This offseason, a majority of NFL news has revolved around the Philadelphia Eagles. Despite the madness surrounding the possibility of drafting star quarterback Marcus Mariota to the addition of two starting caliber running backs, the addition of Quarterback Sam Bradford, has taken center stage. The former first overall pick’s powerful arm and pinpoint accuracy have many fans predicting the Eagles to be this year’s Super Bowl Champions. This, despite the fact that Bradford’s career has fallen off quite a bit, mainly due to his lengthy history of injuries, which stretches all the way back to his final year of college.

After Bradford’s sophomore season at The University of Oklahoma, there was speculation that Bradford was leaving for the NFL, but, after much deliberation, Bradford decided to forgo the draft and return for his Junior year at Oklahoma. In his first game that year, Bradford suffered a sprain to his Acromioclavicular joint , a joint in the shoulder that is essential to throwing, effectively ending his season. Even with this injury, he was drafted first overall by the St. Louis Rams, awarded the largest rookie contract in NFL history, and had a very successful rookie season which ended with him winning the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year award, and leading his team to a respectable 8-8 record. His sophomore campaign, however, was much less successful. From the outset of the season Bradford was bothered by a high ankle sprain, and that combined with injuries to many other teammates led the team to fall greatly, all the way down to a 2-14 record. The 2012 season, the Rams rebounded to a 7-8-1 record, with Bradford posting the best numbers of his whole career. Everything pointed to 2013 being a breakout year for Bradford and the Rams.

For the first 6 games of the 2013 season, Bradford was nearly unstoppable, passing for 14 touchdowns compared to only 4 interceptions. Unfortunately, in the seventh game of the season, Bradford tore his left Anterior Cruciate Ligament, or ACL. The ACL, paired with the Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL), make up the cruciate ligaments in your knees. They control the forward and backward movements of your knee. The ACL in particular keeps the tibia in place, while also supporting the knee when it rotates. This is largely important for a quarterback, because they need to be mobile in the pocket to avoid pass rushers and find the open receiver. This injury ended Bradford’s season, and he had to focus on his recovery for the next year. Unfortunately, in the second preseason game that Bradford played in, he re-tore the same ACL.

A re-tear of an ACL is particularly bad, because in order to repair the ACL the first time, a graft has to be taken, usually from the patellar tendon, the hamstring, the quadriceps tendon, or sometimes even from cadavers. In Bradford’s case, grafts had to be taken on two separate occasions to stimulate (and re-stimulate) the growth of his ACL. The rehabilitation process for this injury is said to be one of the most difficult challenges an athlete can face. While this injury in the past has ended careers immediately, many strides have been taken to reduce recovery time and bring players back to their prior greatness.

Both of Bradford’s ACL surgeries, and his shoulder surgery in college, were done by the legendary Dr. James Andrews, who has had patients such as Michael Jordan, Derrick Rose, and thousands of other professional athletes. Dr. Andrews has a great reputation for repairing ACL’s to their previous form. Adrian Peterson, one of Dr. Andrew’s great successes, tore his ACL and came back the next year to lead the league in rushing. Athletes have been recovering faster than ever from ACL tears.

Despite these great advances in medicine, players who have torn the same ligament twice are still very frightening to NFL teams. The Eagles traded their former quarterback Nick Foles and swapped draft picks with the Rams in order to acquire Bradford in a move that shocked a large portion of the NFL. Because of his second ACL tear, Bradford was said to be washed up, and people considered the Eagles fools for giving up a perfectly healthy Nick Foles in return for nothing. Bradford, though, has impressed greatly in training camp and preseason action, most recently going 10-10 with 3 touchdown passes in last Sunday’s win at the Green Bay Packers. If Bradford is able to come through with a stellar season and lead the Eagles to the greatness that many envision for them, it will be a great feat for Dr. Andrews and all in his field.

Because of the risk that the Eagles are taking with Bradford, as he is damaged goods, they did extensive research on the possibility of him re-tearing his ACL, and came out with a metric that states that he has a 10-12% chance of tearing his ACL once again. That is a high risk for a team who wants to contend this season, but it is risk that the Eagles and Chip Kelly seem to be very content to take due to Bradford’s great talent. This season is the most anticipated season in recent memory for Eagles fans, and has the potential to be either one of their greatest, or a massive train wreck, and, unfortunately for him, most of that hinges on the knees of Sam Bradford.