What They’re Saying About the Eagles
Sam Bradford. (Jeff Fusco)
While the Eagles’ brass pursue a quarterback road trip, the national and local media continue to speculate on a number of Eagles-related issues. Here’s the latest.
Fox Sports’ Nunzio Ingrassia questions the Eagles’ commitment to Sam Bradford.
The Philadelphia Eagles signed Sam Bradford to a two-year, $36 million deal the beginning of this month, and it appears the team isn’t banking on him being their quarterback after that contract expires.
A day after the Eagles worked out Jared Goff — one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s draft — ESPN’s Adam Caplan reported that Philadelphia are scheduled work out the other prize QB prospect — Carson Wentz.
Daniel Jeremiah addressed the rumors that the Eagles are planning to make a play for quarterback, and whether those rumors should be viewed as legitimate or not.
I think absolutely you take them seriously. They’re doing all this work for a reason. They’ve got quarterbacks that they can line up and play and win games with, but I don’t know that they have a qb on roster that can lead them to a championship, and anytime as an organization when you’re in the meeting room and you ask, “do we have a quarterback on our roster that can win us a super bowl?” if it’s not a quick yes, then you’re going to be out there looking at all available options, and you have to do your homework.
Shannon Sharpe joined Doug Gottlieb to address the same question.
And so now all the guys that [Chip Kelly] brought in, they’re getting rid off. And so know they’re like, what are we? Who are we? What are we going to do now?I know what Sam Bradford is. I’ve seen the movie, I’ve read the book… pressure, he fold like lawn chair in the face of pressure. He’s a guy that’s gonna win you about six to seven games. And that’s what he was in Philly. A seven win quarterback.
Zach Berman examines these same rumors.
The implications of drafting a quarterback in the first round are different than doing so in the seventh round, but the Eagles already made a significant investment in Sam Bradford being the starter for the 2016 season. Still, if the Eagles take a quarterback in the early rounds of the draft, it raises the question of what that would signal to Bradford. His contract is structured so most of the money is in the first year of the deal, so Bradford likely knows there is not a long-term commitment now. But Pederson shared his memories of Brett Favre’s reaction when the Packers brought in quarterbacks as an example of how the No. 1 quarterback must think.
ESPN.com has the Eagles at 20th in their latest power rankings, directly behind the Giants, while CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco slotted them at 24th. Here’s what ESPN had to say:
Sam Bradford is back at quarterback and Chase Daniel is now the backup. There’s a good chance Daniel will play, too: Bradford has missed 33 games in his six-year career, including two last season.
Mike Sando of ESPN gave all 32 teams free agency grades now that teams are shifting focus toward the draft. The Eagles received an A, the highest grade in the league.
“It is a makeover,” [ESPN analyst Bill] Polian said, “but unlike in Cleveland, it is a makeover that you can say, ‘Oh, yeah, this makes sense, this makes sense, this guy fits.’
[ESPN analyst Mark] Dominik liked the Eagles moving from 13th to eighth in the first-round order because he sees nine blue-chip players in this draft, counting two quarterbacks. He thought the Eagles’ trades allowed them to dump salaries while recouping draft capital roughly equivalent to the second-round pick they sent to St. Louis in the Sam Bradford trade last offseason.
“They went a little steep with Curry, but he will fit Jim Schwartz,” [ESPN analyst Louis] Riddick said. “Bradford is a good fit for Doug Pederson. Nolan Carroll they respected. They paid top money for Brandon Brooks, but needed to do something there. Rodney McLeod, I love how he plays. Chase Daniel should have started over Alex Smith at one point last season. I like Nigel Bradham physically. And then to be able to get rid of [Byron] Maxwell and [Kiko] Alonso and DeMarco [Murray] and then moving Mark Sanchez is amazing. I’d be dancing a jig in the middle of Broad Street.”
NFL.com’s Connor Orr handed out high school yearbook-style superlatives to NFL executives for this year’s free agency.
Most likely to be tired of having their aggressive maneuvers questioned because they did not come from a traditional scouting background — TIE between Mike Tannenbaum (Miami Dolphins) and Howie Roseman (Philadelphia Eagles): Both of these executives had incredibly headline-worthy offseasons. Tannenbaum brought in the likes of Mario Williams, Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso. Roseman managed to get rid of Alonso, Maxwell and DeMarco Murray. Both have been questioned — Tannenbaum for letting young talent like Olivier Vernon skip out the door and signing Williams; Roseman for paying Chase Daniel more than any backup quarterback in football. Each, however, has built competitive, championship-caliber football teams in the past. Every year we cycle back around to the football guy and not a football guy argument and these names come up frequently. Do they not know what they’re doing, or are they simply trying to position themselves to recover and rebuild with new coaching staffs coming in?
NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal examines players that find themselves in better positions in the depth chart for their teams after free agency.
Jordan Hicks: The new Eagles regime doesn’t want to delete all of Chip Kelly’s acquisitions. Hicks, a third-round pick last year, is the team’s new starting middle linebacker after the departures of DeMeco Ryans and Kiko Alonso. Coach Doug Pederson confirmed this week that Hicks is going to take over in the middle for coordinator Jim Schwartz’s 4-3 defense. Mychal Kendricks will be on the weak side with free-agent pickup Nigel Bradham on the strong side. It’s an intriguing group and Hicks has a chance to be a breakout star.
The pick: DE Mike Mamula, No. 7 overall in 1995
The miss: DT Warren Sapp, No. 12 overall to Buccaneers
Mamula blew up at the NFL Combine as a workout warrior before the draft, and his stock had a meteoric rise. Many teams bought into him becoming an unstoppable athletic pass rusher. They were all wrong. It especially hurts Philadelphia because a premier interior defensive lineman in Sapp was still on the board. The Eagles had a couple of other notable whiffs in the first round — taking wide receiver Freddie Mitchell instead of Reggie Wayne in ‘01 and taking defensive end Jerome McDougle one spot ahead of Troy Polamalu in ’03.
And finally, Elliott Harrison of NFL.com names Reggie White as the second best defensive player of all time.
If it weren’t for one of his opponents in the NFC East [Lawrence Taylor], White would stand atop this list. He could dominate from outside or inside the defensive line. The NFC boasted approximately 10 Pro Bowl-caliber defensive ends when White entered the league in 1985 (following a stint in the USFL), thus his 13 sacks in 13 games were barely noticed. However, his production from 1986 through ’88 is the best three-year run any pass rusher in the Super Bowl era has ever put together: 57 sacks in 44 games (with the strike-shortened ’87 season). White made first-team All-Pro those three seasons, as well as the next three after that. Then he received that honor twice more with the Packers, whom he helped win one Super Bowl and make another.