August 27, 2015
Last Saturday, following his team's 40-17 win over the Ravens, head coach Chip Kelly said it was too early to say whether or not quarterback Sam Bradford, who made his Eagles debut against Baltimore, would play in their third preseason game.
His reasoning? A lot can happen in a week.
"He could get sick and have Legionnaire's disease and not play next Saturday," Kelly said of his quarterback's status. "I don’t know. He could play. I don't know."
Now, the Eagles' next game is just two days away, and Kelly still hasn't made up his mind on how much Bradford will play, if at all, in Green Bay on Saturday night.
"We, like every week, will not finally-- we'll have a meeting this afternoon to talk about everybody, ones, twos and threes and what our rotation will be and then finalize it after tomorrow's training session," Kelly said when asked how many snaps he expects Bradford to play. "So we have not met and talked about that, no."
Remember, he said the same thing last Thursday when he met with the media, and Bradford ultimately played a series, going three-for-five for 35 yards on the touchdown drive.
After avoiding any specifics on how much his starter could play, Kelly was pressed again on the topic -- and again later -- and wouldn't even confirm if Bradford would suit up.
"One more time," Chip said, entering full-on sarcasm mode. "Every week, we wait until after today, then we talk about what we're going to do rotation-wise. Then we go through tomorrow's training session and we finalize it and we go from there."
After practice, Bradford confirmed that he had no idea how much he would play against the Packers but said he is hoping to see as many snaps as possible, at least enough to start developing a rhythm, adding that it's "hard to put a number" on his ideal snap count.
"The biggest thing would be to get in a rhythm," Bradford said when asked if it would be beneficial to play more than one series. "Last week, playing one drive was great. But it's nice to go on the field multiple times, establish that rhythm, come over [to the sideline], work on communication with the receivers, talk about what we're seeing on the field. When it comes to the preseason, that's what we're trying to work on."
Kelly went on to say that it's not about being cautious, as Bradford has reached the point where the team is "beyond being cautious physically" with the former Heisman winner's twice surgically repaired left ACL.
But less than a minute later, he was asked what variables he and the coaches would be discussing in their upcoming meeting -- it was a hell of a job rewording the question by Geoff Mosher -- and the third-year coach pointed to, of all things, the weather forecast in Green Bay.
"Weather could be a factor," Kelly said. "There's rain coming in Green Bay. It's 54 degrees currently, right now, in Green Bay. I was just monitoring the weather earlier. So a lot of different factors, but start with the weather."
The group of Eagles writers down at NovaCare seemed pretty divided over whether or not Kelly was being serious, but he was spot on with his forecast -- it's in the mid-50s currently in Green Bay and there is a chance of rain for kickoff.
However, the only reason weather, specifically rain, would impact Bradford's playing time would be if the team was worried about him suffering another injury while playing on a wet field. But that would be in contrast to the coach's previous statement about the team no longer being worried about him physically.
But Kelly wasn't done with his sarcasm. Here's his answer when asked what he wants to see out of Bradford, whether he plays or not, between now and the regular season opener on September 14.
"Well if he doesn't play, you know, I'd just like to see him. Because [if not] that would mean he wouldn't be in the building."
After the snark, however, Kelly did give a much more reasonable and serious answer about his QB's progression.
"Daily progress," Kelly continued. "And we've seen that on the practice field. I think he's better today than he was when we started on August 1, and I think he's continuing to get comfortable in what we're doing. And I see him not making the same mistakes.
"I think he's a really coachable guy and he's got a great understanding of the game of football. He's played in a couple different systems, so I think that benefits him and look at that as a positive. But we continue to see continual growth with him, which is important."
It would just be nice to see some growth from preseason game to preseason game. Hopefully, that chance will come Saturday night in Green Bay. And you should be expecting Bradford to play, although just how many snaps he gets remains to be seen.
The weather can change so quickly.
Follow Matt on Twitter: @matt_mullin
