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Domo: Bradford confident about Eagles' offense

IN HIS FINAL preseason appearance of the summer Saturday night, Sam Bradford completed an impressive 17 of 20 passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns in a little more than two quarters of work against the Indianapolis Colts.

IN HIS FINAL preseason appearance of the summer Saturday night, Sam Bradford completed an impressive 17 of 20 passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns in a little more than two quarters of work against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Eagles quarterback finished the preseason with a 102.6 passer rating and an 80.0 percent completion rate (only eight incompletions in 40 attempts, and four of those were drops), which, along with $4.75, will get him a venti caramel macchiato at the Starbucks down the street from his South Jersey home. He knows that. I know that. You know that.

Well, most of you know that.

"I understand the preseason," Bradford said last week before the game. "I think I have a pretty good perspective on it. I think some people outside the building live and die with it.

"I think last year, after that third preseason game (when he completed 10 of 10 passes and threw for three touchdowns in just three series against Green Bay), everyone thought we were going to the Super Bowl.

"But there's very little game-planning that goes into the preseason. I'm sure Green Bay didn't game-plan to stop us. Last year, they probably hadn't even practiced (against) our offense.

"It was nice to go out and execute the way we did last year in that third preseason game, but I don't really think anyone in the locker room bought into the fact that because we looked great in a preseason game, it was going to be easy during the regular season."

If anybody did buy into it, it didn't take long for them to un-buy. By halftime of their Week 1 game against Atlanta, they were down, 20-3, and well on their way to the first of nine losses.

Which is a long way of saying we really have no earthly idea what we'll see from Bradford and the rest of the Eagles' offense when they open the season at the Linc in 12 days against the Cleveland Browns. But, hey, an 80.0 percent completion rate offers a lot more hope than a 50.0 percent one.

"I'm excited," Bradford said Monday. "As I've said all preseason, I think we've had a really good camp, and I think we've gotten better each week. You can see the progress when you turn on the tape."

A year ago, Bradford still didn't have full confidence in his twice-shredded left knee.

"At this point last year, I was still trying to figure out where my knee was," he said. "I was still kind of battling some things with it."

The battle is over. His knee feels terrific.

"This year, it's a nonissue," he said. "I feel 100 percent. It's something I don't think about. Last year, being able to go through the entire year and not have any issues with it gave me a lot of confidence in it."

While his critics conveniently ignore it, Bradford played very well in the second half of last season once he regained confidence in his knee. He had a 97.4 passer rating over his final seven starts, which was the eighth-best mark in the league over the last nine weeks of the season (he missed two games with a concussion and a shoulder injury).

His 100.7 third-down passer rating in his last seven starts was the league's sixth-best mark. He set single-season franchise records for completions (346) and completion rate (65 percent), despite a league-high 50 drops by his receivers.

In a weird offseason that underscored the dysfunction that has plagued this franchise in recent years, the Eagles first rewarded Bradford with a two-year, $36 million contract that included $22 million in guarantees, then traded away five draft picks to the Browns to get his replacement, Carson Wentz.

There have been suggestions that the Eagles' offensive players will have trouble rallying around a lame-duck quarterback who almost certainly will be traded or released after this season. But that's absurd. Bradford's situation is no different from what it was last season, when he was in the final year of his contract.

"I think the relationships that I've built in this locker room, the trust that I have in those guys, the trust they have in me, I think nothing's really changed, to be honest," Bradford said.

Center Jason Kelce said Bradford's lame-duck status will have zero impact on how the offense plays.

"We have a good locker room of guys," he said. "We're going to stand behind whoever is the starting quarterback. That's our job first and foremost.

"We've all played with Sam and think he's a helluva player and know the type of quarterback he is."

The Eagles slipped in almost every significant offensive category last season. Dropped from fifth to 12th in total offense, from third to 13th in scoring, from 15th to 21st in yards per carry, from ninth to 15th in third-down percentage.

On top of that, they had a defense that gave up a franchise-record 36 touchdown passes. And they somehow still managed to win seven games.

When the Eagles last made it to the playoffs in 2013, they ran the ball 47.4 percent of the time. That dropped to 42.0 in 2014 and 40.1 last year.

"I think we're going to be more balanced this year," Bradford said. "I think we're going to have a good mix of the run and the pass. I think we're going to be more efficient hopefully on third down and in the red zone than we were earlier last year.

"I think if we can be good in those areas, I think we'll be a really good offense."

@Pdomo Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog