Robbery.
That’s the only word to describe what Eagles general manager Howie Roseman did to the Minnesota Vikings. Just days after the Vikings lost Teddy Bridgewater for the season, and possibly beyond, to a torn ACL and dislocated knee, Minnesota traded a 2017 first-round pick and a 2018 conditional fourth-round pick to the Eagles for Sam Bradford. (The pick could turn into a third-round pick if the Vikings reach the NFC championship game and a second-round pick if the Vikings win the Super Bowl. So, it’s a fourth-round pick.)
It’s still hard to comprehend that this is not a joke. An NFL franchise traded a first-round pick and a fourth-round pick for a quarterback that the entire league knew the Eagles weren’t interested in. A week ago, I would have been thrilled if the Eagles had traded Bradford anywhere for a second-round pick. It’s understandable that the Vikings didn’t want to ruin a Super Bowl caliber roster with a 36-year-old backup like Shaun Hill, but does Bradford really make the Vikings that much better?
I’m not sure he does. Here’s a comparison of Bradford’s career statistics against Shaun Hill.
Sam Bradford: 60.1 completion percentage, 6.5 yards per attempt, 1.5 touchdown-to-interception ratio, 81.0 passer rating
Shaun Hill: 62.0 completion percentage, 6.8 yards per attempt, 1.63 touchdown-to-interception ratio, 85.2 passer rating
Now, Bradford is significantly younger. He’s just 28 and Hill is 36. And if the Vikings have serious doubts about Bridgewater ever returning to complete health, it makes sense that they’d want to invest in a long-term option at the position.
That being said, do they think Bradford is a long-term option? The Rams gave Bradford every opportunity – five of them – to show that he could be the team’s franchise quarterback and he couldn’t even take the team to a .500 record. The Eagles had Bradford for 18 months and they basically spent the entire time trying to trade him. He’s no longer the Eagles’ problem, thankfully, but it’s still mind-boggling how much Minnesota traded away to acquire a quarterback who may not be much better than a short-term option like Josh McCown or Mike Glennon.
I had the Vikings pegged as a 10-6 team with Bridgewater. He’s an up-and-coming quarterback who doesn’t turn the ball over but makes an alarmingly low number of big plays. He threw for just 14 touchdowns in each of his first two seasons. I’ve frequently ranked all the starting quarterbacks in the NFL and Bridgewater usually came in around the 25 mark.
Interestingly, I’ve gone back and forth between Bridgewater and Bradford. To me, they’ve pretty much been the same quarterback. Now, I think Bridgewater has, or maybe had, significantly higher upside. I think we pretty much know what Bradford is at this point in his career. He’s never going to take that next step and become even an average signal-caller. He’s not good enough to take a team to the postseason.
This is where the Vikings clearly disagree. But Bradford is their problem now. For the Eagles, the massive haul they received for a player they really didn’t want or need on their 2016 roster is enough to almost cancel out the Carson Wentz trade.
Think about that. All those draft picks the Eagles gave up for Carson Wentz? It’s as if the trade never happened. The Eagles will now have a first-round pick in the 2017 draft, and the worse the Vikings do, the higher that pick will be. They’ll have an extra mid-round pick in the 2018 draft. Their future isn’t screwed. Carson Wentz may or may not be a successful quarterback in the NFL, but at least the Eagles haven’t significantly mortgaged their future for a top college quarterback.
It’s actually the Vikings who have done just that. Unfortunately, that top college quarterback has been out of college for six seasons, and he’s shown time after time that he’s just not good. And now? He’ll show it again this year.
