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Eagles' Sam Bradford a leading force

Although quiet, the quarterback has the respect of his teammates.

Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford.
Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford.Read more(CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer)

EVER SINCE his unexpected arrival in Philadelphia in March, Sam Bradford has been viewed by many Eagles fans as just a guy passing through town.

Initially, they thought he was simply going to be a way to get to Marcus Mariota.

Then they figured it would be only a matter of time before his twice-repaired left ACL snapped again.

Now? Now they wonder if he's just a $13 million rent-an-arm who will be taking a powder after the season. Judging by the pith-poor job they have done of marketing their soon-to-be 28-year-old quarterback, it would seem the Eagles have been wondering that themselves.

Maybe he will leave after the season and maybe he won't. That's a discussion for another day. What became obvious last Sunday at the Linc was that while the people in the stands still may not have totally bought in to Bradford, the people in the locker room definitely have.

It started before the game when he gathered the offense around him in the shower area of the locker room and gave them a just-do-your-job pep talk.

It continued on the field when they didn't flinch after he threw two red-zone interceptions in the first half, then completed 13 of 15 passes in the second half as the Eagles scored on their final seven possessions in a 22-point win over the Saints.

"It really wasn't that big of a deal," Bradford said of his brief pregame speech. "It was just something I felt the time was right (to say). Something needed to be said. Hopefully, it got the guys fired up."

The fact that Bradford felt confident enough to make that little pregame speech, and the fact that his teammates listened and took it to heart tells you a little something, maybe a lot something, about this developing relationship between the quarterback and his new teammates.

"For anybody coming in new to an organization or a team, there's got to be - you've got to establish yourself a little bit before you can start to say, 'Hey (listen up)," coach Chip Kelly said. "Because I mean, anybody would be like, 'Why is this guy telling me something to do? He just go here.'

"I think Sam has handled it really well. He was a little bit more quiet in April and May because he wasn't really full-go in terms of what we were doing. But I think as he has gotten more snaps, as he came back to preseason camp and we started rolling here in August, you could start to see him assert himself a little bit more. So I think it's a process."

We used to have a quarterback in this town - Donovan McNabb - who forever was calling himself a leader, but really wasn't. He was a terrific quarterback, but he wasn't a leader.

Bradford is a leader. Not necessarily a vocal one despite last week's pregame pep talk. But he is a guy teammates listen to and follow and respect. They did at Oklahoma. They did at his first NFL home in St. Louis. And they are doing it now at One NovaCare Way.

"Sometimes people question my leadership just because I'm quiet," Bradford said. "But they don't see what I do behind the scenes, or the relationships I've built with those guys. I'm very comfortable stepping up and saying something when I feel like it needs to be said.

"I like to lead by example. Just come in, work hard. I think once the guys see that you've bought into the system and are willing to put in the work, they're going to follow you.

"But if you just come in here and it's all lip service and you start barking out orders the first week and they haven't seen you do anything, I think they're a lot less likely to respond to that."

Bradford might be an Eagle for the rest of his career or he might only be one for the next 11 weeks. There's no way to tell right now.

The fact that he is in the final year of his contract might matter to the people in the stands, but it means nothing to his teammates.

Rosters turn over every year. Bradford isn't the only player who can become a free agent after the season. So can cornerback Nolan Carroll. So can safety Walter Thurmond. So can defensive end Cedric Thornton. So can several others.

Careers are fragile, uncertain. You play for now.

"You don't think about that stuff," tight end Brent Celek said. "In the NFL, you focus on that day. That day. And you wake up the next day, you do the same thing."

Said quarterback Mark Sanchez: "It's year-to-year in this league. Nobody's thinking beyond that."

Sanchez was in Bradford's shoes last year. The New Guy. Signed a one-year deal with the Eagles after the Jets, who took him with the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft, opted not to re-sign him.

When Nick Foles fractured his collarbone in the eighth game of the season, Sanchez went from backup to starter. He led. His teammates followed. If not for a few too many turnovers, he might've taken them to the playoffs.

