Riley Cooper's future with the Philadelphia Eagles continues to be brought into question no matter what head coach Chip Kelly. Signed to a contract that carries a $4.8 million salary cap hit, something the Eagles might not want to keep on for a player that is not a leading wide receiver or even the No.2 guy. With depth at the position and injuries stacking up elsewhere in the league, will Cooper be sent packing before the year begins?
With injuries to players like Kelvin Benjamin and Jordy Nelson, Cooper's name has been brought up in potential trade deals. The Eagles are looking less and less committed to the receiver following the addition of Nelson Agholor and the rise of Josh Huff and teams would love to get a potential starter on the roster to help with replacing production. Contractually speaking, the Eagles would be wise to dump Cooper now and not later, but that might not be the best thing this season.
NJ.com's Eliot Shorr-Parks makes the case of keeping Cooper for another season despite potential trade interest in his name. Yes, there is a lot of talent in front of Cooper with Jordan Matthews leading the way which pushes the receiver down to the No.4 spot on the depth chart, but there is still a lot of talent he can bring to that spot. Cooper is talented, there is no doubting that and if he can get doing, he will be a real asset to the Eagles regardless. He is the only proven player on the roster outside of Matthews.
Head coach Chip Kelly remains Cooper's biggest fan. After Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com reported Cooper as a potential roster cut, Kelly came out and spoke very highly of the receiver. With the first round of roster cuts coming, Cooper is not going to be one of them, but other big names might be so teams like the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers will look there before exploring trade deals. With the idea of surrounding Sam Bradford with as much talent as possible, keeping Cooper is better than not having him.
Bradford will get the start again in the third preseason game of the season. The quarterback is penciled in as the starter and is on track to be ready by Week 1, leaving Mark Sanchez as the backup and Tim Tebow and Matt Barkley to battle it out for the third spot. The Eagles will continue to keep Bradford's time on the field limited, but the quarterback is hoping to see more playing time than before.
"It's nice to go onto the field multiple times, establish that rhythm, come over, work on that communication with the line, the receivers [and] talk about what we're seeing on the field, so when it gets to the regular season, that's not something we're working through," Bradford said," via CSNPhilly.com.