Eagles' Chip Kelly sticking with Bradford - for now

Chip Kelly inherited an uncomfortable quarterback situation the day he reconsidered owner Jeffrey Lurie's offer to become the 21st head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. One-hundred-and-forty weeks later, the coach could be on the precipice of that same precarious position.

Only the names have changed.

Sure, Kelly is expressing confidence in Sam Bradford as his 0-2 team prepares for a must-win road game Sunday against a New York Jets defense that has allowed the fewest points (17) and forced the most turnovers (10) through the first two weeks of the season. Two games are too few to pull the plug on a guy you spent the offseason pumping up more than Hans and Franz.

So, for now, Kelly will pump some more. The process started with five words the day after the Eagles' debilitating loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

"Yeah," the coach said, "I'm confident in Sam."

It continued Wednesday when Kelly was asked more probing questions about the play of his quarterback. In each case, he defended Bradford.

"I think Sam's really grounded," Kelly said. "I think the one thing about him is he's really consistent. His approach and his attitude here every day, he's not a guy who gets really, really high, but he's not a guy that gets really, really low. I think there's a lot to that, especially in this game because you're going to have successes and then you're going to have failures.

"You could have them within a drive, you could have them within in a game, [and] you certainly have them within a season."

Failure has far outweighed success through Bradford's first two games. Thanks to his NFC-high four interceptions, his passer rating of 72.3 is the fourth worst in the NFL. But Kelly is even willing to dismiss the interceptions as being more about dropped balls and a great defensive play by Dallas linebacker Sean Lee.

"We look at every interception individually, so I know two of them were on tips that went through our hands and that's not the quarterback's fault," Kelly said. "I know the one on Sean Lee, Sean had his back turned when (Bradford) released the football and . . . it was a heck of a play . . . when you really look at it."

The defense of his quarterback extended north earlier in the day when New York-area reporters wanted to know during a conference call if Kelly had considered replacing Bradford with Mark Sanchez, the former Jets quarterback who went 4-4 as the Eagles starter last season.

"Nope," Kelly said.

The predictable follow-up question: Why not?

"Excuse me," Kelly said. "Because Bradford is our starting quarterback."

Not satisfied, the questioner asked if there was any chance that Sanchez would play.

"Are you Mark's agent?" Kelly asked.

It's funny now and, as stated before, it's way too soon to bail on the quarterback who was the centerpiece of your offseason makeover. On the other hand, this seems like a great time and place to paraphrase the Yogi Berra: It could get late early this season if Bradford cannot get the offense going against a defense that just dismantled Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts.

For his part, Bradford admitted he threw too many errant passes against the Cowboys but maintained that both his and the team's confidence remained high. Like his coach, the quarterback believes a better running game would go a long way toward solving the problems that have left the Eagles with the league's 25th-ranked offense.

"We've got to try to get the run game going," Bradford said. "They have a tough defense and it's going to be tough to run, but if we can stay balanced I think that gives us our best shot."

Bradford said that before the Eagles announced that running back DeMarco Murray was limited in practice Wednesday by a sore hamstring. Another hindrance to the run game has been the fact that Bradford induces no fear of being a running threat in Kelly's zone-read offense.

If Bradford is not careful, he could soon be tagged with the nickname Shorty because almost every pass he throws is described on the play-by-play sheet as being short right, short left or short middle.

"When the defense gives us opportunities to push the ball down field, we want to," Bradford said. "I just feel like we haven't had a lot of those opportunities. I think going into Atlanta that was their game plan all along . . . and then last week when we couldn't get the run game going we saw a lot more two high (safeties)."

What we did not see were many completions down the field. The Eagles have had just two passing plays of 25 yards or more, which is tied for 30th in the league.

It is clear that the entire offense -- not just the quarterback -- needs to be better. Not so clear is how long the offensive struggles can continue before Kelly takes those questions about Sanchez more seriously.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob