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Eagles, Sam Bradford have discussed contract extension according to Chip Kelly

Will a deal get done before this season?

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Despite multiple reports that indicate otherwise, Chip Kelly denied that the Eagles tried to trade Sam Bradford (or any player) on draft night. Later during his Thursday night press availability, Kelly was asked the following question:

Do you feel you'll have to have a conversation with Sam Bradford with his name being tossed about, whether you confirmed it or not in trades?  You haven't talked to him about the contract extension?

To which the Eagles coach replied:

"We have talked to him about contracts. Do I feel like I have to have a conversation with him?  No. I talked to him tonight about taking a wide receiver, so he seemed pretty fired up about that."

When asked if the Eagles and Bradford are close on a contract, Kelly declined to answer.

Bradford's contract situation obviously bears monitoring moving forward. The oft-injured veteran is set to earn $13 million on the last year of his current deal.

On Monday evening, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that the Eagles are "very committed" to Bradford and that the team is trying to work on an extension with him. Mortensen's report directly conflicts with a report from last week by Pro Football Talk that the Eagles and Bradford have NOT talked about an extension yet.

It remains to be seen how the Eagles will handle this situation. Investing money in Bradford is obviously risky due to his injury history. On the other hand, it could benefit the Eagles to lock up Bradford now. If the Eagles let Bradford play out the final year of his deal and he plays well, they will be forced to reward him with a big contract. Then again, Bradford really has no incentive to rush into a deal now.

In the meantime, Bradford is still recovering from an ACL injury he suffered in the summer of 2014. Kelly offered an update on his status:

"He's in Philly.  He was here today.  I expect to see him tomorrow rehabbing.  He's on schedule from talking to our doctors and our trainers.  I think when we traded for him the following Sunday, he was in this building, and he's been here every day since.  I think he's gone home one weekend.  He's working extremely hard.  Really progressing out there.  Monday will be the first day for us where we actually go on the field with him as coaches.  So the last two weeks of the offseason program is what's called phase one.  So we had meetings with the players and they were with our strength and conditioning coaches.  So we'll actually get on the field with all of our players on Monday for the first time.  So it's our first look at what he is and where he is and what he can do. [...] He can run around.  It's a total non‑contact thing.  We don't have any equipment on.  He can run around, we just haven't specifically sat down to see what he can do, but we're in the infancy stages of our offseason program."

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