Adrian Fedkiw
Howie Roseman called getting from the No. 13 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft to No. 2 or No. 1 a “pipe dream” a few months ago. After some fantastic maneuvering, that pipe dream become a reality Thursday night when Carson Wentz became the Philadelphia Eagles’ next potential franchise quarterback.
Incumbent starter Sam Bradford, however, isn’t happy that the Eagles got up to No. 2 and requested to be traded in the week leading up to the draft. Roseman appeared on The Mike & Mike Show on ESPN Radio Tuesday to discuss the Eagles’ decision to trade up and Bradford’s trade demands.
Roseman began by explaining Philadelphia’s plan when it hired head coach Doug Pederson in January.
“It started when we hired coach (Pederson),” he said. “It started with trying to re-sign Sam, then we wanted a back-up quarterback who had experience with Doug in that system who can be a coach on and off the field and of course come in and win some games.”
It was also a priority to obtain a young quarterback for the Birds to develop, but Roseman didn’t think it was possible to get into the top five.
“We were picking at 13, it was at that point a pipe dream that we were going to get at No. 1 or No. 2 or in the top five because we didn’t have a second-round pick,” he said.
Then Roseman was able to work out a trade with the Miami Dolphins to get into the top 10 and things began to change.
“After we met as a staff and went through our draft board, we thought it was a priority to get into the top 10 to get an impact player. We were able to do that when the league year started with our trade with the Dolphins giving them two starters. Once we got into the top ten and started doing research on the players that we were interested in, these quarterbacks (Carson Wentz and Jared Goff) really jumped out to us,” he said.
Roseman stated that North Dakota State’s Wentz and California’s Goff were “neck and neck” in the evaluation process.
“They’re really good players to be up that high and for us to be willing to give up what we were willing to do. In this league one player makes a huge difference, especially at the quarterback position,” he said.
Roseman also explained that the Eagles had a “pretty good indication” of who the Los Angeles Rams were taking before moving up to No. 2. Reports surfaced last month that Pederson “loved” Carson Wentz and the Eagles were going to do anything possible to get him. Roseman made the deal to get up to No. 2 eight days before the draft.
“We had pretty good indication of who they were taking,” he said. “Of course, there’s no guarantee on any of that so you have to be comfortable with both.”
Roseman called the Eagles trading up a “unique moment” for them to make it up there.
“You had teams that were willing to move the pick, because you can be close to the top, but then teams need a quarterback and don’t want to trade the pick,” he said.
And about Wentz being the preference? “He fits our city, our football team, what coach is looking to do,” Roseman said.
Bradford, of course, isn’t a happy camper of how things went down, but Roseman understands his quarterback’s frustration. He said that “these things have a way of working themselves out.” There were two teams who needed starting quarterbacks heading into the draft, New York Jets and Denver Broncos, but the Jets weren’t interested in trading for Bradford and the Broncos traded up in the first round so they could select Memphis’ Paxton Lynch as its franchise quarterback.
“Somebody told me a long time ago, don’t worry so much about what happens in April and May, worry about what happens when you get into August and September,” Roseman said. “Sam’s a pro. He understands he’s got a great opportunity here to come in and be the starting quarterback with our group of players around him and hopefully win some games.”
Reports surfaced last week that Bradford had stopped returning phone calls from Eagles management, but Roseman stated that he has not reached out to him and again re-iterated that the Eagles have not reached out to teams about trading Bradford.
“We’re going to do what’s in the best interest of our team,” he said “Of course, if anything make’s us better we’ll look at it, but we’re really comfortable where we’re at at the quarterback position.”
The biggest dilemma about trading Bradford is his money situation. It makes a lot more sense to keep him at this point because of not only salary cap hit, but the Eagles also had no leverage as most NFL franchises already have their starting quarterbacks in tow for the upcoming season.
Bradford has a cap hit of $12.5 million this season and the Eagles would save just $1.5 million in cap space due to a dead money value of $11 million if they traded him prior to June 1st. That dead money value drops to $5.5 million if Philadelphia elects to ship him away after June 1st and it would save $7 million. Next year the cap hit rises to $22.5 million with a $5.5 million dead money value. Philly would save $17 million in cap space if it traded him after the season and you’d think a potential trade partner would renegotiate his contract.
Bradford’s free agency period was pretty dry and nobody really wanted to trade for his so he could become “the man” elsewhere. He’s going to have no choice but to play for Philadelphia this season.
You can listen to the audio of Roseman’s interview below, beginning at the 26-minute mark.