Philadelphia Eagles Hope The Force Awakens Sunday Night Vs. Arizona

While the Philadelphia Eagles defense tries to figure out a way to stop the Arizona Cardinals’ lethal passing game Sunday night, quarterback Sam Bradford and the offense will face a major challenge of its own from the Cardinals’ blitz-happy defense. The Birds are locked in a three-way tie at the top of the NFC East with the New York Giants and Washington.

The Eagles could put their franchise tag on Bradford, but that would mean paying him about $20 million for 2016.

Somewhere between “not really” and “can’t really” the answer all but blew the top off the media tent.

High-priced veteran defensive back Byron Maxwell wasn’t at practice Tuesday as the Eagles began getting ready for the Arizona Cardinals.

Bradford was given another chance to respond to Kelly’s desire to make Bradford his permanent quarterback. He might be afraid the injury bug returns.

Against Buffalo, Bradford completed 23 of his 38 passes, for 247 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

“One of the unique things about this (Arizona) defense is they run a lot of different personnel groups with those blitzes too”, Bradford said.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve seen so many guys go through that”, Davis said. The statistics will tell you that.

“They got a good quarterback, so he’s able to throw the ball and distribute the ball wherever he wants to go to”, Maxwell said.

“Traded” is the operative word as Bradford, the first overall pick in the 2009 draft, didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Bradford was an injury risk as he was coming off back-to-back season-ending ACL tears. The Cardinals won last year’s game in Arizona, 24-20, on a 75-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer to wide receiver John Brown with 1:21 left in the game.

Bradford is in an interesting spot. Obviously the concern was Bradford could be part of that deal. “So that’s a positive thing he brings to the table for us”.

Bradford’s contract expires at the end of this season. The Secondary has been widely overlooked this season due to errors on Maxwell’s behalf or just simply poor coaching adjustments.but when it rolls nobody seems to notice.

Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians opened his conference call Wednesday morning raving about the Temple Owls. “They’re really comfortable with what they’re doing”. Obviously past year it was really our Achilles heel in terms of getting off the field on third down and giving up huge, huge chunks of yardage in the “X” play category.

All Bradford needed to say Wednesday was something along the lines of yes, it would be great to be back next year but that’s out of my control. The free agent running backs haven’t produced like many believed they would. Fifty-three angry men? Worst T-shirt idea ever.

But Bradford checked down and said he’ll wait until after the season before deciding on his future.

“That’s a couple months away”, Bradford said. If he stays healthy he can count on a raise.

“It’s big-time but you get wrapped up in that then you’ll kind of lose focus, ” linebacker Deone Bucannon said of the clinching possibilities. “I don’t think he has tapped out by any stretch of the imagination”.