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Sanchez far behind Bradford in QB competition

At this point in his career, Mark Sanchez has nearly seen it all. What he hasn't seen enough of this summer - although he won't say it, but you can bet he wants it - is time with the first-team offense.

Eagles quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
Eagles quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)Read more

At this point in his career, Mark Sanchez has nearly seen it all.

What he hasn't seen enough of this summer - although he won't say it, but you can bet he wants it - is time with the first-team offense.

Sam Bradford has taken the majority of first-team repetitions - approximately 90 percent to Sanchez's 10 percent - since the first day of Eagles training camp eight practices ago. At this point, he has seemingly earned it. Bradford has been increasingly accurate.

But Chip Kelly said in the spring that there would be an open competition at quarterback, despite overwhelming reasons to hand Bradford the job from the jump. (The reasons include trading for him and giving up Nick Foles and a second-round pick, a $13 million contract, and, ultimately, talent.)

You've got to think Sanchez believed his coach. Isn't that how any real competitor prepares for a challenge? With optimism? But with Kelly, as it is with any head coach, it's better to follow his actions than his words, and the snap distribution so far suggests a competition that was never really open.

"Listen, I don't worry about the reps," Sanchez said. "Don't count them, make them count. You know what I mean? That's one of those cheesy cliches, but if you stick to it you're doing your job."

On Tuesday, Bradford took 28 first-team reps during seven-on-seven and team drills to Sanchez's three. Sanchez took 24 second-team reps to Tim Tebow's three. And Tebow took 14 third-team reps to Matt Barkley's 10. Third quarterback snaps have been handed out almost evenly over the course of camp.

Asked about the allocation of first-team snaps, Kelly deferred to quarterbacks coach Ryan Day.

"Ryan just rolls those guys," Kelly said. "Again, when you're in there, are you moving the group? Are you completing the ball? Are you putting the ball where it's supposed to be? Are you making good decisions? Are you doing all that?"

But Kelly clearly knows how snaps are being divvied up. He has diminished the importance of the depth chart since he arrived in Philly, and understandably so at this point in camp. There are still four preseason games to play. The red jerseys will be off the quarterbacks and Bradford's knee will finally be tested at game speed.

While it is unlikely Bradford could lose the job during the preseason, it should be noted that Sanchez performed better than Foles last year. Sanchez completed 80.6 percent of his passes and had a 112.5 passer rating in the preseason, while Foles completed 68.8 percent and had a 73.6 rating.

Sanchez didn't make a strong enough argument that he should have started over Foles once he filled in for him in the final eight games of the season, but he did make a case for an open competition. And Kelly brought him back and not Foles.

Sanchez agreed to a two-year, $9 million contract before the Eagles traded quarterbacks with St. Louis. It's likely he would have welcomed a competition with Foles over Bradford. He has been consistent in camp, if not as flashy as Bradford.

"I think he just has a better command," Kelly said of Sanchez this camp compared to last.

But the first-team reps have come sparingly.

"What you would naturally think is, 'OK, I've got to speed everything up or maybe I have to do something a little better with the ones than I do with twos,' " Sanchez said. "But it's really not that way. The most important thing is to keep it simple."

Sanchez said a streamlined approach resulted in better results last season. He went 4-4 as a starter and had 14 turnovers against 14 touchdowns, but his completion rate jumped from 55 percent over his first five years to 64.1 percent.

He had success with the New York Jets, reaching the AFC championship game in 2009 and '10, but Sanchez never benefited from a consistent offensive approach. He loves Kelly's offense. He wants to run it as the starter. But barring a physical setback, the job is Bradford's.

So where does that leave the 28-year-old Sanchez, who may be nearing the expiration date on being considered a viable starter in the NFL?

It leaves him behind a quarterback who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee twice and hasn't played in a regular-season game in 22 months. In other words, Sanchez is likely, considering the odds, to play sometime this season. And he'd better be ready.

He's seen it happen before. What hasn't he seen?

"I've played in every game you can except for the Super Bowl," Sanchez said. "I've won them and lost, thrown touchdowns and interceptions, lost games, won games, you name it. . . . What else are you going to see? Am I going to get booed? Are people going to scream for you, yelling that you're the king of this town? I've seen all that."

Seeing is believing. The door is closing on Sanchez's chances to start - for now.

@Jeff_McLane