Philadelphia Eagles Re-Sign Sam Bradford: Where Do They Go From Here?
By Mike Lacy

The Philadelphia Eagles have agreed on a two-year contract with pending free agent quarterback Sam Bradford. After the 2015 season ended, the biggest question mark facing the team was who would be the team’s starting quarterback next year.
Now that they’ve answered that question, we know a little more about what’s going to happen in 2016, and we can start to imagine what’s going to happen next.
The Philadelphia Eagles Want to Win in 2016.
Philadelphia Eagles fans seem split on their opinion of Bradford. I feel that he’s not one of the better quarterbacks in the league, but he was probably the team’s best option for 2016. There were no immediate impact QBs in the draft, and even if there were, the Eagles aren’t in a position to draft them. The free agent class looked uninspiring; and unless you think that either Colin Kaepernick or Robert Griffin is due for a career turnaround, the trade market was barren as well. Therefore, if the Eagles wanted any hope of competing for a playoff spot in 2016, Bradford needed to be their quarterback.
The hope is that Bradford will be better in 2016. There are a few reasons to believe that he will be: He had a relatively strong second half in 2015, he’ll be another year removed from his latest knee injury, and presumably the team’s offensive strategy will be a little more intricate than, “We’re going to run basic plays, but we’ll run them really fast!”
Will that be enough to make the Eagles a Super Bowl contender? Probably not. But can a Bradford-led team win what appears to be a wide-open NFC East? Sure.
How does this Impact Sanchez?
During his two seasons with the team, Mark Sanchez has proven to be an adequate backup. He’s shown the ability to step and play well enough to win some games, but he’s nowhere near good enough to carry the team for an extended period. The question is: Do the Eagles value that adequacy enough to pay him $5.5 million next year.
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Chances are, the team’s success doesn’t hinge on quarterback play – or at least we should hope not, because as mentioned, it’s difficult to envision Bradford carrying the team to greatness. So why spend a lot of money on a backup quarterback, especially when that money could be used to shore up some of the other weaknesses?
It may come down to who they could get to replace Sanchez. While it may not be prudent to have an expensive backup, they also don’t want to see Bradford (inevitably?) get hurt and have the season undone by a quarterback who can’t play. (See the 2015 Cowboys for example.)
If Chase Daniel or Nick Foles came cheaply, I’d be fine with them. But if the overall cost of acquiring them and the dead money that would be owed Sanchez ($2 million) is almost as much as they’d pay Sanchez, then they might as well just keep the Sanchize around for another year.
The Philadelphia Eagles are Going to Draft a Quarterback.
If the Eagles thought Bradford was the long-term answer at quarterback, they likely would have signed him for longer than two years. It seems like they’ plan to draft someone who they can develop slowly.
They might even draft said quarterback in the first round. Unfortunately, since they have already traded their second round pick, spending their first rounder on a future quarterback means they’ll get zero contribution from the first two rounds of the 2016 draft for at least a couple of years. For a team that has a decent number of holes, that’s not good for the immediate future.
Then again, considering they’ve received almost nothing from their last two first round draft picks, maybe it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Free Agency Won’t be Very Exciting.
The 2015 free agency period was an exciting one for Eagles fans. It seemed like there was big news happening every day: LeSean McCoy was traded! They traded for Sam Bradford! They signed Frank Gore! They didn’t sign Frank Gore! They signed DeMarco Murray!
If there’s one thing NFL history should have taught us, it’s that the teams who have the most exciting offseasons usually suffer some disappointment in the regular season. (Of course, we should have already known that from the 2011 “Dream Team,” but that didn’t stop everyone from getting excited last year.)
Howie Roseman has gone on record saying that the team probably won’t be very active in free agency. While it’s difficult to trust much of what an NFL general manager (or whatever Howie’s current title is), based on the team’s history and their salary cap situation, I tend to believe him.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see them pursue a veteran offensive lineman, and I suppose that somebody has to play safety for them next year. But I expect the names they bring in to be more along the lines of the 2013 class rather than the 2015 class.
Next: Should the Eagles Consider Resigning Sam Bradford?
So now that Bradford is secured and the offseason direction has been set, should the Eagles count on having a winning 2016 season? That’s the biggest question of all, and one that we won’t get the answer to for a while.