Eagles Trade Nick Foles for Sam Bradford
The official opening of a new NFL year on Tuesday started with a bang as free agents signed with their current teams and will new teams, while trades moved top players from team to team.
In one trade, Nick Foles the Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback was traded to the St. Louis Rams for Sam Bradford.
When Chip Kelly arrived two years ago to coach the Eagles, the assumption was the team would need a mobile quarterback to operate his up-tempo offense. It remained that way even after the Eagles traded for Bradford on Tuesday.
Speculation turned immediately to how the Eagles front office could use their new QB and trade up to grab Marcus Mariota the quarterback of Oregon.
When the trade details were released Tuesday night, everything seemed different. Philadelphia sent St. Louis their 2015 fourth round pick plus a 2016 conditional second rounder.
Instead of retaining more picks in the draft to work out a deal for Mariota, Philadelphia has fewer. There is nothing certain in this league, but it sure looks at this point that Bradford is the starting quarterback for the Eagles for 2015 and beyond.
Most had figured Kelly would do all in his power to obtain Mariota or someone similar to run his offense. Especially after the head coach won a big power struggle with Howie Roseman the general manager and gained complete control of all personnel decisions.
Instead, Kelly found a quarterback who might even be less mobile than last season’s starter Foles following two ACL tears. Kelly even compensated St. Louis with draft picks in the deal making it not very likely that a deal for Mariota is in the works.
The Eagles do have a connection to Bradford. Pat Shurmur the offensive coordinator for Philadelphia held that same job with St. Louis when the Rams drafted Bradford back in 2010.
Bradford’s tenure with the Rams was up and down with his best two seasons 2012 and 2013 before his first ACL injury when he threw 35 touchdowns over a 23-game span.
However, Bradford was lost halfway through his 2013 with his first ACL tear. He missed the remainder of that season and re-tore the same ligament late in the preseason last year and missed the entire 2014 season.
Foles sat out half of last season after suffering a broken collarbone during a Week 9 game versus Houston. For the Rams, he will represent durability in comparison to the injury prone Bradford.
Unless Eagles coach Kelly and his staff has another surprise that will bring them nearer to Mariota, Bradford will be the new Eagles franchise quarterback. The big question at this point is if Bradford can stay healthy and produce the big numbers the Rams had always thought he was capable of, but now in an Eagles uniform.
