Just because Eagles head coach Doug Pederson has called Sam Bradford "his guy" doesn't mean there is no competition.
Offensive coordinator Frank Reich sees plenty of room for one actually.
Reich was a guest on 94 WIP on Wednesday morning and said that he wouldn't necessary say Bradford is the starter at the moment, saying that putting stock in the order set by Pederson is "probably not the right impression."
"One of the things I've really come to appreciate is it's not a contradiction to say you've got to have order. Because if you don't have order, it's chaos. So if you're the head coach, you've got to come in and you've got to establish order. There has to be organization, there has to be order.
"But the other thing is — as coaches — that you've got to establish is a culture of competition. This is one of the most competitive industries in the world and so, to say that there's not competition, that's just the furthest thing from the truth."
That's a very different sentiment from what Pederson was saying last week. On Tuesday, the Eagles saw some solid performance from Bradford, but it was Carson Wentz that really stood out. At the very least, it doesn't seem like Wentz is the third-ranked quarterback on the team by performance and it certainly has the looks that he could rival Bradford for the starting job in a true open competition.
It may not be an open competition, but as Bradford has indicated, this is a time to get better and prove why the job should belong to him, just as Wentz is trying to prove that he doesn't need a year of study before starting.
Reich understands why an order must be there, but competition is a necessary part as well.
"I don't see the problem with creating order and competition at the same time, personally. Every one of us as a coach and a player, you're working hard to get better, but in that process you have to establish order and things have a way of working themselves out."
So in a matter of a week, it went from being Sam Bradford's job and being Pederson's guy to being very much a competition to the coordinators Pederson hired.
An interesting training camp awaits for sure.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
