Philadelphia Eagles Should Not Count On Sam Bradford Returning In 2016
By Ryan Quigley
The Philadelphia Eagles are in time of transition. Gone is Chip Kelly and the search for a new head coach is officially underway.
Ideally, it’s best to pair a new head coach with a franchise quarterback. You look at head coach-QB tandems like Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb or Sean Payton and Drew Brees and it’s immediately apparent that a relationship between the two make for a much easier transition from mediocrity to excellence.
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It can be argued that a franchise QB is already on the Eagles’ roster. Philadelphia acquired Sam Bradford from the St. Louis Rams for Nick Foles in a highly controversial trade during the 2015 offseason. Bradford was injury-prone and less than impressive with the Rams and Foles was looking to be the Eagles’ future at QB. But as it would turn out, the Eagles would end up getting the better end of the deal. While Foles failed to meet the Rams’ expectations before being benched midseason for Case Keenum, Bradford continued to improve in Philadelphia. Per Pro Football Focus, Bradford finished the season as the third most accurate passer in the NFL, despite Philadelphia leading the league with 35 drops.
However, Bradford will be a free agent after the season and there is no guaranteeing that he will be back in Philadelphia. Not only did the Chip Kelly fiasco give Bradford a sour taste in his mouth, but according to Peter King, Bradford may not be all that interested in returning to the Eagles in 2016, regardless of who the new head coach is.
"Bradford won’t be motivated to return to Philadelphia over any other team now that free agency looms. His agent, Tom Condon, is a get-the-most-you-can-regardless-of-team guy, and Bradford isn’t crazy about Philadelphia the city anyway. He probably wishes there was a team in his favorite place, Oklahoma City. And who’s to say the next coach—current offensive coordinators Adam Gase of Chicago and Doug Pederson of Kansas City are popular early names—will want Bradford at $18 million a year or more?"
King has a point. After the blatant improvement Bradford displayed as the season progressed, he is likely to be the top quarterback to hit the free agent market in the offseason. In a day and age where franchise quarterbacks are coveted, many teams will be offering Bradford overly lucrative deals, which is something the Eagles simply cannot and should not do.
On top of that, Bradford is still just as injury-prone as he was with the Rams. In St. Louis, Bradford tore his ACL twice within a year’s time and he wasn’t able to stay completely healthy in Philadelphia either. Against the Miami Dolphins in Week 10, Bradford simultaneously suffered a concussion and a shoulder injury, which kept him out of action for two weeks. And let’s not forget about the numerous times he was seen getting up gingerly after being taken to the ground.
There is a lot of grey area with Bradford. He’s shown that he can be a solid quarterback, but something he hasn’t shown is reliability, especially when you consider the amount of money that would have to be thrown his way to retain him. Whether he wants to be in Philadelphia or not, do not count on Bradford being back in 2016.