With the season over and personnel changes set in stone, all eyes begin to look towards the NFL Draft and the future of the Philadelphia Eagles. The fans are still largely split on Sam Bradford and it doesn’t appear as though the birds themselves are 100% sold as they weigh up all possible options.
With the hype surrounding the likes of Carson Wentz, Paxton Lynch and the various other Quarterbacks in this years draft, it’s easy to say that the Eagles should draft a Quarterback if they don’t retain Sam Bradford..but it would also be wrong. Here are three reasons why the Eagles should not look towards the draft if they are going to replace Sam Bradford.
3) Media Hype is an incredible thing
There was a fantastic article published earlier today that sums all of this up perfectly, but it’s important to remember that the Quarterbacks in this years draft are not what they were last year or even the year beforehand. There’s so much pressure to find “elite” quarterbacks these days that we end up trying to make these players seem a lot better than they actually are because of an impatience and desire to win..and win now. We put our beliefs into the potential of what a player could become as opposed to what he is currently. The depth at the Quarterback position in this years draft is great, but that doesn’t mean that every team should be looking at these guys..you don’t want to jump out of the pan and into the fire.
Very few Quarterbacks come into the league and are immediately great. For every Marcus Mariota or Derek Carr, there’s a Mark Sanchez. For every Teddy Bridgewater there’s a Matt Barkley. The list goes on, but the point remains the same. Just because a team take a Quarterback in the first or second round, it doesn’t mean he’s destined to be one of the greats.
Whilst Hackenberg has set or broken nine Penn State Records and Wentz has great build and an ability to get rid of the football, it doesn’t mean that they have the ability to walk into Philadelphia and enjoy a winning season..which right now is what the fans and the organization want. Sure, wanting building for the future is great and unanimous..but this is a city that wants to win..and wants to win now. Letting a Quarterback such as Wentz grow under the likes of DeFilippo as his coach or Bradford as his mentor sounds vastly more appealing than dropping him in the deep end and expecting him to swim.
2) Real Talk
People seem to be very quick to overlook Sam Bradford. No matter how many numbers or statistics you throw at them, fans and analysts don’t want to know..he isn’t “the man” for Philadelphia. So if constantly repeating that he was the fourth most accurate Quarterback in this league despite a surplus of 43 drops doesn’t change your mind..or setting single season records for the Eagles doesn’t change your mind, then perhaps this will.
One of the main criticisms with this team last year was that they ripped out the heart of the team. Chip Kelly stripped away the core of the Eagles and replaced it with pieces for his system. Another criticism was that Sam Bradford wasn’t a “leader”. That he was “a deer in headlights” in the opening games.
Well as the season went on and the shower team talks, the raw emotion and the confidence began to take over..Bradford began to lead. He began to feel comfortable in Philadelphia and the players around him fed off of that.
The end of the season arrives and you have Jordan Matthews reportedly telling Sam that the two are going to work hard together this off-season. You have both Ertz and Celek singing the praises of Bradford and claiming their Quarterback and wanting to see his return in 2016. Sam himself said that he wants to be back next season…the man has emerged as a leader and he has the respect of those around him. Do fans really want to rip that out again? Do they want another page ripped out? If it’s familiarity the Eagles want to accomplish, inserting their fifth Quarterback since the beginning of the Chip Kelly era will certainly not achieve that.
1) The combination
If we combine media hype an a somewhat biased view that Sam Bradford is not the man for Philadelphia after media outlets persist to claim that the Eagles need to look elsewhere, what we have is something worrying. People seeing the worst in a Quarterback who kept this team from falling a part yet seeing the best in Quarterbacks whose flaws would make fans want to chase Bradford out of Philly if he possessed them.
Carson Wentz, the favourite to be drafted by the Eagles if any had a less than impressive Senior Bowl outing. His deep ball accuracy has not really improved. Sure he’s physical and can run the ball but openly missing receivers and near interceptions capped off a very average day. The one thing that Bradford screams is accuracy. His laser dart passes rarely miss their target..it just seemed to come down to if the target could catch the ball.
If Carson Wentz was enduring as much pressure as Bradford sustained this season..being sacked 5 times against the Redskins as an example as the line allowed one player to get in his face 13 times..would he really be able to make the throw? Could he get the ball into the places that only a very select few can? Wentz struggles when he spends too much time thinking about where to place the ball..another Quarterback who faced that same problem in 2014 was Nick Foles. That’s why he succeeded so much under Chip in 2013..quick one-read throws that made his simply tremendous 27-2 TD-INT record seem much more impressive than it was..2014 proved that.
Sam Bradford throws dimes. Consistently. You can’t doubt it. 43 drops on a season would make any Quarterback look significantly worse. In an Offense designed to obliterate opponents with the run game, there was none..meaning that Bradford would be throwing close to 50 times each game..in an up-tempo Offense that saw drives last under a minute more often than not at the start of the year.
But in a hybrid West-Coast Offense, Bradford would excel. If the Eagles can give him some Offensive Line Support, use Murray as he is supposed to be used and find some balance, Bradford can absolutely be the man the Eagles need. In drafting a quarterback, you further embed a lack of long term trust in players, give them a kid who isn’t quite up to NFL starting standards just yet (but absolutely will be) and hope he can go out there and get the job done on week one..with the most passionate fan base resting all of their hopes on the shoulders of a 24 year old. The Eagles should not draft a Quarterback to replace Sam Bradford.
