Breaking News: Eagles, Bradford Agree to 2-Year Contract

March 2nd, 2016 by Ryan Waterman | Filed under Eagles, Football, General, NFL.
Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America)

Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America)

The suspense is finally over…

We now know, that Sam Bradford will be back in a Philadelphia Eagles uniform come next season. In fact, he’ll be back in Philly for the next two seasons.

That’s right folks, mere moments after the March 1 Franchise Tag deadline passed, the Eagles to the team’s Twitter account to announce this news.

Only minutes later, ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the terms of the

$18 million per season. That seems like an awful lot of money, on paper. Well, you’re not wrong. It is a lot of money, and it’s a little surprising that the Eagles gave that much money. This deal is a clear sign to me, that the Eagles wanted Sam Bradford, just as much as Bradford needed the Eagles. The bright spot in this contract though, is the limited commitment. A two-year pact gives the Eagles enough time to draft Bradford’s successor, in the event that this contract doesn’t work out. If it does work out, the Eagles look pretty smart for believing in the former Oklahoma Sooner.

In 2015, Bradford completed a career-high 65% of his passes for a career-best 3,725 yards, with 19 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He came three touchdown passes short of breaking that career-best, as well. For all of the grief that Sam took last season, his numbers are seemingly overlooked. The 28-year-old had  a career-year last season, and was rewarded for it. He’ll look to build on the successful campaign, by continuing to build on the chemistry he established  with teammates in 2016.

Many people believed that Bradford was not worth the money, and have heavily criticized the contract. Some of the reactions from fans include:

This deal will leave Eagles fans wondering what the team will do come the NFL Draft in April. General consensus only days ago, was that the Eagles were likely to target a quarterback like Paxton Lynch or Connor Cook in the first round, to ensure that they have a signal-caller to build around for the future. Bringing back Bradford changes that I believe, as the Eagles will likely now look to surround Bradford with an arsenal of weapons capable of showing that he is worth what they’re paying him. That means, strengthening the offensive line and upgrading the skill positions. With Bradford’s salary commanding almost $20 Million, that likely means that we’ll see more cap casualties in the coming days. Players like Jason Peters, Darren Sproles, and Mark Sanchez could very well be among the casualties. Check back with TSP later this week, for any further updates regarding the cap situation, in addition to my updated NFL Mock Draft-Post Combine edition.

It remains to be seen if Bradford lives up to the contract or not, but this looks to be only one a few moves that could be made by the already active Birds heading into the Legal Tampering Period that begins on March 7. Having already reached deals or extensions with Bradford, Vinny Curry, and Malcolm Jenkins among a few others, the next likeliest option to receive a payday is Fletcher Cox. Needless to say though, that Free Agency just got a whole lot more interesting for the Birds, when the league year rolls over on March 9th.

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