INDIANAPOLIS — With options on the open market likely to be limited, the Philadelphia Eagles renewed their push to re-sign quarterback Sam Bradford over the weekend at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Howie Roseman, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, previously had over-the-phone contract discussions with Bradford’s agent, Tom Condon, and they met face to face in Indianapolis.
NFL Network reported Sunday that the Eagles increased their offer to Bradford, but a long-term deal appears unlikely until Bradford and Condon find out what alternatives exist in free agency.
Doug Pederson, the Eagles’ new head coach, said in no uncertain terms at the combine that he hopes Bradford will be the team’s starting quarterback in 2016, and said that Bradford has told him he wants to re-sign with the Eagles.
But it’s going to come down to money. A lot of it. Bradford is believed to be looking for a deal in the $18-20 million-a-year range. The Eagles could prevent Bradford from signing with another team by placing the franchise tag on him before Tuesday’s deadline.
“Being a player in his shoes, you have to want to be somewhere, and I think Sam wants to be in Philadelphia,” Pederson said. “Just talking to him on the phone, he talked like he wants to be there (in Philadelphia). I think it’s important to him. And why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you want to come back to Philadelphia given the success he had at the end of the year.
“We’ve expressed to him that we want him back. But free agency can do funny things to a lot of people. So that’s where we are right now.”
Bradford struggled in the first half of the season last year as he came back from back-to-back ACL injuries. But he was one of the league’s most productive quarterbacks in the second half of the season.
Even though he wasn’t with the Eagles at the time, Pederson said he also was impressed by the way Bradford took a leadership role with the club in the second half of his first season with the Eagles.
Options beyond Bradford might not be enticing to fans in Philadelphia. Pederson spent the past three seasons with Chase Daniel in Kansas City, but Daniel, the former Missouri quarterback drafted by the New Orleans Saints, has never been a starter in the NFL.