2016 NFL free agency: Who will Sam Bradford sign with?
Where will Sam Bradford sign in 2016 NFL free agency?
Of all the nearly 650 names in this year’s free agent pool, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford checks in with the highest cap hit from last year (sitting pretty at nearly $13 million). And while it’s very unlikely he winds up with a new deal that pays him more than what Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller will receive this summer, he still might come away with one of the top five most lucrative deals in free agency, despite a so-so season in Philly last year. That’s the benefit of playing the most important position in professional sports, especially at a time when competent quarterbacks are few and far between in today’s NFL.
Bradford will undoubtedly be a starting quarterback when the regular season rolls around, the only question is where. His Eagles contract is up, and while it’s not impossible he re-signs with his current team, it’s also far from a guarantee, especially given all the changes occurring within the organization these days.
Vitals
Age: 28
Career passer rating: 81.0
Notable stat: has only played a full season twice in his six-year career
TD-INT ratio: 78-52
Contract comparisons
When Bradford was drafted by the St. Louis Rams first overall in 2o10, he signed a six-year deal worth nearly $80 million. He has been fortunate enough to have played his entire NFL career under that original contract up until this point, but that’s going to change this summer.
In the hierarchy of professional quarterbacks, Bradford falls under the “good but not great” category — only his parents would call him an “elite quarterback.” He probably deserves a salary that ranks somewhere in between Alex Smith and Ryan Tannehill, in that $11 to $17 million range. Smith at least has the benefit of having recently led his team to the playoffs and a postseason win, something Bradford has never done in his career.
Still, as mentioned before, this is a league and an industry that is built on quarterback play, and Bradford is still better than most of his contemporaries around the NFL. With the salary cap increasing substantially this year, expect the former Sooner to land a new contract that is front-loaded, shorter than his rookie deal, and probably complete with a higher yearly average than what he earned previously.
Estimate: 4 years/$64 million/$35 million guaranteed
Will he stay?
It depends on several factors. Obviously one of them is Bradford himself; the quarterback must have been frustrated this season with his drop-prone receivers and shaky offensive line play. When Chip Kelly traded Nick Foles for Bradford during his extreme Eagles makeover last summer, many analysts thought the marriage between coach and quarterback would produce oodles of points. Not so. The Eagles checked in at No. 13 in scoring offense in 2015, sandwiched between the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Not exactly what one would expect from the fast-paced, mile-a-minute offense we’ve come to expect from Kelly.
But Kelly is gone, replaced by another offensive guru in Doug Pederson, former offensive coordinator from Kansas City. Whether Pederson even wants Bradford as his starter is another important factor in determining whether he stays or goes, but a dearth of available alternatives might force him to stick with Bradford for at least one more year and see how it goes. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Hasselbeck, Brock Osweiler … none of these available names are sure-fire upgrades over Bradford, so here’s betting he stays in Philly in 2016.
If he leaves…
Of course no one was expecting the Foles/Bradford swap last year, so stranger things have happened. While Bradford did finish strong in 2015, his first season as an Eagle didn’t really do anything to show the fans or team ownership that he’s the long-term answer for this franchise.
A reunion with Chip Kelly in San Francisco makes sense if Bradford decides to leave. After all, Kelly targeted the former Ram right away when he was granted autonomy as head coach and general manager, so we know he sees something he really likes in Bradford. Obviously this would displace Colin Kaepernick on the 49ers depth chart, but that might not be such a bad thing given his poor play the last two seasons.
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also figure to be two quarterback-needy teams that could make strong overtures to Bradford this summer. The Johnny Manziel experiment was a disaster for the Browns, and with the team expected to move on as early as March, they’ll need a new face of the franchise; Austin Davis and Josh McCown are serviceable players, but neither is a star quarterback.
And of all the teams in the league, the Texans might be the most desperate for a change at the signal-caller position. Houston has a talented squad on both sides of the ball and Bill O’Brien is a gifted coach, but with Brian Hoyer at the controls, this team seems doomed to suffer more playoff shutouts like the one they endured last January.