Eagles draft Wentz; Bradford now on the outside?
The Philadelphia Eagles hope to have found their quarterback of the future with their selection of North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz. Philadelphia drafted Wentz with the second overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, a pick they acquired by trade with the Cleveland Browns.
Wentz, born and raised in Bismarck, N.D., was touted the most talented quarterback in this year’s draft class by many experts. In his collegiate career, Wentz had 5,115 passing yards and 45 touchdown passes against only 14 interceptions. He won several awards for his play, including being named the MVP of the NCAA Division 1 Championship Game – twice.
Wentz was selected by the Eagles right after the Los Angeles Rams selected University of California – Berkeley quarterback Jared Goff with the first overall pick. Had the Rams selected Wentz, Philadelphia would likely have gone with Goff as their pick.
After being selected, Wentz took to Twitter to express his excitement over joining the Eagles:
So excited to join the Eagles family! Can't wait to get there and get to work! #FlyEaglesFly
— Carson Wentz (@cj_wentz) April 29, 2016
Wentz will be joining an interesting situation in Philadelphia and will have to win the job over two other quarterbacks. This offseason the Eagles signed quarterback Sam Bradford to a two year, $36 million contract. The Eagles also traded quarterback Mark Sanchez to the Denver Broncos and signed quarterback Chase Daniel to a three year, $21 million contract to be Bradford’s backup. $21 million is an awful lot to the throwing at someone who will not be seeing that much playing time.
After coming off of two ACL surgeries to the same knee, Bradford played decently well in his first season with the Eagles, completing 65 percent of his passes, throwing for 19 touchdowns and 14 interceptions with an 86.4 passer rating. 
Despite this, it appears that Bradford’s performance will not be enough. New head coach Doug Pederson and Eagles management elected to trade up in the draft and get the number two selection, and draft their quarterback for the future. Bradford now appears to be on the outside looking in and is not too happy with the situation.
Bradford has apparently requested to be traded from the Eagles and does not plan on attending the Eagles offseason workouts.
Eagles have been informed Sam Bradford wants to be traded and he will not be showing up for their off-season program any longer, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 25, 2016
There are conflicting reports about whether or not the Eagles are shopping Bradford, but the draft is now over and Bradford remains on the Eagles’ roster.
Bradford’s response to this situation is certainly understandable, but the more workouts and practices he misses, the better chance Wentz or Daniel have at being the Eagles’ starting quarterback week 1. However, the Eagles just paid Bradford $36 million, so if he continues to be a no-show the Eagles would benefit their salary cap by getting him out of Philadelphia.
The Eagles quarterback situation is one of the top stories of the NFL offseason. Things will certainly shake up once offseason workouts get underway soon. One thing is for sure, the Eagles think they have found their quarterback of the future in Wentz, so he is going to get every opportunity to succeed.
The Eagles have not been to the playoffs since the 2013-2014 season and they are hoping that Wentz is a big step to getting back to the postseason.
