Sam Bradford is easily the best quarterback on the Philadelphia Eagles. His accuracy and experience running an offense has never been up for questioning, and Bradford’s ability to find open receivers is not the problem either.
Bradford simply doesn’t want to be on the team anymore.
Honestly, who could blame him? In essence, he was given a two-year, $36 million “prove it” contract with the hope of being extended as the permanent starter in Philadelphia. Not long after that, the Eagles signed Chase Daniel to a fairly large deal considering he is supposed to be backing Bradford up.
To make matters worse, Daniel’s contract is a year longer than Bradford’s is. Then the team invests a multitude of their own draft choices to jump to the top of the draft and select an even younger quarterback by the name of Carson Wentz, who is almost guaranteed the starting job at some point in the future.
Who would be happy in a situation that guarantees the demise of their own longevity with the team?
Keeping all this in mind, Bradford’s decision not to attend the Eagles voluntary offseason workout is not surprising. He has stopped taking calls from the Eagles coaching staff, and his agent, Tom Condon, is still in pursuit of a trade from the team even as EVP of personnel Howie Roseman has insisted that Bradford is the starting quarterback this upcoming season.
The question now becomes whether or not Bradford will eventually show up for any of the Eagles workouts, and what would happen if he doesn’t. Head coach Doug Pederson has already taken a stance against Bradford’s decision to not attend the voluntary workouts in a statement with PhillyMag.com:
“Anybody that’s not in any of the 32 offseason programs is losing valuable time at the club. So anybody that’s not in the offseason program, yes, would lose the time.”
Needless to say, Bradford could skip out on all of the voluntary workouts and simply arrive for OTA’s and training camp. Still, that scenario would put Bradford behind the rest of the quarterback room in learning the offense, and thus could cost him a comfortable spot at the top of the depth chart. In that case, Daniel would assume the role of starting quarterback.
Or would he?
To start, Bradford is assuredly going to be the starting quarterback for the Eagles this upcoming season, considering a trade doesn’t take place. In fact, the only way Bradford will not start for the Eagles this season is if he chooses not to show up for training camp, which would only hurt Bradford’s pockets. If it does happen though, the idea that Roseman and Pederson would choose to keep Wentz on the bench is far from a guarantee.
Daniel starting for the Eagles this season would not be the most terrible thing that has ever happened. However, the learning curve for Wentz would have to be strong as he could likely see his first start later on in the season.
Considering the fact that Wentz has not received a ‘B’ grade in his schooling career since middle school, he certainly seems capable of learning quickly and picking up what could be a considered a difficult skill when having to read NFL defenses. Let’s hope we can give our gifted rookie as much time as possible to prepare for the fire he will inevitably be thrown in.
Let’s also hope Bradford honors the contract he signed in the beginning of March.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
