A few weeks before the 2016 NFL Draft I painted a scenario of how the Eagles could go 9-7 this season and win the NFC East. That was before they decided to trade away some vital picks to Cleveland to move-up to No. 2 in the draft to land Carson Wentz as their franchise quarterback of the future. One of the biggest miscalculations in my rational was the team's ability to actually land former Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott with eighth overall pick of the draft. As it turns out, Philly would have never had a shot at adding the best back in the draft to its roster given that the rival Dallas Cowboys used the fourth pick to add a huge missing piece to their offensive attack.
Fast forward to the present and nothing has changed with current Eagles' starting quarterback Sam Bradford's demands to be traded in light of the fact that he is now just holding a spot in the lineup until Wentz is deemed ready to take over the helm. I recently found some player prop bet odds on Bovada that has set the "over/under" on Wentz's total starts in the 2016 NFL regular season at 3.5, so it is safe to assume that he is going to be under center in a starting role sometime this year.
The only other viable quarterback on Philly's roster right now is Chase Daniel, who signed this offseason as a free agent from Andy Reid's squad in Kansas City. Daniel has only made two career starts since coming into the league in 2009 so it is anyone's guess as to how well he would perform in the full-time starting role. I for one am more than willing to find out since the Eagles' chances to win even five or six games this upcoming season is in serious doubt. If it is only a matter of time before new head coach Doug Pederson hands the keys to his offense to Wentz, why not jettison Bradford and his inflated salary for whatever you can get. He obviously does not want to be here and right now I would think that most of the fans in town would not be all that upset to see him go.
Bradford was Chip Kelly's brainchild instead of trying to work with Nick Foles, who still showed some solid promise in his early NFL career. Team vice-president Howie Roseman has already done his best to erase anything Kelly did in his brief stint as head coach and director of player personnel so why hold onto Bradford, which was probably one of Kelly's most ill-fated moves (after DeMarco Murray)?
Going back to Daniel, he already has experience working with Pederson when the two were together in Kansas City as player and offensive coordinator. He has never really been given a chance to see what he can do as a starter and he might even do quite well in a familiar offensive scheme. Even if Daniel does go on to stink up the joint then all it really means in the grand scheme of things is that Wentz will get his NFL baptism of fire a bit earlier then expected.
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