I was listening to the former offensive coordinator for two-Super Bowl Championship New York Giants teams Kevin Gilbride on my friend NFL analyst Ross Tucker’s podcast and he was evaluating Sam Bradford and Nick Foles. Gilbride said Bradford was without a doubt the more talented quarterback in comparison with former Eagles signal caller and current St. Louis Rams starter, Nick Foles, but he cautioned you can’t ignore the injury history.
One point Gilbride made jumped out at me in his discussion of the Eagles current quarterback situation. In the two years which Chip Kelly has been coaching the Birds, in each season he has lost his starting quarterback to injury . Now we’re bringing in a guy to take over, who has a serious injury history.
In the first year, it was Michael Vick who went down with an injury and Foles took over and had the amazing season.
In Kelly’s second year, Foles went down and Mark Sanchez took over but didn’t have the success which Foles had enjoyed in the 2013 season. I don’t think Kelly is going to ask Bradford to run with the football, but they did have him running the read options at practice during the OTA’s and the mini-camps.
Bottomline, Gilbride said Kelly’s offense exposes the quarterback to hits. Now the Eagles will match up an injury-prone quarterback like Bradford with a system that leaves its quarterbacks exposed to hits.
To be fair, I don’t think it was Kelly’s offense that got Vick or Foles hurt. Vick always took too many hits regardless of what system he was playing in. Foles got hurt last year, when got hit and pounded into the turf after making a throw.
Still, I hope Chip has a secret way he’s going to keep Bradford healthy.
Looking ahead, I don’t think there will be panic if Bradford does go down because I think Mark Sanchez can lead the Eagles to the playoffs. He’ll play better this season, after a year in the system and two years away from shoulder surgery. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Eagles would bring Vick back here to backup Sanchez, if Bradford were to go down.
