Mark Schlereth: Sanchez Fits Better Than Bradford

Former offensive lineman Mark Schlereth has been very vocal in his criticism of Chip Kelly‘s Eagles this season, previously railing against the way Kelly uses his offensive line.

On Thursday, Schlereth joined Harry Mayes and Eytan Shander on 97.5 The Fanatic to talk Eagles again, and while he touched on the offensive line some more, his most interesting points came when he addressed the Eagles’ quarterback situation.

With Sam Bradford out against Tampa Bay on Sunday with a concussion, Mark Sanchez will make his first start of the season for the Eagles.

Schlereth — who said that he never would have made the trade for Bradford this offseason — believes that the injury could be a blessing in disguise for Chip Kelly’s offense, which has been running below his lofty expectations for much of the year.

“I do think Sanchez gives them a better opportunity to open up this offense than Bradford does,” Schlereth said. “Because certainly, there’s not one defense in America that plays that read option, that pays any attention to the quarterback in the read option game, because it’s Sam Bradford.

“Mark Sanchez opens that up, not only from the standpoint of keeping it on the edge and being a threat on the edge, but he opens up play action off that zone read action. I think he’s a better fit, a much better fit for this system, than Sam Bradford.

“Even Nick Foles, there’s two or three times a game where he would run it. And even though it’s just five or six yards, what it did to a defense, having to play it and having to respect it, especially with the linebackers on the underneath routes, from a play-action standpoint, all of a sudden the linebackers have to hesitate for a second.”

This season, Bradford has 17 recorded rushes for 31 yards, a 1.8 yards-per-rush average. One of those runs went for 14 yards.

Last season, Foles rushed the ball 16 times for 68 yards, a 4.3 yards-per-rush average; his longest rush was also 14 yards.

After Foles went down, Sanchez rushed the ball 34 times for 87 yards, a 2.6 yards-per-rush average, and a touchdown. His longest rush was a 15-yarder.

Schlereth did acknowledge Sanchez’s shortcomings, especially his knack for throwing game-changing interceptions and having a handful of questionable moments each game.

“[Sanchez is] going to make a bunch of plays where you say, ‘Wow, he looks really good,'” Schlereth said. “Then there’s going to be five plays where he just craps in his hat, and you think, ‘Lord have mercy, how do you make that throw? Or, how do you turn the ball over there? Or, how do you not recognize that blitz?’

“There’s going to be those five plays. Do those five plays cost you the game? That becomes the issue with Sanchez.”

But, as far as Schlereth is concerned, Sanchez is a far better option for the Eagles than the oft-injured Bradford, whom Schlereth thinks has seen his best days already.

“[Bradford] is what he is. He’s damaged goods,” Schlereth said. “And that’s too bad. It’s unfortunate. He was one of the most accurate quarterbacks coming out of the college game. The guy’s been beat up. You guys see it as much as I see it. There’s times where he just looks like that. He just looks beat up. And especially in that offense, there’s no threat.

“Bradford, in that system, in my mind, he is what he is, and he’s never going to be the guy who’s going to take you to the promised land.”

Here are a couple more standout moments from Schlereth’s interview.

— On what the Eagles are doing in the run game, after carrying the ball 36 times for 83 yards against the Dolphins.

“They’ve done a better job, when they give him the two-tight end formations, running the football, and one of the reasons, guys, is when you get the two-tight end formations, you can actually run some double team stuff on the front side of plays,” Schlereth said. “I talked to you about all the man concepts that I hated, that they run on a consistent basis in Chip Kelly’s offense, and you saw it come to rear its ugly head last week [against Miami].

“You guys watched the game. How many times did your right guard or your center get absolutely rag-dolled by Ndamukong Suh? I mean, absolutely rag-dolled. I’m sitting here thinking, as an ex-offensive lineman, it irritates me.

“If I can’t block that guy — and, clearly, you guys can’t block him — then quit putting me in man-on-man situations on the front sides of plays and saying, ‘Hey, we know you don’t physically match up, and we know you’ll just get rag-dolled on every play, but here you go. Good luck. I hope it works out for you.’ That’s just stupid coaching. It’s just bad. You put yourself, you put your people, in a horrible position.”

— On the lack of dynamic playmakers at the wide receiver position, and what it does in limiting Kelly’s offense.

“In a spread offense, which then want to run, you have to have some guys who threaten you on the outside,” Schlereth said. “You’ve got to have guys that you’re afraid can match-up in one-on-ones, so that you keep a safety over the top of a guy that can flat-out run.

“You basically got rid of those guys because you thought you could do it with your tight ends, your multiple tight ends, and with the receivers you have, [Riley] Cooper and [Jordan] Matthews. That just hasn’t worked out real well for you.”