Adrian Fedkiw
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson likes putting a lot of responsibility on his quarterbacks, Chip Kelly was more controlling.
Sam Bradford stated during Tuesday’s press conference that there’s benefits to both the up-tempo and being able to have control at the line of scrimmage, but leaned toward the freedom side of things.
“With that freedom there comes a lot of responsibility. You’re in charge of getting in to the right play, getting out of a bad play. You’re responsible for everyone out there,” he said.
Bradford continued.
“Last year with Chip … we chose tempo over that freedom and I think there’s benefits to each, but it is nice knowing that when you get to the line of scrimmage, if you immediately know ‘hey this is not a good play into this look, this is a bad play for this coverage and I have an ability to get us into something better,'” he said.
In Kelly’s up-tempo attack, Bradford didn’t audible because of the emphasis of getting snaps off as quickly as possible to wear down a defense. That was more important in Kelly’s mind than having Bradford waste seconds changing the play at the line of scrimmage.
While having the freedom puts more pressure on him, Bradford explained the benefits.
“It obviously puts more pressure on you during the week to study, to know what the opponent is going to do, to be ready for certain looks and to take advantage of those looks when they present themselves,” he said.
The Eagles turned the ball over 31 times last year, third most, and a league-high 36 times in 2014. Bradford is hoping that having freedom at the line of scrimmage will limit those negative plays.
“That’s the goal with this mentality,” Bradford said.
Check out the entire press conferences of Pederson, Bradford and Carson Wentz below.