The Eagles traded up twice to No. 2 to draft North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz on Thursday night.
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Perhaps just as important to the Eagles, and Wentz’s success, was finding players in the draft who can protect Wentz when he’s ready to take over as the starter, presumably in the 2017 season.
That same contract, regardless of the big money (two seasons, $35 million, $22 million guaranteed) involved, turned Bradford into a lame duck the instant the trade with Cleveland was made and executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman announced what the team would do with the higher pick. At that time, the Eagles will, as head coach Doug Pederson told reporters after last week’s National Football League draft, “welcome [him] with open arms”. If there’s one man Sam Bradford needs to be anxious about, it’s the Quarterback who already knows the system, is already affiliated with the Head Coach and is approaching the offseason workout program with tremendous amounts of optimism despite essentially being demoted to a long term backup/third string. I saw him play a couple of times. Obviously I know he was a top pick and everything, not too many years ago, and obviously I know he was with the Rams and everything, and now here.
Wentz appeared on the cover of ESPN the Magazine before the draft.
Buried in that non-answer could be a message to the Eagles that perhaps Bradford would be willing to, for example, sacrifice all or part of the second installment of $5.5 million.
Bradford has never had a heated battle for playing time.
The Eagles are no longer his team. Things finally had settled down at Denver until the very team that looked to have shown trust in him went on and drafted a quarterback anyway, while he was at the draft party, a shady move by the Broncos to say the least. “I think I’ll fit in well”. (That perception is unfair, actually, but that’s a separate column.) But there’s another key factor at work here: the trend against keeping a highly drafted quarterback on the sideline. “He’s the guy that we want leading this charge and when he comes back, he’s welcome with open arms”. He told Wentz the Eagles were eager to see him Friday and get him a playbook. The NFL’s most awkward quarterback room.
– Fried chicken.to represent Bradford being.well, you get the idea. The longer Bradford goes without returning phone calls from the coach, much less diving into the playbook, the more hard it will be for him to just jump right over top of Daniel on the depth chart.
If anything, the team’s fans will be less patient with Bradford now than they were with Pederson then; fairly or unfairly, many of them perceive Bradford as a malcontented wuss who doesn’t want to fight for his job.
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“You’ve got Bradford and you’ve got Daniel, so you’ve got two veteran guys that can help teach, especially with Chase”, Pederson said. Walker will need to earn a roster spot, but he has the chance to add depth for the birds at linebacker.
