Philadelphia Eagles News & Notes: Did NFL Team Make Mistake Trading Away Nick Foles for Sam Bradford?
There's no about it: The Philadelphia Eagles have stolen the 2015 NFL headlines more than any other team in the league.
Head coach Chip Kelly and his team have traded away an All-Pro running back in LeSean McCoy for Kiko Alonso, who missed all of last season. Just last season, the Eagles released one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, DeSean Jackson, who is now with the Washington Redskins. The Eagles also made big moves acquiring DeMarco Murray and Byron Maxwell this offseason.
By far, the biggest questionable decision made by the Eagles this offseason was trading away quarterback Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams.
Foles played well with the Eagles starting 24 games putting together a 15-9 record. Foles was 14-4 over the last two seasons as the Eagles starter, and threw 40 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions in that time span. In 2013, Foles had an outstanding season throwing for 27 touchdowns to just two inceptions with a league-leading 119.2 passer rating.
In return for the up and coming young Foles, the Eagles got back Sam Bradford. Bradford missed all of last season because of a torn ACL injury he suffered in preseason. That marked the second consecutive year that Bradford tore his ACL. Not only did the Eagles trade for an injury prone quarterback with just one year remaining on his contract, but they gave up a fourth round pick and a potential second round pick as well.
Bradford isn't a terrible quarterback, but he just doesn't play enough to validate a trade for Foles. Bradford has one year remaining on his contract, in which he is scheduled to count $12.985 million against the Eagles salary cap. The Rams selected Bradford No. 1 overall in 2010, but they knew it was time to move on from him.
It looks as if the Eagles acquired Bradford in an attempt to trade him before or during the 2015 NFL Draft. Kelly and the rest of Eagles management truly thought they could get value for Bradford, possibly use that to draft Marcus Mariota out of Oregon. Only, nobody fell for the banana in the tail pipe.
Which isn't surprising.
Why would a team trade away a first round pick for a quarterback who has torn his ACL the last two consecutive seasons? The Eagles do have a backup plan. Not only did they re-sign Mark Sanchez to a two-year contract, but they even signed Tim Tebow this offseason. If Bradford gets injured and missed games for a third consecutive year, the Eagles will have to rely on Sanchez or Tebow to win the NFC East over the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and Washington Redskins.
Signing Tebow could definitely pay off for the Eagles, because of the way Tebow plays and the way Kelly operates an offense. Signing Tebow has potential reward with no risk whatsoever. Tebow is also a good red zone quarterback who can extend plays with his feet.
It will be interesting to see what happens after this upcoming season when Bradford and Tebow are free agents.
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