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Earlier this week, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the Eagles and Sam Bradford have yet to discuss a contract extension to keep the veteran quarterback in Philadelphia. This inaction has caused some to speculate that the Eagles could trade Bradford in a potential 2015 NFL Draft deal that would help them land Oregon Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota.
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According to Jason Cole, Bradford himself believes he might be on the move. Via Bleacher Report:
"Contract talks between Sam Bradford and the Philadelphia Eagles have been basically non-existent so far for a very good reason. In talking to sources around the league and close to Bradford, basically what’s happened is Bradford is not willing to accept a substandard deal based on the injuries that he’s suffered the past two years and have kept him off the field.
The reason is really obvious: he has a lot of money left in the bank from that $50 million signing bonus he got being the No. 1 overall pick in 2010.
However, if you go on the other side of this, Bradford wants to play this out and see what his real value is out on the market and assuming that he can get back to the levels that he showed during the early part of the 2013 season.
In addition to all of that, Bradford doesn’t know where he’s going to be. Yes, he believes the Eagles are going to keep him at this point in time, trust them, but only so far because the [2015 NFL Draft] has not played out. So he believes there is still a possibility that he could be traded somewhere else. And if that’s the case, he wants to wait to see whether that’s a team he ultimately wants to stay with long-term."
It makes sense that Bradford is in no rush to redo his deal. The oft-injured passer is scheduled to make over $13 million in 2015 and has made a lot of money to this point. He can wait to see how he performs in the 2015 season.
The Eagles might be a little more eager than Bradford to get a deal done if they think they can get him at a reasonable price. But they likely won't be in a rush to hand a big extension to a player with Bradford's injury concerns without seeing him play in Philadelphia first.
Meanwhile, the Mariota factor looms large in all of this. The Eagles really aren't going to be in a rush to sign Bradford if he's not in the long-term plans and they believe they can flip him to get Mariota. The Browns are believed to be one team interested in Bradford, but Cleveland is concerned he won't sign an extension. A report in February indicated some teams at the top of this year's draft order actually prefer Bradford to Jameis Winston and Mariota.
If the Eagles don't get Mariota, however, it'll be interesting to see how they handle Bradford's situation.