Sam Bradford didn't play in Sunday's preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts but he could have. By all accounts, Bradford is healthy and ready to see some game action. But Chip Kelly made the decision to hold him out of the Eagles first game yesterday in South Philadelphia.
The risk of another injury surely played into Chip's mindset in some fashion. How much? Only Kelly knows.
But in an Eagles-centric MMQB today, SI's Peter King, talked to Kelly about his new quarterback and the likelihood of Bradford tearing his ACL again:
Kelly said the Eagle doctors told him there’s a 10 to 12 percent chance of Bradford tearing the ACL again. It’s a risk he’s willing to take. “What I’ve seen in Sam is what I thought we were going to get when I traded for him,” Kelly said. “Extremely accurate—he makes really good decisions with the football. He has as good an arm as there is in this league. He’s everything you want in a quarterback and he was before he was injured. He just has to stay healthy.”
I'd like to know what kind of percent chance those same doctors give the average NFL player to tear an ACL, 2%? 5%? How much higher is Bradford's risk than say Mark Sanchez or Nick Foles?
(UPDATE: CSNPhilly.com's Reuben Frank and The Inquirer's Zach Berman did much more on this subject earlier in the summer)
The other interesting nugget in King's story today involves the unique rehab game Bradford took part in to start to feel comfortable moving around on the knee:
NFL
“There’s standard rehab, where you have a sheet of what you have to accomplish every day in terms of exercise and rehab. Bill Knowles’ deal is, ‘Let’s play games.’ One day he said, ‘Let’s play badminton.’ We warmed up playing badminton. And then every day we were out here playing badminton. No net. He would hit it high and make me change directions and run. He throws all these PE games at you. You don’t think about it being rehab until you look and see the positions your body’s been in, and you think, That’s pretty close to the positions and movements you’ve got to make as a quarterback. I’m sure people up in the offices are looking out and wondering, what in the world are they doing playing badminton? But, you know, you spend a year and a half doing the same exercises, and you get so tired of doing the same thing over and over, and [Knowles] came in and said, Let’s change it up—let’s play some games. I mean, I loved it. And that’s when I really felt the rehab took a big jump.”
With the way the Eagles' young receiving corp. performed yesterday, I think Birds fans are looking forward to finally seeing Bradford work with them against an actual opponent.
>>Chip Kelly on perception and truth with Philadelphia Eagles [MMQB]