Bradford asked to be traded, wasn't, then…

Report: Sam Bradford likely to ask Eagles for trade out of Philadelphia

John Breech | CBSSports.com

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25563553/report-sam-bradford-likely-to-ask-eagles-for-trade-out-of-philadelphia

Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford doesn’t feel very wanted in Philadelphia and now, it seems that he wants out.

According to Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole, Bradford is likely to “ask for a trade” or “some way to get out of Philadelphia so that he can move on with his career somewhere else, with a team that is going to be invested in him long-term.”

If Bradford does want out of Philly, it wouldn’t be a complete surprise. The Eagles quarterback was reportedly upset on Wednesday after his team made a trade with the Browns that gave the Eagles the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft.

The reason Bradford’s upset with the trade is because Eagles executive vice president Howie Roseman made it clear that Philly’s going to take a quarterback with the second pick, which means more competition for Bradford.

If the Eagles do grab a quarterback with the second pick, that means they’d have three well-paid quarterbacks on the roster, which is one too many, according to Jon Gruden.

“The problem I see right now in Philadelphia is they have too many quarterbacks to be friendly with,” Gruden said on Thursday, via ESPN.com. “How are they going to distribute any reps and get anybody ready when you’ve got Sam Bradford making $18 million, you got Chase Daniel, who’s a backup, making $7 million?”

It’s actually worse than that: Daniel’s contract includes $12 million in guarantees, Bradford’s includes $22 million in guarantees, and whomever comes in with the No. 2 pick will get a contract that includes at least $24 million in guarantees.

That’s a lot of money for a position where only one guy can play at a time.

“I don’t know how you’re going to get these guys all reps and get them all ready, but Doug Pederson will have to answer that,” Gruden said. “That will be a challenge.”

Gruden, who now works for ESPN, hasn’t coached since 2008, but he has a theory on what might happen, and it meshes with what Cole reported.

“There could be a trade,” Gruden said. “I don’t want to start any rumors in Philadelphia, but if they do draft a quarterback, with all they have invested in him, I’m sure they want to get him as many reps as possible. That’s going to make somebody unhappy and perhaps expendable.”

The biggest thing holding the Eagles back from a Bradford trade is probably his contract.

The quarterback has already collected an $11 million signing bonus from the team, which means if the Eagles were to trade him, they’d have paid him $11 million on his new contract to play zero snaps. That kind of deal isn’t great for business if you’re the Eagles.

On the other hand, Bradford is set to count $12.5 million against the salary cap in 2016, so the Eagles would save $1.5 million in cap space. Also, if the trade went down after June 1, the Eagles could spread the $11 million cap hit over two seasons ($5.5 million a year).

Plus, any new team would pick up the rest of Bradford’s $11 million in guaranteed money ($7 million in 2016 base salary plus $4 million roster bonus in March 2017).

Basically, a new team would pay Bradford $7 million for 2016, which is interesting because that’s the exact number Broncos general manager John Elway wanted to pay Colin Kaepernick. If Bradford wants out and a team is willing to pay a price the Eagles can’t refuse (second- or third-round pick), it wouldn’t be a shocker to see Bradford get traded.