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Bradford not focusing on Eagles' QB draft plans

HEAVEN KNOWS, Sam Bradford has lived with uncertainty before. Bradford and uncertainty are longtime roommates. He has arm-wrestled it, split a pizza with it, demanded it pay its share of the utilities, picked up the dirty socks it draped over his Heisman Trophy.

Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford.
Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford.Read more(Tom Gralish/Staff Photographer)

HEAVEN KNOWS, Sam Bradford has lived with uncertainty before.

Bradford and uncertainty are longtime roommates. He has arm-wrestled it, split a pizza with it, demanded it pay its share of the utilities, picked up the dirty socks it draped over his Heisman Trophy.

Uncertainty might have driven some people crazy by now, but Bradford barely notices it anymore.

"It's not the first time I've gone through a situation like this. I think I learned a long time ago to not worry about anything that I can't control. I have no control over that," Bradford said Tuesday, when asked about speculation that the Eagles might trade up in the draft to get a potential franchise quarterback.

"If it happens, then it's something that I'll deal with when it happens. But if it doesn't happen, then there's really not a lot of sense in wasting time and thought and energy on that," he said.

Bradford said even asking Howie Roseman or Doug Pederson about their thinking is "a little above my pay grade. Those guys make decisions regardless of what we players think they should do."

Bradford said he doesn't know Jared Goff from Carson Wentz from Paxton Lynch, doesn't keep track of what's being said about the Eagles' intentions.

"I have no clue" who the Eagles should draft, Bradford said. "I'm up for anyone who helps us win games."

His feelings aren't a big priority for his coach, who was asked last month whether Bradford, 28, should feel unsettled by QB draft talk, or by the Eagles bringing in Pederson protégé Chase Daniel as Bradford's backup.

"If you're the starter, who cares?" Pederson asked. "Why are you looking over your shoulder, if you're the starter? And that's the way Sam has to approach this, even with Chase there, and even if we go out and draft a quarterback this year. You're the guy. You're looking forward, and not behind you."

Bradford has been in a state of flux ever since 2013, when he suffered the first of back-to-back ACL injuries that would end his tenure in St. Louis, where he'd been the league's first overall selection in the 2010 draft.

Bradford came here with one year left on his rookie deal, hoping to settle in for the long run. Instead, the coach who traded for him was fired with a game left in the 2015 season. The new regime liked Bradford just enough to sign him to a two-year contract that can be a one-year deal if 2016 doesn't go well. Then the Eagles tried to trade up to No. 1 overall, to draft Goff or Wentz, before the Rams outbid them last week. Now they're reported to be bidding for the second overall pick, held by the Browns.

A year ago in this space, the question was whether the Eagles were going to trade up to nab quarterback Marcus Mariota. If they didn't, the writer concluded, "we will finally be talking seriously about Sam Bradford as the future for the Eagles."

That prediction seriously underestimated Bradford's close personal relationship with uncertainty. A year later, we can assume only that he is the starting quarterback heading into the 2016 season, possibly with, say, Wentz looking over Bradford's shoulder, awaiting his turn.

Sources close to the situation have said management's attitude toward Bradford is pretty much what you'd expect: The team is open to him proving to be the long-term answer, it liked what he showed down the stretch last season. But Bradford's injury history, and the fact that he spent half of last season shaking off rust - there isn't enough of a resume there to make anyone completely confident he is still going to be the franchise QB he was projected to be back in 2010.

"All the conversations I had before free agency, after the season, with the people in this building, I feel very good about their thoughts on me and my situation here," Bradford said Tuesday.

Pederson said he brought Daniel here in part to help teach Pederson's offense, and Bradford said he thinks that was a good idea.

"I think it's very beneficial for everyone to have someone who's been in this offense, who's as knowledgeable as he is in this offense," Bradford said. "It's tough to figure out a system on your own, or with someone who hasn't been in it, but he's been great. The meetings we've had, some of the workouts, the throwing sessions we had last week - his knowledge of the system, the detail that he can get in(to), I think it's been good for everyone. I know it's been good for me."

This is the first offseason since 2013 that Bradford has been able to work our normally, hasn't been rehabbing his knee.

"Being able to actually train and to try to get some strength back in my lower body, and to just really take some time and get away from the facility - mentally, when you're rehabbing, you've got to stay here, you're always around, you never feel like you truly get a break from the season. It's just year-round," he said.

"More than anything, just to be able to go home (to Oklahoma), get around friends, get away from here, it was kind of a nice break, and I think it just makes you more fired up to come back here and get it started up again."

Bradford also is fully participating in spring work with teammates for the first time in three years.

"Not to be limited, to be able to get out there, go through the calls, make decisions - the more reps you get, the more comfortable you become in something," he said.

Pederson has rearranged the locker room, going back to grouping players by position, after Chip Kelly scrambled them. Bradford spoke Tuesday from the front corner stall that once belonged to Donovan McNabb. Daniel resides next to him. But journeyman McLeod Bethel-Thompson dresses in a temporary, portable stall, off to the side. On QB row, the third stall stands vacant.

Cox update

Bleacher Report's Jason Cole wrote that an agreement is close between the Eagles and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, for an extension that Cole said could carry a $52 million guarantee. A source close to the situation told the Daily News that was not the case. Cox is scheduled to play this season under the $7.799 million fifth-year option in his rookie contract.

Brandon Graham said he has been talking with Cox, who opted to skip this optional three-day minicamp, Graham making sure Cox is up to date on what new defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is doing.

"I understand - contract situation, he has a family," Graham said. "Both parties want to be here. They want him here, he wants to be here. Sometimes, some contracts take longer than others. You've got to make sure you cover your butt on both sides . . . This is the league. This is business."

Birdseed

The Eagles are trying out four players this week: fullback Michael Zordich, defensive tackle Ken Bishop and wide receivers DaVaris Daniels and T.J. Graham.