"As a rookie, you have to earn the respect and trust of the other players," Sanchez said. "But after you've been somewhere (and had some success), I came in here after winning a bunch of games (with the Jets) those first two years.

"When I came here, they had kind of seen where I had been and how I played and the kind of player I could be. Guys respect that. Especially when you're coming in with five years under your belt."

Breaking down DeMarco

DeMarco Murray has rushed for just 130 yards and is averaging a puny 2.7 yards per carry in the Eagles' first five games. Both of those numbers are considerably smaller than the ones the eventual NFL rushing champ put up a year ago with the Cowboys after five games - 670 yards and 5.15 yards per carry.

Two of the more popular theories for his early-season struggles, besides the fact that, until the Saints game, his offensive line really hadn't blocked worth a damn, have been: 1) he is a "volume runner" who needs a lot of carries to reach peak performance; and 2) he is a more effective runner when the quarterback lines up under center and he can get a running start before he hits the line of scrimmage.

Let's take the second one first. Murray has admitted that he prefers it when the quarterback lines up under center rather than in shotgun. LeSean McCoy used to say the same thing. But that didn't prevent McCoy from rushing for nearly 3,000 yards in 2013-14 and winning a league rushing title.

The truth is, there has been no noticeable difference in Murray's rushing numbers when the quarterback lines up under center as opposed to a shotgun formation.

Murray has carried the ball 49 times this season. Thirteen of them have been with Sam Bradford under center. He has gained 16 yards on those 13 carries, or 1.2 yards per carry.

His other 36 carries have been out of shotgun. He rushed for 114 yards on those, or 3.2 yards per carry.

That's obviously a very small - and insufficient - sample. But if you look at Murray's entire career, you'll find pretty much the same thing. He has averaged 4.77 yards per carry when the quarterback has been under center (832-3,968) and 4.56 in shotgun (151-66).

"I think he's as effective in the shotgun as he is under center," Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. "I think players may like something more than another, but that doesn't mean that they are not good at the thing that they may not (prefer). Some guys that dunk the ball well are still good shooting three-pointers. So I think that's the case."

As for the "volume runner" theory, the numbers don't really support that either. During his career, Murray has averaged 4.77 yards per carry (544-2,593) on his first through 10th rushing attempts in games. On carries 11 through 20, his average is 4.55 (388-1,765).

It does jump to 5.09 yards per carry on rushing attempts after No. 20 (102-519). But that's likely to be the case with most running backs, because if you're carrying the ball more than 20 times in a game, you're probably on a pretty good roll.

From the lip

** "I don't like Matt Stafford that much. He's from Dallas, and Dallas, (that's where) they killed the president. It's where JFK, one of the great presidents, died. So I just have a little hatred towards him." - Seahawks DE Michael Bennett, on Lions QB Matthew Stafford

** "Let's be fair. We signed him to a six-year contract and we're four games into that contract. (But) he hasn't played as well as we hoped and we haven't played as well as we hoped. I think we have to give (his signing) a grade of incomplete." - Dolphins vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum, on DT Ndamukong Suh, who signed a six-year, $114.4M contract with the team in March

** "I don't want to say something I shouldn't say. I've got my feelings, (but) I'm going to keep them to myself and go from there. I'm going to handle it the right way. I'm not going to make excuses. I'm not going to throw a pity party for myself. I'm a pro." - Cowboys QB Brandon Weedon, after being benched in favor of Matt Cassel

By the numbers

** Peyton Manning is 6-0 against the Browns, but has not played particularly well in those six starts. His 80.9 passer rating vs. them is his lowest against any team in the league. They also are the only team in which he's thrown more interceptions (7) than touchdowns (5).

** Josh McCown set a Browns franchise record last week with 457 passing yards against the Ravens. He also became the first QB in Browns' history to notch three straight 300-yard passing games.

** The Cardinals have outscored three of their first five opponents by at least 25 points. In their previous 20 seasons in Arizona spanning 320 games, the Cardinals had just four 25-plus point wins.

