Mark Sanchez has not been shy about the fact that he wants to be the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. The quarterback re-signed with the Eagles in free agency under the assumption that he would be given the chance to battle for the role that he took over for the second-half of the season last year. However, the Eagles then traded for Sam Bradford who appears to be more favored than Sanchez for the job. In order to get a leg up, Sanchez brought his wide receivers out West for a little pre-training camp workout.
According to NFL.com and the social media account of tight end Zach Ertz, several Eagles' players including Sanchez, Jordan Matthews and Darren Sproles met up for some extra reps out in San Diego before training camp begins. According to trainer Todd Durkin, the group ran drill and plays while also hitting up the weight room. All activities were led by Sanchez.
"Every day they've had field work where they've been on the field and doing their install," Durkin said, via NFL.com. "After they do the weight room work they go over to the high school and they watch film for about an hour and then we do our warm-up with them and bring them through all their agility and movement stuff, and then Mark leads their install and they do all that."
Sanchez has a leg up on Bradford this offseason simply because he is healthy and Bradford is not. That means Sanchez can get in all of this extra work with the receivers before training camp because he is not busy rehabbing a torn ACL like Bradford is at the moment. Sanchez is likely hoping that added chemistry that was built helps get him over the edge in terms of being the starter.
While Sanchez is getting workouts in with the receivers, several players like what they saw out of Bradford during OTAs and mini camp. Ertz told the media that Bradford has the best arm of any other quarterback he has played with, a list that includes Andrew Luck out in Indianapolis.
"We've been throwing for the past three weeks and I can honestly say I've thrown with Andrew, Nick [Foles] and other guys, and I don't think I've thrown with a guy who has a stronger arm than Sam Bradford," Ertz said, via CSNPhilly.com. "He hasn't been able to really truly get his full legs underneath him. But the ball still comes out effortlessly, and it's a lot of fun to run routes with him."
Time will tell exactly who starts under center Week 1. Sanchez has all of the legs up he can get at the moment considering he is more knowledgeable of the offensive system and has chemistry with the receivers. However, Bradford has a contract of a starting quarterback which might push him ahead more than people think.
