Why did Chip Kelly trade Nick Foles for a deer in headlights?
Sam Bradford may have been the MVP of the preseason, but so far he’s looking like the first checkmark on what’s become a long list of mistakes during Chip Kelly’s brief tenure at GM.
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Sam Bradford may have been the MVP of the preseason, but so far he's looking like the first checkmark on what's could be a long list of mistakes during Chip Kelly's brief tenure at GM.
I know, the last thing Eagles fans want to hear is how badly their quarterback played during a win. But Bradford's play through the first three games leaves me wondering why Kelly was so keen to give up relatively successful Nick Foles (who may not be Tom Brady, but Chip and the Eagles went 14-4 in games he started) and a second-round pick for the overpaid Bradford, currently the team's highest paid player.
My theory still is he was trying to leverage Bradford to somehow acquire former Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota. Here's the cartoon I drew about that back in May:
It's still my prevailing opinion. Otherwise, why acquire a quarterback whose NFL career highlight film would be limited to multiple injures, inaccurate passes and an inability to throw the deep ball.
Don't believe me? Over the course of his career, Bradford averages a measly 6.3 yards per pass attempt, placing him dead last among active quarterbacks with at least 1,500 pass attempts, behind such notables as Matt Cassel, Chad Henne and Rex Grossman. By comparison, Nick Foles would be tied for 6th on that list with 7.6 yards per attempt, if he had enough pass attempts.
I pulled my hair out when announcers and writers widely celebrated his amazing accuracy, based largely on one successful preseason quarter. A quick look at Bradford's stats show his career completion percentage under 59 percent, which lands him 24th on a list of active quarterbacks (ironically, he has the same career completion percentage as Donovan McNabb, someone lambasted in the city for killing earthworms with his inaccuracy).
Nick Foles completion percentage of 61.4 percent would land him 14th on that same list, just edging out Joe Flacco. Even newly-signed journeyman Thad Lewis has a better career completion percentage (60.8 percent) than Bradford, albeit with a much smaller sample size.
For those of you that'd like to see Sanchez start, he's even less accurate over the course of his career than Bradford (56.3 completion percentage), though he does edge him out in yards per attempt (6.7).
His performance in Sunday's 24-17 win over the Jets didn't do much to silence critics of his performance at quarterback. Yes, Bradford avoided costly mistakes and had two potential touchdowns dropped, but he ended the day an uninspiring 14-for-28 for just 118 yards and one touchdown.
Considering the main knocks against him are his lack of accuracy (subpar 50 percent completion percentage today) and an inability to throw down the field (he average just 4.2 yards a pass), don't expect questions about what Chip Kelly saw in him to quell much over the next week.
Columnist Bob Ford, in a terrific column Sunday about the problems the Eagles face with Bradford at the helm, goes into detail on the quarterback's struggles with the deep ball:
Bradford has completed 59 passes in the [first] two games, but only five went for 20 yards or more. (Even that is deceiving, since more than half the yardage gained on those five receptions came after the catches.) He has consistently checked down to safer outlets during his progressions and completed 23 of 27 passes to running backs DeMarco Murray, Darren Sproles, and Ryan Matthews. He's 36 of 62 to everyone else.
Ford notes that Bradford's conservative play has led to yet another problem he brought from St. Louis to Philadelphia - falling behind early:
In his 51 career starts, including the [first] two this season, Bradford's team has led at halftime just 19 times. In the other 32 games, he fashioned a second-half comeback for a win just six times. Those aren't inspirational numbers, either, and are part of what led the Rams to move on.
So Eagles fans can hope that Bradford emerges from a career funk and regain the brief glimpse of an elite quarterback he showed us in the preseason. Unfortunately, the numbers are the numbers, and a more seasoned GM might have consulted them first before authorizing the trade.
I believe Howie Roseman calls that "due diligence."