August 05, 2015
The Eagles and Sam Bradford are in an interesting negotiating position as the quarterback enters the final year of what has been a very lucrative rookie contract. Does it make sense to lock him up when his stock is pretty low before the season starts? That carries the risk of Bradford suffering another injury sometime during the 2015 season.
On the other hand, letting Bradford play out the season also carries some risk. If the quarterback lights it up in Chip Kelly’s system (plausible), he could be due for a pretty big payday at the end of the season. According to ESPN’s Ed Werder, Kelly and co. don’t want that to happen and are trying to hedge their bet:
The Philadelphia Eagles have interest in tying starting quarterback Sam Bradford to the franchise beyond the upcoming season and have begun discussing a contract extension, according to sources.
It is not expected the negotiations would result in a long-term contract but more likely an agreement providing the team control of Bradford past the 2015 season, the final year of his current contract.
From everything you read about training camp, it doesn’t seem like there is much of a quarterback competition going on. Bradford is getting the majority of the first-team reps, and he seems like the Eagles’ starter barring injury on Monday night in Atlanta.
1. From Jimmy’s practice notes, Zach Ertz had a nice day at The Linc, Jordan Matthews kept on keepin’ on, and Dennis Kelly suffered some serious public humiliation:
2. As someone who saw Matthews in action for a few days at training camp last year, I can back up what Jimmy wrote about the second-year receiver’s stamina. The Vanderbilt product never seems to get tired.
3. DeMarco Murray, meet Bobby Boucher.
4. Two years after it happened, the Riley Cooper incident at the Kenny Chesney concert is still part of the dialogue surrounding Chip Kelly and the Eagles.
#EaglesHOF Inductee Brian Westbrook: PhiladelphiaEagles.com
When the Eagles got a big play to bail them out during the Andy Reid era, the odds are Brian Westbrook was making that play. I always felt the screen pass he took to the house in Tampa is forgotten too easily because the opposing kicker just so happened to knock in a 63-yarder to win the game a couple of minutes after.
Westbrook is very deserving of his upcoming induction into the Eagles Hall of Fame. Here is what he said of his playoff success:
"I think it's always been my motto that the best players play the best when they need it the most, and your team is never going to need you more than in a scenario where if you lose you go home. That's the playoffs, and your mentality has to take it to a different level.”
Chip Kelly and His Relentless Assault on the Status Quo: Mike Tanier, Bleacher Report
Tanier does a deep dive on the Eagles’ offseason. I'm talking an Olympic pool here. Well-researched piece, which includes some awesome Joe Banner and Dick Vermeil quotes:
Understanding Chip Kelly’s plan for the Philadelphia Eagles requires abandoning everything you thought you knew about football. It’s not a simple plan. It’s certainly not a conventional one. But it’s not just some ego trip or scattershot player grab, either.
“It was perceived as if this was random, all over the place, but I think this was a well-thought-out, clear plan,” said Joe Banner, former Eagles president and general manager.
Chip Kelly's not-so-crazy track record: Mike Sando, ESPN Insider
Sando does a medium dive on the Eagles’ offseason and takes a different angle than Tanier did:
While roster churn is part of life in the NFL for every team, Kelly isn't conventional. He's more fearless than most, and his theory on past injuries not being an indicator of future ones flouts established thought (Travis Long's situation notwithstanding). But if you can set aside your own NFL worldview and piece together where Kelly might be coming from, he isn't necessarily as unorthodox as his moves make him out to be. In reality, when you analyze the more notable moves individually, you see a pattern of, well, logical decisions. Let's take a look.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
