Today, the Eagles introduced their new quarterback, Sam Bradford. The 27-year-old met with the Philadelphia media today for just under 14 minutes. While the move to get him here, sending Nick Foles to St.Louis, is still baffling, Bradford was very excited to join Chip Kelly and is even more eager to play in his offense. Here are some highlights from his press conference:
Are you going to be the starting QB moving forward?
I really haven’t even thought about that, I’m still trying to process this whole move. I found out less than 24 hours ago and my main goal is to get healthy, and once I get healthy to start learning this offense and when I’m ready to get on the field, whether its OTA’s, training camp, is to compete for the starting job. I don’t want anything handed to me, I want to earn it and that’s the way I’m approaching this.
What’s your timetable for being 100% physically?
It’s kinda up in the air right now. We really havent sat down and talked about it. When I was in St. Louis, that’s where I’ve been rehabbing, we’ve been talking about taking it day-to-day, week-to-week. I’m sure when I get here to start rehab, I’ll sit down with the training staff here and we’ll come up with a plan. I’m sure they’ll want to look at me and see where I’m at in their eyes and then we can go from there.
What has Chip told you about the QB situation?
I had the opportunity to talk to coach Kelly for probably 10 minutes. It was great, we didn’t even get into that. He’s just excited that I’m here, I’m excited to be here and like I said, when I get back in the building and start to get healthy, and get back on the field, we can talk about what my role is going to be.
What was your first reaction to the trade?
Excitement. This has been in the works for a while, and so it didn’t catch me totally by surprise when it happened yesterday. I think any quarterback in this league would want to play for Chip and his offense. It’s extremely quarterback friendly and from the tape that I’ve watched, it just looks like a lot of fun to play in, I think it’s similar to what I did in college at Oklahoma, so I’m extremely excited to be here and ready to get rollin’.
What do you mean when you say Chip’s system is quarterback friendly?
The way they set up progressions, the way the ball comes out of your hands, the way they deal with protections with the run game. Like I said, I haven’t gotten into too many details, it’s only been from what I’ve seen, but from what I’ve seen, it looks that everything goes through the quarterback. What are you like? How do you see things?…and then they’re going to tailor it from there. They’re never going to put you in a bad situation where you have nowhere to go with the football and you’re standing back there holding on to it for five seconds.
Is part of the comfort being reunited with Pat Shurmur?
Yeah, I mean obviously I think that’s one of the reasons I’m excited. When Pat was in St. Louis, we had a great relationship. It was great to see him here today and I look forward to continuing that relationship with Pat.
Do you know what you’re getting into here in Philadelphia?
I’m not sure, but I’m up for a challenge. I know there’s some days you guys are probably going to love me and some days you’re probably going to hate me. That’s all part of it.
On his second ACL tear:
The second time around, it was harder mentally than it was physically. To put all the work in and be ready? I felt like I was playing at a very high level in training camp last year, and to have it all taken away again, there was a brief period of time I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through it again.
DeMarco Murray was your roommate…are you recruiting him here?
Absolutely, I've been trying my hardest. I've called him, texted him…I've done everything. We've been in communication. I feel like if there was someway we could land DeMarco, it'd be a great pickup. Not only is he a great player, he's a great person. He's a really close friend of mine too, but I really think that he could help this ball club.
To see Bradford's full press conference, click here.
