Domowitch: Here's one vote against the trade
A part of me, a big part of me, thinks the deal also is about ridding themselves of one more memory of the Chip Kelly era.
Howie Roseman says the Eagles are in the quarterback investment business, and that's why they decided to make the blockbuster trade with the Cleveland Browns Wednesday for the second pick in the draft.
But a part of me, a big part of me, thinks the deal – which will result in the Eagles selecting the quarterback the Los Angeles Rams don't want – either Jared Goff or more likely Carson Wentz -- also is about ridding themselves of one more memory of the Chip Kelly era.
They traded away Kelly's $63 million cornerback mistake, Byron Maxwell. They got rid of his $40 million running back blunder, DeMarco Murray. Now, with Wednesday's deal, they are greasing the skids for the departure of the quarterback Kelly traded for last year, Sam Bradford.
The big difference, though, is Bradford wasn't a disappointment. He came back from a second ACL tear and was one of the best quarterbacks in the league over the last nine weeks of a disappointing 7-9 season.
Had the league's eighth best passer rating (97.4) and the seventh best third-down passer rating (100.7) over that period.
He set single-season franchise record for completions (346) and completion percentage (65.0) despite a league-high 50 drops by his receivers.
A year ago, after the Eagles traded for Bradford, owner Jeff Lurie unabashedly called Bradford a franchise quarterback. Nothing that Bradford did last season should have altered that opinion.
And yet, and yet, here the Eagles are, taking an unnecessary gamble, trading away the eighth pick in the draft that they could have used on a much-needed offensive tackle, trading away a third- and a fourth-round pick this year and their first-round pick next and a second in 2018, for a still-to-be-determined quarterback who may or may not ever pan out.
Why?
"We're going to invest in quarterbacks,'' Roseman said. "When you go back and study, what are the keys to winning, what are the keys to being championship caliber over a long period of time?
"It's quarterbacks. For us, we have a unique situation where we have our head coach (Doug Pederson) and our offensive coordinator (Frank Reich) and our quarterback coach (John DeFilippo) have a great history with quarterbacks. It's a unique luxury to have those guys. Who knows how long that's going to last?
"When we went and researched and looked what the quarterback classes are going to look like going forward next year, two years out, that's a daunting proposition.''
I'm obviously in the minority here, but I feel, as Lurie did a year ago, that Bradford can be a franchise quarterback.
It doesn't matter the 2017 or 2018 or 2021 draft class is going to look like. At 28, Bradford still is young enough to be the Eagles' starting quarterback for the next eight years.
"He still could,'' Roseman said Wednesday when I posed that question to him.
Yeah, right.
Roseman said Bradford is not for sale. Said he will be the Eagles' starting quarterback this season. And then, he will be gone, either traded or released. Then Jared Goff or probably Carson Wentz will be the team's starting quarterback.
Maybe one of them will turn out to be the next Aaron Rodgers. History suggests there's a better chance they'll turn out to be the next Ryan Leaf.
"We did the best we could in free agency to try to fill a bunch of holes,'' Roseman said. Getting guys like Brandon Brooks and (Rodney) McLeod and (Leodis) McKelvin and Rueben Randle and (Stefen) Wisniewski, we felt those were young guys were for us, almost like draft picks. Second and third-round draft picks.
"Nobody's sitting here thinking we're a completed picture. But we want to get into a position in the near future where we have an opportunity to compete every year. And that starts at the quarterback position.''
