The reflection Sam Bradford sees when he examines his own NFL career probably matches pretty closely with the way new coach Doug Pederson and resurrected general manager Howie Roseman view the quarterback the Eagles re-signed to a two-year deal earlier this week.

"I think it has been up. It has been down," Bradford said. "I think I've faced a lot of different challenges in my first six years just with some injuries and learning some new offenses. But I think my best days are ahead of me."That is a fair and forthright evaluation. The man has dealt with two torn ACL injuries that limited his fourth season to seven games and wiped out his fifth season before it started. That is bad luck, plain and simple. He has also played for three different head coaches, three different offensive coordinators and been asked to learn four different offensive schemes.Stability has been an oxymoron throughout his career."I think toward the end of last year, the last half of the year, once I got comfortable with the guys around me, I felt like I started to play at a pretty high level," Bradford said. "I'm just looking to build on that and to continue to get better."Roseman and Pederson looked at the quarterback landscape and placed their bets - a reported $26 million guaranteed in Jeffrey Lurie money - on their own belief that Bradford is indeed going to get better and build off last season's finish, when he completed 68.2 percent of his passes for 10 touchdowns and a 97.0 passer rating.More change awaits Bradford with Pederson replacing Chip Kelly, but the quarterback at least seems comfortable with his new coach and views the offensive system as a throwback to what he ran as a rookie when Pat Shurmur was his coordinator in St. Louis."My conversations with Coach have been great," Bradford said. "I think the fact that he played the position is a huge bonus for me, and I think being able to have conversations with someone who has been on the field, who has seen things from a quarterback's perspective, I think that was huge. Obviously it is going to be a transition, and it is going to take time, but it is something I am familiar with."Perhaps the biggest selling point for Bradford, other than those Lurie dollars, was the campaign to keep him with his teammates. It started with Jordan Matthews at the end of the season and continued when Zach Ertz and Brent Celek got new contracts this offseason."They all said he was top-notch, and we should do whatever we can to keep him here," Pederson said. "They let me know he wants to be here, so we got that impression right away from these guys. And he really kind of took charge of the team later in the season, so it was exciting to hear that about your quarterback."Based on Bradford's finish and the endorsements from his teammates, it was really a no-brainer for the Eagles to re-sign the quarterback if they believed that 2016 was a salvageable season with a potential playoff berth.If you don't think the Eagles can win with Bradford at quarterback, you must have slept through the most recent NFL season. The Denver Broncos won a Super Bowl with a titular Peyton Manning at quarterback because they had the best defense. The great myth is that you need a great quarterback to win it all.It helps and at the very least you should have a good one who is not prone to turnovers. Bradford fit into that latter category late last season, and maybe he gets better the more familiar he becomes with guys like Matthews and Ertz. We should also factor in the additional time he has had to recover from ACL surgery."I think we have a great group of guys in that locker room," Bradford said. "I think we've got a great team. Obviously last year was disappointing for everyone in the organization. I think we all believe in ourselves and the guys that we have here right now. We know it is on us to go out there and perform at a level that was higher than what we did last year."That last part is definitely true. The Eagles led the league in drops, and that cannot happen again. Matthews needs to become an elite receiver. DeMarco Murray needs to rebound from whatever dragged him down last season.Ertz has to emerge as a star tight end. The defense needs to become competent.The point here is that the Eagles had a lot of problems in 2015 that were not related to the quarterback.It is up to Roseman and Pederson to fix them. By bringing back Bradford, they have made the statement that they believe it can be done even though Roseman refused to admit it."I don't know if we necessarily made this a statement about what we think about everything else going forward because we have a lot more work to do in this offseason. But we're excited about the start," Roseman said. "It's a team sport. We just have to build the team. We have to keep the important things the important things, and there is certainly no more important position than the quarterback position."That is not always true, but now that the Eagles have decided to keep theirs, the pressure is on Roseman to make it a worthwhile move.