Howie Roseman: “We felt like it was a good opportunity for both teams”
Executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman met with the Philadelphia media on Saturday, and it shouldn’t be hard to figure out what the topic of discussion was.
Many of us may have thought we were seeing a lot of “click bait” on Saturday morning. News spread like wildfire that the Philadelphia Eagles had traded their starting quarterback Sam Bradford just eight days before the start of the 2016 season. It turns out that none of us were dreaming. Head coach Doug Pederson was unavailable for comment on Saturday as he was with his family in the wake of his father passing. Executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman was, however, able to meet with the media. The topic was the only thing people seemed to be interested in over the weekend.
Eagles
“We felt like it was a good opprtunity for both teams” said Roseman. “In their situation, the football team that they have, that it was a good opportunity for them to get a quarterback of Sam’s caliber, and, at the same time, we felt like in the situation that we were and how our depth chart looked, not only at the quarterback position but going forward. Adding these picks and getting the cap room to put back into our football team that that would serve us well too. So you look for win-win opportunities when you make these trades. You want to have relationships with people where you can go back and make trades that are good for both teams, and we’re hopeful that this works out for both sides”.
Some in attendance wondered if making a trade like this in Pederson’s absence meant that the head coach had no idea that it happened. That wasn’t the case. Roseman added “We’re not making a trade without having a lot of communication with our head coach.” Roseman went on to state that the thoughts of coaches, coordinators and team veterans eased their mind not only about moving Bradford but also about rookie Carson Wentz being ready for the opportunity, if indeed, he is named the starter. “He’s come a long way, even since we got him in April”.
Related Story: Peter Schrager concerning Carson Wentz: “He has the playbook down already”
Apparently, at no point, did the Eagles organization initiate any phone calls. Still, once they received the amount of calls that they did, they had to take a serious look at team needs and make some decisions. The opportunity to acquire a first-round pick in 2017 (which they no longer had) and also an additional fourth-round pick in 2018 was clearly too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Next: Philadelphia Eagles officially cut roster down to 53 players
There are two things of note. Number one, we at Inside The Iggles offer our condolences to the family of Coach Pederson. Football is game, and it takes a backseat to real life circumstances and the loss of a family member. Secondly, we all wish Bradford the best. Roseman’s statement on Bradford says it all. “We want to thank Sam Bradford for his role with us since he’s been here. Obviously, it’s a hard thing for us to do as an organization, trading our starting quarterback, and I want to thank him for the way he acted and operated on and off the field.”
We all can agree with that.