This week, the Philadelphia Eagles have agreed to contract extensions with both of their top tight-ends — Zach Ertz and Brent Celek — and multiple reports have suggested that others are on the way.
The decision that will define this off-season will be whether the team elects to bring back quarterback Sam Bradford or not. While it's unclear exactly how much of a priority the team views bringing back Bradford is behind closed doors, both head-coach Doug Pederson and vice president of football operations Howie Roseman have spoken highly of Bradford publicly, while not guaranteeing anything.
Pederson provided Bradford's thoughts this afternoon, when he spoke to a group of reporters that included Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer at Senior Bowl practice.
“Yeah, he’d love to be back and that’s a thing we got to continue to look at,” Pederson said Wednesday from the Senior Bowl. “He would definitely fit the type of offensive structure that I’ll bring.”
“Sam and I had a great conversation a couple of days ago and I look forward to working with him,” Pederson said. “It’s just something as we continue to evaluate. We’ll pull that trigger one way or the other when the time comes.”
ESPN's Adam Caplan suggested in his weekly radio spot on 97.5 the Fanatic last Friday that he 'would be stunned' if the Eagles were able to to retain Bradford if they didn't use the franchise-tag on him.
McLane also noted that Pederson hopes to sit down with left-tackle Jason Peters this off-season and discuss his future, which Pederson hopes is with the Eagles.
“I think J.P.’s got several good years left in him,” Pederson said. “He does the right things in the offseason to get himself ready to go for another year. I’m really looking forward to visiting him, sitting down and talking to him and, No. 1, seeing where he’s at, and then motivating him for the future.”
Though it's not explicitly clear who is running the front-office this off-season, it isn't Pederson, so he can say things like this. The front-office will have to decide whether they will attempt to restructure Peters' deal, which includes an $11.2 million cap-hit for the 2016 season.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is an editorial assistant for Eagledelphia.com.
