Philadelphia Eagles May Have Bungled QB Situation

Howie Roseman seemed to be doing so well for the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason with all the moves he’s made.

However, he may have just made his first big mistake.

Whether you think Sam Bradford is being whiny and noncompetitive or not, he wants to be traded from the Eagles, according to reports from Adam Schefter yesterday. A part of this isn’t surprising, because I understand the situation the Eagles put Bradford in was a tough one. It seems like the best case scenario for the Eagles is Bradford plays well the next two years as the starter, allowing time for Carson Wentz to groom on the bench to become the team’s eventual franchise QB. Then, Bradford leaves the team through free agency (unless they were to somehow trade him before his contract expired).

This plan seems pretty obvious to Bradford, which all but guarantees he’s just a stopgap quarterback in what could be some of Bradford’s supposed “prime” years, in terms of age at least. I can totally understand why it’s insulting and frustrating to have your team haul a bunch of picks to another team to trade up in the draft to select his replacement just a couple months after he signed an extension. I understand the Eagles’ thinking, but honestly, what did they think was going to happen? That Bradford was just going to sit there and take it?

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Who knows how much of the trade rumors are his agent saying things or Bradford actually wanting out, but either way it seems like there’s a desire to leave Philadelphia knowing his hopeful replacement is about to be drafted in a few days. Even if Bradford were to play amazing these next two years as a starter and the Eagles (for whatever reason) gave him another extension, then Wentz would be a complete waste of not only the No. 2 pick, but all the picks they traded to move up to get him. Either way, the Eagles have set up at least one of their quarterbacks to fail, and that’s just poor planning.

I also understand the Eagles’ side of this whole thing, though. They have already declared Bradford the starter even if they draft Wentz, they’re just saying Bradford will have to compete for the job in the future. With how poor Bradford’s holistic career is, it seems only fair they’d force him to actually earn something. I’m a fan of Bradford and think he can succeed in Philadelphia, but if we’re being honest, he’s never been a top 10 quarterback in the NFL, and many seasons he probably didn’t even break the top 15. If the Eagles thought for sure he could be the franchise quarterback, he would’ve gotten a long-term extension from the beginning and they wouldn’t have felt the need to draft a new quarterback.

However, that’s just not the case.

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And this mess doesn’t even include Chase Daniel. Let’s say the Eagles draft Wentz and keep Bradford, promising to keep Wentz on the bench the whole season and let Bradford start. It means the Eagles are paying their backup quarterback, Daniel, $5 million to do nothing. He essentially has no purpose because Wentz is supposed to be the future starter, so he’s locked in as a guaranteed backup. That is, unless the Eagles trade Bradford and are forced to make Daniel the stopgap QB. But I guarantee that wasn’t in their original plan, as Daniel has very little actual playing experience. Being forced to start a mediocre Daniel for a full season would likely cause people to want to rush Wentz into the starting lineup too early, which would defeat the purpose of trying to groom a QB on the bench for at least a year.

As you can see, there are many ways this situation could play out, but almost all of them suggest a loss for the Eagles in some way. In my opinion, the way they’ve handled this QB situation this offseason has been poor, and it may cause for a fracturing in the locker room before the team plays a single game. For a new head coach, that’s a mess you don’t want that early on.

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