Adrian Fedkiw
The dink-and-dunk perception of Sam Bradford makes it easy for people to forget how great his deep ball is.
He just doesn’t go long that often.
Newly-acquired wide receiver Chris Givens talked to Tim McManus of Philly Mag about Bradford over the weekend and said some interesting things.
“His strengths match my strengths: he can get the ball downfield and I can get downfield,” he said.
The 26-year-old Givens was sent to the Baltimore Ravens prior to the trade deadline last season, posting 20 receptions for 353 yards and a touchdown total with both the St. Louis Rams and Ravens. His best year came as a rookie with Bradford and St. Louis in 2012 when he caught 42 balls for 698 yards and three touchdowns.
Givens set a rookie record by hauling in a 50-yard reception in five straight games. He has a career yards-per-reception average of 16.6. His numbers have declined since his rookie year, which he explained.
“It was definitely frustrating but at the same time, I accept full responsibility for not working the way I should have in the offseason and being the receiver I was capable of. I just got a little complacent and a little comfortable knowing that I had Sam and things like that, and once things went south a little bit and I really didn’t have a quarterback to play to my strengths, I couldn’t really do the things I needed to do to get open. So I just looked at that as an opportunity for me to look in the mirror and fine-tune the things in my game that it will take for me to take my game to the next level,” he said.
Givens also likes the Eagles’ new offense and thinks he fits it well.
“It’s just more shots, deeper routes. We run the whole route tree here, we’re not just running this route or this route. You get so many more opportunities because you got so many more chances to run different routes,” he said.