The Eagles’ quarterback-exchange trade that brought Sam Bradford to Philadelphia surprised former Eagles quarterback and ESPN film guru Ron Jaworski. Despite having ranked Bradford as his No. 1 player before the 2010 draft, Jaworski does not see him as a good fit for Chip Kelly‘s offense, as relayed to Philly Sports Talk.
Jaworski does not view the injury-prone former No. 1 overall pick as the Eagles’ long-term solution and doesn’t think Kelly covets Bradford’s skill set as much as he’s said, with the former Oregon boss seeking a more mobile quarterback for his offense.
“Those people that think Sam Bradford‘s coming in as a mobile quarterback, he’s more immobile than Nick Foles,” Jaworski said during his television interview. “Just in the back on my mind, I still believe Chip Kelly wants a quarterback with mobility to lead his football team.”
A trade up to be in position to draft former Kelly protege Marcus Mariota would cost the Eagles at least multiple first-round picks, but Jaworski would make that move to finish off Philadelphia’s seismic offseason. He described the Oregon spread wunderkind as a “perfect fit” for the Eagles’ attack.
- The longtime ESPN analyst lauded Kelly, however, for his initial offseason with full personnel control. But Jaworski also noted these moves will cause a significant backlash if the third-year coach is wrong. “[Kelly] can say all he wants about good to great,” Jaworski said. “But you gotta make the right decisions to go from good to great or you can go from good to bad just as quick as you can go from good to great.”
- Last year, the Eagles traded down four spots to help the Browns select Johnny Manziel. Moving up has been more connected to the thinking in Philadelphia, which took Marcus Smith at No. 26 and snared an additional third-round pick in 2014, this spring. But CSNPhilly.com’s Geoff Mosher thinks trading down again is a good idea, with this talent pool arguably evening out by the time the Eagles’ No. 20 selection arrives. The players that drew the most interest from the team during the scouting process — Eric Rowe, Byron Jones, Nelson Agholor and Brett Hundley — are likely to be available in between the Eagles’ No. 20 and 52 selections, writes Mosher. “The history of the game, study all the trades. What set the Cowboys [of the 1990s] going forward? They traded one player for multiple players,” Kelly said recently. “I’ve got a better chance of hitting if [I] have more draft picks than if you have less draft picks. That’s basically it, philosophically.”