When the Eagles take the field on Thanksgiving, it remains uncertain whether it will be Sam Bradford or Mark Sanchez leading the team's offense. After sustaining a concussion and left shoulder injury in the game against Miami, Bradford returned to practice on Monday as a limited participant and took part in the team's walkthrough on Tuesday.
The good news is the quarterback said he has "been cleared for the concussion," which he recalled as being the third of his career. He experienced some initial memory loss, but in all felt the symptoms "were fairly similar to the ones (he) had in the past and (he'd) been able to recover from those."
The only thing holding him back from returning to game action is his shoulder, which has been improving each and every day. Although the injury is to his non-throwing arm, Bradford still needs the left shoulder healthy to keep proper balance and defend himself when needed.
His progress over the next two days will be critical, but in the end, Bradford said he hopes to be on the field in Detroit with his teammates. He knows how much the Eagles need a victory on Thursday after back-to-back losses that have them sitting at 4-6.
"It's really hard to put a percentage on it," the quarterback said of his injury. "I know that it feels better today than it did yesterday and I was able to do some things out there yesterday. Hopefully it continues to get better in the next 48 hours.
"I think if it continues to get better and (the coaches and trainers) feel comfortable with me, then I'll be out there."
The shortened schedule this week doesn't make it any easier for Bradford to recover. He and the entire team have three fewer days than usual to ready themselves for the game. It's also the reason a quarterback decision is unlikely to be made until the day of.
However, even with missing the last week of practice, Bradford knows he is mentally set for this game.
"Obviously, you'd like to be out there. You'd like to have a full week to prepare, but both us and them are on short weeks this week," Bradford said. "I think the great thing about this offense is we don't change a lot from week to week. We kind of run our stuff. We change some of the things that we're doing, but we've got a lot of reps with the plays that we've run the past three or four weeks and I feel good about those."
At this point, only time will tell if it will be Bradford or Sanchez on the field with the Eagles' offense this Bird Day.
