Eagles are Sam Bradford's team

SAM BRADFORD didn't ask for any sort of reassurance as draft week approached and rumors flew about the Eagles' quest for Marcus Mariota, Bradford said yesterday.

"We didn't really have any discussions like that," Bradford said after participating sparingly in an organized team activity session at NovaCare. "I don't think it's their job to fill me in on what they're thinking upstairs."

This was prefaced by the usual sportspeak from Bradford about not worrying over things he can't control. But then the quarterback let his mask slip just a little, acknowledging that "I've felt pretty confident all along, just in the conversations I've had with Chip [Kelly] from the beginning, since I've been here."

He added: "Fortunately, I'm still here, and I'm excited about the opportunity I have."

The Eagles brought Bradford in from St. Louis in March to be their quarterback. They gave up Nick Foles and a 2016 second-round pick for him. They will pay him $13 million this season. They would have changed their plan had they been able to trade up for Mariota, Kelly's former Oregon QB, but that never seemed likely, and indeed it did not come close to happening.

This is Sam Bradford's team, as strange as it seems to type that, even if Bradford isn't quite ready to run it yet. And even if Mark Sanchez waits in the wings, lamenting what he feels were a few errant throws last season that might have kept him from proving he deserves the job.

Bradford and Kelly said Bradford's recovery from his second left ACL tear in 2 years is on schedule. Kelly would not say when he expects Bradford to be full-go, and said he isn't looking past next week, when Bradford is slated to join seven-on-seven work. Bradford was similarly reluctant yesterday, saying he is "taking it on a day-to-day, week-to-week kind of basis."

Bradford said when he threw to receivers a few weeks ago, then stopped, he didn't suffer a setback; "we just took it back because we had an extra amount of time."

"I'm sure that once I get out there and take some reps in seven-on-seven, things will really start to come together," said Bradford, who said his knee "feels great."

"I would say in the past six to eight weeks, things have really turned the corner and I've made a lot of progress," he said. "As long as we continue to trend in the right direction, I'll be fine."

If Bradford, the NFL's No. 1 overall pick in 2010, should somehow stop trending in the right direction, the Eagles did re-sign Sanchez, who seemed headed elsewhere after leading the team to a 4-4 record over the second half of last season, including a lethal stretch of three straight December losses that killed the Eagles' playoff hopes. Sanchez, who took first-team reps yesterday, set a franchise record with a .641 completion percentage in 2014, but he also mixed in 11 interceptions with his 14 touchdown passes. Sanchez picks were prominent in the Seattle and Washington losses.

Officially, "everybody's in competition, and the best players play," Kelly said yesterday, when asked about his QB pecking order. But then there is the price paid to acquire Bradford, and the $13 million going to Bradford, and the multiyear deal Kelly has indicated the Eagles are pursuing with Bradford. (Bradford claimed no knowledge of or interest in contract talks yesterday.)

Bradford's new teammates certainly seem to view him as their leader.

"What you see is what you should see when you think about a No. 1 [overall] pick," tight end Zach Ertz said. "I played with Andrew [Luck, at Stanford], who also was a No. 1 pick. They're very similar.

"The way Sam flicks the ball is effortless. Everything he does is effortless. We just have to get him healthy. He's attacking each day with the same relentless attitude that we need him to do; I think all of us are excited to see what he does when he gets out here.

"He's smoother out here each and every day, you see the progress going on. At the same time, we're very confident in Mark, if something were to happen to Sam. Mark's a helluva quarterback; we think he performed well last year, and we think going into the second year he's going to be even better."

That last part is Sanchez's theme - his shoulder wasn't 100 percent last spring, it's much stronger now, and he entered that Nov. 2 game in Houston, after Foles went down with a broken collarbone, needing to scrape off a lot of rust, having not played since 2012.

"Physically, so much better, the farther it gets away from surgery. And all the reps I've had, all the rehab I've gone through, it only can get better and better and stronger. This is definitely the best I've ever felt," Sanchez said.

"You've got to kind of scramble and do the best with what you've got" when you're put in the position Sanchez ended up in last season, he said. "I thought I left some opportunities out there for us. I think everybody feels like that . . . 'Man, if I could have just made this one play,' or 'If I could have made that throw,' or one catch, or one better decision, taken a sack instead of trying to throw the ball, we might have been in the playoffs, and then this is a whole different story here."

He said when he signed again with the Eagles - 2 years for $9 million - Kelly "didn't have to say anything special, it was just basically, 'Hey, you're going to compete just like everybody else.' "

Sanchez signed before the Foles-Bradford trade, but "I knew there was going to be competition either way," he said.

Except, Foles would have been coming off a half-season in which his play disappointed, and would have been making $1,522,000. Bradford is Kelly's new toy. It might turn out to be significant that he isn't getting spring reps in the new offense he has to master, but Kelly said he didn't think that would be a problem "the way Sam approaches things."

Bradford, asked about Kelly's offense, said: "I haven't gone out there and gotten to run it. But watching it on tape, I love the tempo and how fast we play. It fits my style in making quick decisions. The run game is a little different; we've been running two-back power. It's a lot of the zone-read stuff, which is new to me, but I see the advantages of it. And it's going to be a lot of fun to get out and actually run it."

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian