Earlier this week, the Eagles decided to give quarterback Sam Bradford $22 million fully guaranteed on a two-year deal worth $17.5 million annually. On Friday, Eagles executive V.P. of football operations Howie Roseman explained the thought process behind giving Bradford so much money.
“When you’re talking about a quarterback there is no level that you won’t pay for a high performance for a quarterback,” Roseman told PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio and NBCSN. “In terms of the market and when you look at the options that are there to keep a player from free agency whether it’s a franchise tag or transition tag, one-year deals, from our perspective we wanted to make sure it was more than a one-year deal so that we weren’t building our team just for this one year. We’re trying to look at it over a period of time as we build this team. So it was very important for us to get a multi-year deal, a deal longer than one year, and this was an area right now where you’re in a vacuum. Free agency hasn’t started, able to come to a decision and for us, and for us it’s about what is best for the Philadelphia Eagles not necessarily what’s best around the league.”
Roseman is right, and what he didn’t add (but could have added) is that the top of the market for quarterbacks hasn’t grown relative to the salary cap the way that it should have in recent years, with $20 million still the high-water mark even as the salary cap has shot up by more than 25 percent. Also, and as Roseman said, “We all know how hard it is to find a quarterback.”
Besides, a two-year commitment isn’t really all that significant, especially since the Eagles could stop the bleeding at $18 million for one year, assuming the $4 million in 2017 guaranteed money carries with it an offset obligation, which would give Philadelphia credit for what Bradford earns elsewhere.