The Philadelphia Eagles have a lot invested in Sam Bradford as the starter and so far in OTAs the team has been "encouraged" by what they have seen and this comes as Tim Tebow and Matt Barkley are battling for the backup spot behind Mark Sanchez, while Nelson Agholor is penciled in to start for Chip Kelly along with DeMarco Murray and Jordan Matthews.
According to Pro Football Talk, Corey Seidman of CSNPhilly.com reports that the Eagles are "encouraged" by how Bradford has looked in camp and they are hopeful he can make it through the season healthy. Bradford has Mark Sanchez as his backup quarterback and now Tim Tebow and Matt Barkley are battling to see who will be the third stringer. There is a chance that whoever loses that battle will be off the team by the end of training camp.
The Eagles have a solid group of receivers and Nelson Agholor now comes in to join Jordan Matthews, Josh Huff and Riley Cooper. Agholor should push to start if he picks things up fast in training camp and this comes as the team has also added DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews. The LeSean McCoy trade was a stunner, but getting Murray should help soften that blow.
The Eagles were mentioned in numerous reports leading up to the draft that they could trade Bradford for the chance to take Marcus Mariota. The team also was mentioned in rumors that Bradford could get traded to the Browns for Johnny Manziel, but none of those deals ever came close to happening. Chat Sports writer Mack Ferguson reported that sources said that the Eagles and Browns talked about a trade involving Manziel, Bradford and draft picks.
The Eagles were looking at trade deals leading up to the draft and Mariota was a potential target for Bradford, who the Browns tried to trade for when he was still with the Rams. While all the rumors were taken with a grain of salt, it played into what many in the media had speculated about both the Eagles and the Browns would do this offseason. Both teams sat tight and now Bradford is in as the starter for the Eagles.
The Eagles have been one of the most active teams this offseason and they were previously connected to trading up for Marcus Mariota. Mariota played for Chip Kelly at Oregon and while Kelly denied the reports that the Eagles were looking to trade for Mariota, the speculation has continued. ESPN's Josina Anderson spoke with coaches around the league and some were still convinced that Kelly would look at making a trade even when he said he wouldn't. Obviously the team did not make the move.
Ferguson previously did get the Jim Harbaugh to Michigan story, so some people took it seriously. Kelly had been making some surprising moves this offseason by trading LeSean McCoy and adding Bradford, so it wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility that a move could have happened. The Browns went after Bradford before he was traded to the Eagles, as Adam Caplan at ESPN reported that they offered a first round pick for the quarterback.
