But Christmas came early on Saturday.
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If the terms of Peterson’s restructured contract pointed toward the Vikings having to reopen the running back’s deal before the 2017 season, the presence of Bradford’s contract on the roster makes it even more likely the Vikings will have to rework at least one high-dollar deal before the start of next season.
Well, for one, Teddy Bridgewater happened. It would be relatively painless for Minnesota to move on from Bradford after this season, but that will depend on how quickly Teddy Bridgewater recovers from knee surgery.
“The only circumstance that changed was this trade offer from the Vikings”, Roseman said.
“This was not our blueprint; this was not part of the plan”, Roseman admitted Saturday after making the deal.
PHILADELPHIA Quarterback Sam Bradford got the trade he lobbied for.
Luck, of course, played a role, and, no, not Andrew. Only 7 million will count against the cap for the Vikes with the Bradford additional as they made the trade after 9/1 when bonuses were due to Bradford.
And despite the fact he hasn’t seen game action since August 11 and missed a ton of physical reps in the process; now, the Eagles seem ready to hand the keys to Wentz immediately, even for Week 1 against Cleveland, if the North Dakota State product is deemed fully healthy. They dealt that one and others to move up for Wentz this spring.
“It starts with his attention to detail; the way he goes about his business”, Roseman said of the rookie. “But at the same time, we rely on the [coaches] who are around him all the time”.
There are the good and the bad in starting a rookie at quarterback. The situations, 17 years apart, stand as flawless mirror images, Andy Reid-Donovan McNabb the model for Doug Pederson-Wentz. It was an impressive debut, and he certainly looked the part, but he was far from flawless. He missed the rest of the preseason and has yet to participate in a full practice.
With the National Football League draft being staged in Philadelphia in April, it was a nice added touch for the Eagles to get a first-rounder, which they previously lacked.
There are risks. The Eagles don’t want to hinder Wentz’s confidence. His lone action came against the Buccaneers’ second and third units. A day ago, Wentz was set to take just scout team repetitions as the third quarterback.
After a report became known that the Browns organization spent six figures to do an analytics study that showed that Bridgewater would be the best suited quarterback for the Browns coming out of the 2014 NFL Draft, the organization disregarded the study and made a decision to trade up four spots to draft Johnny Manziel with Bridgewater and Derek Carr still on the board.
If Wentz really is what Pederson and the Eagles think he is, which is a guy worth five draft picks, including a future first-rounder, you’ll see a young man with a fast learning curve; a quick-study guy who doesn’t make the same rookie mistakes twice. Everything he does or might do as the Eagles’ coach now matters more to his future with them. Wentz is already ahead of Daniel. But he won’t be the star right away.
But did anyone in the locker room have faith in Shaun Hill?
But both long- and short-term gains outweigh the risks. He had a good preseason and said recently that his comfort was at an “all-time high”.
It will be a very tall order to Bradford to overcome.
Defensively, Minnesota should be even better than its overall ranking of 13th previous year. But that’s how convinced the Vikings are that they have a Super Bowl-caliber team coming off an 11-5 division championship season. There are holes and a lack of depth. I’ve always found Bradford a little overrated, and just someone who I wouldn’t be thrilled with as my team’s starter. Chase Daniel is better than what we saw in the preseason, but even if the ideal was giving Wentz a season to sit behind someone, Daniel doesn’t seem to be good enough to do it.
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Bridgewater’s injury increased the cost, the Vikings bit, and the Eagles, in turn, accelerated the timetable on Wentz.
