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Sam Bradford Finally Has Weapons Around Him

By Anthony DiBona

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Although months have passed since Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly made a controversial move of trading for quarterback Sam Bradford, many are still questioning the trade. Besides the obvious injury concerns with Bradford, there are some that question whether or not he can actually get the job done on the field.

While many point to Bradford’s underwhelming statistics and record while he was with the St. Louis Rams, they forget one major fact. Bradford had little to no help while he was in the Gateway City. With Kelly calling the plays in Philadelphia in addition to all of the offensive fire power the Eagles have on their roster, Bradford should have a career year in 2015, assuming he can stay healthy. If he can avoid injury, Bradford will be surrounded by the most talent he’s ever been around in his entire career in the NFL, and it’s not even close.

Whether it’s the offensive line, wide receivers, running backs or tight ends…anyway you look at it, the Eagles are stacked with talent. Although their pass catchers are young, they have plenty of potential and wide receiver Jordan Matthews already looks like an emerging star. Bradford isn’t used to having a team draft successful pass catchers to put around him. During his tenure in St. Louis, the Rams drafted several wide receivers and tight ends yet none of them have ever been that successful.

Here’s a look at the “help” Bradford received via the NFL Draft while he was in St. Louis:

As you can tell, Bradford never really had any weapons added to the team through the draft. So being surrounded with young talent such as Matthews, Josh Huff, Nelson Agholor and Zach Ertz will be somewhat of a surprise to him. The “talent” that St. Louis drafted to surround Bradford was so underwhelming that veteran wide receiver Miles Austin actually had more receptions in 2014 than all of them have had in their “best” statistical season so far with the Rams. Austin had 47 receptions in 2014 with the Cleveland Browns in just 12 games at 30-years old. THIRTY!

Let’s not forget that as a rookie in 2014, Matthews posted a stat-line better than all of the players above in each of the three categories, finishing the season with 67 receptions for 872 yards and 8 touchdowns. There’s a good chance that Agholor post close to or even better numbers as a rookie in Kelly’s system as well. Although Huff had a disappointing rookie season that got off to a rough start due to an injury, he should be ready to make a bigger impact in 2015.

All of these young pass catchers combined with the stable of running backs and old but elite offensive line that the Eagles have and Bradford should be overwhelmed by the talent he is surrounded with. It’s all just a matter of him staying healthy enough to actually be on the field to put it all to good use. Speaking of the stable of running backs the Eagles have, Dave Mangels of Bleeding Green Nation tweeted out this interesting note yesterday:

That just goes to show how much Bradford truly had during his time in St. Louis. A running back’s single season total of receptions, which isn’t even that impressive, was only bested twice while Bradford played quarterback for the Rams. That’s just embarrassing and almost makes me feel bad for him.

While it’s still scary to think about the possibility of Bradford suffering another season ending injury. It’s equally as scary to think about the possibilities of him operating Kelly’s uptempo spread offense with all of these offensive weapons in his arsenal. If he’s healthy and able to stand on his own to feet, watch out NFL, because Bradford finally has some legitimate talent around him and Kelly and the Eagles know just how to use it.

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