He’s near the bottom in everything. Unless he's at the bottom.
• 23rd of 33 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage at 62 percent.
• 30th in passer rating at 76.4.
• 28th in interception ratio with 3.7 INTs every 100 attempts.
• 31st in yards per pass attempt at 6.45.
• Tied for 20th with nine touchdown passes.
It’s not all Sam Bradford’s fault. He’s been victimized by the most dropped passes (25) of any NFL quarterback, according to Pro Football Focus. His offensive line has been shaky. The running game has been inconsistent.
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But these first seven games of Bradford’s Eagles career have not been what he was hoping for.
Not what anybody was hoping for.
“There’s been some really good stuff and then there’s been some times I need to be more consistent,” Bradford said.
“I’m part of the mistakes that have been made, and I’ve got to work to correct the mistakes that I’ve made.”
Namely interceptions. Bradford has thrown two or more interceptions in four of seven games, and only twice — at the Jets and Redskins — has he not thrown any.
Bradford is the only NFL starting quarterback that has not had a single game where he’s completed at least 55 percent of his passes and not thrown an interception.
“My confidence? It’s fine, it’s good,” Bradford said after practice Wednesday.
“I don’t think you can let things rattle you. At this position, I think you’ve got to be pretty even keel. That’s how I think I’ve been most of my career and that’s how I am today. I believe in myself, I believe in this system, and I believe in the guys out there with me.”
Bradford is near the bottom in just about every major statistical category, and so is the offense he’s been operating the last two months — 27th in yards per play, 30th in yards per completion, 29th in third-down conversions, 30th in passing yards per play.
The Eagles, 3-4 and scuffling on offense after being a top-five offense in each of Chip Kelly’s first two seasons, face the Cowboys at 8:30 p.m. Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“When you look at the way we played over the first seven games, there’ve been a lot of good things we’ve done,” Bradford said.
“I think we’ve shot ourselves in the foot too many times. We’ve just got to find a way to eliminate the self-inflicted wounds. When we do that, we’re a pretty good offense. But when we continue to make the mistakes that we’ve made since Week 1, we’ve put ourselves in bad situations, and it’s hard to overcome those mistakes and we’ve got to be better at eliminating those.
“When everyone’s out there doing the right thing, we look pretty good. But, unfortunately, if you have one or two guys not doing the right thing on a play, it’s often hard to have a positive play.”
The infuriating thing is that there’ve been some stretches where the offense has really clicked.
The Eagles scored 21 points in the second half of the opener vs. the Falcons. They had 21 in the second quarter vs. the Jets. They scored 20 in the second half in Washington and 29 in the second half against the Saints.
But when they’re not having a big half, they’re not doing anything.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of an offense where it seems to be (so) all or nothing,” Bradford said. “When things are clicking, it seems to me that we’re out there and we’re rolling, but when things aren’t going well, I mean, it looks bad, and it is bad.
“And somehow, we’ve got to figure out a way to eliminate the self-inflicted wounds ... and play like we know we can. Because when we get it rolling and do the things that we’re capable of, we are a good offense.”
Some more ugly numbers:
• Bradford’s 51.8 passer rating on third down is second-worst among starting quarterbacks, ahead of only Matt Stafford.
• Bradford’s 61.1 first-quarter passer rating is sixth-worst in the league.
• Bradford has the worst red zone passer rating among starting quarterbacks at 45.5. He has three interceptions and no touchdowns in the red zone.
Among starting quarterbacks, only Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck have a lower passer rating than Bradford.
“I’m not really sure what that means,” he said. “But I think all three of us probably want to get our names off that list.”
Despite all of this, the Eagles are a half-game behind the Giants in the NFC East with a head-to-head win over the Giants already in their pocket.
Their next four opponents are a combined 9-20. Only two of their final nine opponents — the Patriots (7-0) and Cardinals (6-2) — have a winning record.
As bad as the offense has been, over the last five weeks, the Eagles are actually the NFL’s seventh-highest-scoring team and eighth-best scoring defense.
“What else could you want?” Bradford said. “I don’t think we’ve played our best football yet, and we’re still right in the hunt through seven weeks.
“Obviously, it could be a lot worse. But we feel very fortunate. We know we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We’re going to have to play better football and play up to the level that we expect ourselves to play.
“But with that being said, we’re right in the thick of things.”