another matter altogether. A friend compiled the perfect description of Bradford, as he exactly is, and was for the 2015 Eagles and could be down the road: He didn’t have another knee injury and exceeded my expectations, but that's only because my expectations were very low. I agree that he’s not a franchise QB ... at best he’s a passable stop gap until the Eagles can draft and develop a franchise QB. That is spot on about Bradford. He’s not Tom Brady. He’s not Drew Brees. He’s not Aaron Rodgers. Heck, he’s not even Kirk Cousins. He is as mediocre as mediocre gets. A testament to being consistently inconsistent, with a talent to tease just enough to get people into thinking there is more in the offing when, really, there isn’t. Thing is, coaches and pro personnel guys should not be fooled by such stuff. Yes, Bradford’s numbers were fine this season. He set a franchise record for completion percentage at 65 percent. Nick Foles, whom he replaced, also set a franchise record for TD-to-INT ratio just two years ago, so take those facts and place whatever misguided value or non-value you want on them, however you want the narrative to play out. Just stay away from Lurie and Roseman when preaching it because they might be inclined to do the same rationalizing you are. Bradford isn’t an awful quarterback. He’s just … infinitely run of the mill. There is nothing special to his game or his skill set. He brings no special tangible or intangible quality to the table that, says, yep, we got a title run coming because this guy can carry us there. Philly had that with Donovan McNabb wearing the midnight green, and, frankly, didn’t appreciate it. For a solid decade. Now, after one season in which Bradford went 7-7 and averaged an INT per start, we’re talking “franchise quarterback?” Yikes. Desperation, thy name is beholden to the Birds’ hope chest ... and don’t even get me started on the team’s coaching search. - Jack Kerwin | ydkjack1@gmail.com |
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