Nick Piccone
After Saturday night’s game, Sam Bradford said he would like to remain an Eagle if the situation presented itself. He cited as learning a new offense almost every year and the difficulty of doing so as the main reason, and also said he liked being in Philadelphia.
On Monday morning on his weekly 94WIP interview, Chip Kelly mentioned, among other things, that he’d like Bradford to remain his quarterback next season. I’m more willing to move on from him and getting a mobile quarterback in this system, but Bradford had a good second half of the season and the Eagles’ woes are most certainly not on him.
Here’s what Chip said regarding bringing Bradford back:
Yeah, that always happens after the season, there’s never negotiations with anybody during the season,” Kelly said. “We certainly want Sam back and we’ll try to do everything we can to get him here.”
If the Eagles can’t get themselves a more mobile quarterback, I don’t see Bradford returning to the pack next season as being the worst thing the team could do. Is what Chip said just coachspeak? Is what Bradford said just playerspeak? Who knows? But it’s interesting enough for Chip to say publicly he wants Bradford back after this season, days after Bradford said he wanted to return here.
If you’ll recall, Bradford didn’t sound too enthused about signing an extension with the Eagles after the Bills game. And if he doesn’t re-sign with the team before reaching free agency, some team out there will probably pay him what he’ll command. So, this’ll be an interesting situation to watch as we head into the offseason.
The Eagles could put the franchise tag on Bradford, but it would cost them over $18 million. Is Bradford an $18 million/year quarterback? Nope.
This, of course, is predicated on Chip remaining the head coach of the Eagles into next season. I don’t think Lurie will fire him, and it would probably be a major shocker if he did.
You can listen to the entire interview below.