Bradford hoping to emulate Brees’ success
Saints quarterback Drew Brees suffered a careerthreatening injury while part of the San Diego Chargers in 2006. The hallowed veteran is someone Sam Bradford can model himself after.
PHILADELPHIA >> The story has lost some of its luster.
After all, the way the season is going Sam Bradford and Drew Brees may be one or two losses away from becoming irrelevant.
But this week it’s at least worth rewinding to Chip Kelly’s decision to trade for Bradford despite the backto-back ACL surgeries.
The Eagles needed a quarterback, having missed the playoffs and Kelly was given the authority to do what was necessary to get one.
Kelly concluded the only affordable way to get a franchise-type guy was to go with a refurbished model. The search basically stopped at Bradford because Kelly was obsessed with the comeback of Brees, who last week in overtime threw his 400th career touchdown pass to lead the New Orleans Saints to a 26-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
“No one has come back from what he’s come back from,” Kelly said of the torn labrum of Brees. “So you can see the case where people would say, ‘ Don’t take him’ and why that existed. And I’msure you heard (Alabama) Coach (Nick) Saban has even commented on what his career would have been like in Miami if they had taken Drew as opposed to not taking Drew. Then you look at the impact that he had. It’s a specific case, but I think it is the impact he has had, not only in this league, but in terms of what he has done.
“He has won them a Super Bowl. He is a Hall of Fame quarterback.”
Dismissing the Saban stuff, as he’s won three more championships at Alabama than he ever would have with the Dolphins, and you get a pretty good idea that Kelly is not risk averse. Same with Saints head coach Sean Payton, who used a power-point presentation to land the injured Brees.
“Obviously there’s risk all the time when you do that,” Payton said on a conference call Wednesday. “And yet there’s still conviction in knowing exactly what you’re getting when healthy.”
Kelly of course shipped Nick Foles, who led the Eagles to a 14-4 record in Kelly’s reign, and essentially a solid second-round pick to the St. Louis Rams for Bradford.
Foles is 2-2 with the Rams, Bradford 1-3 with the Eagles.
Bradford easily could be 3-1 if the Eagles had a reliable kicker and didn’t lead the NFL in dropped passes. Last week he threw for three TDs (a penalty negated a fourth one) despite being sacked five times.
The good news was Bradford got the ball deep.
“Obviously it’s good to finally put that on tape,” Bradford said. “It’s not something we’ve been trying to shy away from. It just hadn’tpresented itself until last Sunday. But now that it’s out there I think teams have to respect us pushing the ball down the field. Obviously it’s somethingwe’re going to try to do. We did it with some success on Sunday so hopefully that will back some people up and open up the intermediate stuff.”
The Saints, by the way, look vulnerable to the vertical game.
The not-so-good news is Eagles kicker Caleb Sturgis missed a PAT and a short field goal in a threepoint loss.
The Saints, also 1-3, have their kicking issues as well, as ZachHokermissed a 30yard field goal that would have beaten the Cowboys in regulation.
Both teams suffer from third-and-long illness, the result of gagging on first and second down.
At any rate, when Bradford and Brees get together this Sunday at the Linc, it will be like two ships that used to be taking on water, passing in the twilight.
Brees, who says his most recent rotator issue is fine, and Bradford, over a sprained ankle and on his way, perhaps, to reestablishing his brand in a league short on quality passers.
“I think any quarterback is familiar with his story,” Bradford said of Brees. “He’s made a tremendous comeback. I’m not sure outside of himself if anyone believed he would be able to do what he’s done. He’s been truly remarkable.
“I think we’re both quarterbacks coming back from injuries. But other than that I’m not sure there’s a whole lot that links us.”