Three Leftovers: Kelce Working With Bradford
From Connor Barwin’s contract to Jason Kelce’s view of the QB situation to Jeremy Maclin’s praise for Nick Foles, here are three Eagles leftovers from Todd Herremans’ charity event on Thursday night.
1. Kelce is one of the Eagles players who stays in the Philadelphia area and works out at the NovaCare Complex in the offseason. That means he’s already had a chance to get a first impression of new quarterback Sam Bradford. So what does Kelce think?
“I’ve been meeting with him and going over things,” Kelce said. “I think he’s a guy that comes off as very cerebral, very smart, very quick. He’s had a lot of bad luck in his career as far as injuries are concerned and as far as… I don’t want to throw any offensive lines under the bus, but I think he’s much better suited now with us. I think that he has a good chance to be very successful in this offense.”
As for the draft, Kelce said he doesn’t think the Eagles will make a move to land Marcus Mariota.
“Oh, I don’t think Mariota will be the quarterback,” he said. “But there’s a lot of things this offseason that have been surprising, so I’m not gonna rule anything out. But I think that from what Chip [Kelly’s] been saying in the media and from what the organization’s putting out there, I’d be surprised if they still made a move for Mariota.”
2. Jeremy Maclin is headed to Kansas City, but he still showed up for Herremans’ event. I asked him what he would have said before 2014 if someone told him it would be the last year in Philadelphia for himself, Foles and LeSean McCoy.
“If you’d have told me two years ago that would be the case, I would have laughed,” Maclin said. “This is a business. Things like that happen. LeSean I think is gonna do great in Buffalo. I have all the faith in the world in Nick. I’m a big, big Nick Foles fan. I think given the right circumstances and the right chance, I think he’s an elite quarterback. So I have all the faith in the world in those guys.”
Maclin’s numbers in 2014 were fantastic with Foles running the show. They dipped when Mark Sanchez took over as Sanchez struggled to get the ball downfield.
Maclin will now get a chance to be the No. 1 guy in Andy Reid’s offense with Alex Smith under center.
3. Earlier this month, the Eagles restructured Barwin’s contract, reportedly giving him an extra $750,000 for years 2016 through 2018, along with guaranteeing his base salary in 2015 and guaranteeing $3 million in 2016.
“They came out of the blue,” Barwin said. “I was in Haiti, and I got a voicemail from Chip and text from my agent, and that was it. They said this is what we’re doing. It’s not a negotiation, but this is what we’re doing because we think it’s the right thing to do, and that was it. I was obviously very, very happy about it and very thankful.”
Of course, it’s not common for teams to just hand out money or redo contracts without pressure from a player’s agent.
“I’m sure they have their reasons,” Barwin said. “I’m sure if you ask them, they would give you the reasons. But that’s for them to answer. I was obviously very happy about it, but it’s a year-to-year business. So at least I know I’ll be here this year.”