Arians thinks Bradford will do well for Eagles
Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, speaking at the Maxwell Club awards in Atlantic City, strongly approved of the Eagles' move to add former St. Louis quarterback Sam Bradford.
ATLANTIC CITY -- Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians liked the Eagles' trade with St. Louis to acquire quarterback Sam Bradford, the NFL's No. 1 overall draft pick in 2010.
"I think Sam's an outstanding player. Just had some bad luck," Arians said at the Maxwell Awards press conference Friday. Arians is the Greasy Neale Award winner as pro football coach of the year. "The only time we've lost to the Rams, Sam was playing. It was my first game with the Cardinals. I think Chip (Kelly) has a great plan, and it's awesome that he's following what he believes in."
Arians was standing maybe 25 feet away from Marcus Mariota, the Maxwell Award winner, who told reporters that while he stays in touch with Kelly, his former college coach at Oregon, he has no particular draft destination in mind. After trading Nick Foles for Bradford, who is coming back from two left ACL tears, Kelly said this week that moving up to the top of the draft for Mariota would expend too many resources. Arians agreed.
"It would be so hard to get there," said Arians, a former Temple coach. "You'd have to give up your whole draft. It's so hard to do that -- the salary cap will kill you" if you can't build your roster around recent draft picks.