** Nine NFL QBs have a passer rating of 100 or better. That's the most ever through the first five weeks of a season.

** Since 2008, the Patriots have not turned the ball over in 46 of 116 regular-season games. They are 42-4 in those games.

This and that

** If you're looking for a terrific football book to read, I heartily recommend you pick up Gary Myers' "Brady vs. Manning: The Untold Story of the Rivalry That Transformed the NFL." Myers is the longtime pro football columnist for the New York Daily News. Nobody tells a football story better. OK, maybe I do. But pick it up. You won't be sorry.

** A guy the Eagles are going to have to be very aware of Monday night is Giants running back Shane Vereen. Vereen, the ex-Patriot, has 20 receptions and is averaging 10.4 yards per catch. He had three big catches for 51 yards on the Giants' game-winning, 82-yard drive against the 49ers last week, including a 24-yard catch and run on a third-and-10 play. Without Kiko Alonso and probably Mychal Kendricks, it will fall largely to rookie linebacker Jordan Hicks to keep him in check. "(The San Francisco game) was a great example of some of the things that he can do in certain situations when the defense may in fact think they've got you in a position where they have the upper hand," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said this week. "Someone like Shane can determine that might not necessarily be so. Have we ever had a player like this, to be able to utilize his talents? Probably not to this degree."

** Sam Bradford hasn't missed a day of practice or had any setbacks since returning to the practice field last spring after tearing his left ACL for the second time. The Eagles took a conservative approach with him in the spring, keeping him out of 11-on-11 work until the final minicamp. It frustrated Bradford at the time. But now he thinks it's the reason his recovery has gone so smoothly. "Our plan in the spring has been a big reason why I've been able to take part in every practice and why my knee has responded so well," Bradford said.

** The Eagles have had trouble getting off the field on third down the last two games. They allowed the Redskins and Saints to convert 17 of 33 third-down opportunities, including 12 of 23 third downs of five yards or more. "We need to make a play on the ball," linebacker DeMeco Ryans said. "I feel like we've been there in a lot of those situations. We just have make a play on the ball."

Figuring the Eagles

** Bradford has been considerably more proficient in the second half of games this season than in the first half, prompting Chip Kelly to jokingly suggest the other day that maybe the Eagles should start playing doubleheaders.

Bradford has a 102.1 second-half passer rating compared to 65.6 in the first half. He has completed 70.2 percent of his passes in the second half, including 13 of 15 against the Saints last week, and 21 of 25 in the Eagles' Week 1 loss to the Falcons. If you look at his year-by-year passing splits, Bradford generally has played better in the second half of games, with the exception of his rookie season.

A breakdown of Bradford's career passing numbers by half:

** The Eagles have run 320 offensive plays in the first five games. Just 35 of them have been with Bradford under center (not including three kneel-downs). They've run the ball on 34 of those 35 plays. The one exception was a Bradford incompletion to Nelson Agholor in the Eagles' Week 2 loss to Dallas. A breakdown of the Eagles' offensive plays and how they have run the ball in shotgun as opposed to with Bradford under center:

** Opposing defenses aren't blitzing Eli Manning much this season. In the Giants' first five games, he's been blitzed just 40 times on 201 pass plays, or 19.9 percent of the time, according to Pro Football Focus. The main reason: he has the fifth fastest snap-to-release time in the league (2.21 seconds). The only QBs who are getting it out faster: the Patriots' Tom Brady (2.06), the Chargers' Philip Rivers ((2.11), the Broncos' Peyton Manning (2.17) and the Bengals' Andy Dalton (2.20). A game-by-game look at Manning's passing numbers against the blitz:

** The Eagles have the league's lowest first-down percentage on third-down pass attempts. Bradford has thrown for just nine first downs on 47 third-down pass plays (19.1%). The Dolphins are the next worst at 23.4% (11-47). The best? Amazingly, Kirk Cousins and the Redskins (46.8%), who have thrown for 29 first downs on 62 third-down pass plays.

Blog: eagletarian.com