By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor
A final move on Monday, the Eagles are keeping around another quarterback.
Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Eagles are tendering Nate Sudfeld at the second-round level.
#Eagles have tendered QB Nate Sudfeld at a 2d-round level ($3.095M), NFL source confirms @caplannfl report. He’s a restricted free agent. Other teams can try and sign him, but #Eagles can match or get 2d-round pick in return if he leaves.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) March 12, 2019
The Eagles will reportedly pursue a veteran QB to compete with Sudfeld for the primary backup role behind Carson Wentz, but the team wants to make sure Sudfeld is around.
The tender will certainly raise Sudfeld’s salary and cut $3 million in cap space (essentially nullifying the savings from declining Wisniewski’s 2019 option), but it almost ensures he will stick with the team.
The way this works is that a team is welcome to make offers to Sudfeld. Sudfeld must then bring all offers back to the Eagles. At that point, the Eagles will get the option to match the contract offer and retain Sudfeld’s services. Should they choose not to do so, the team that made the offer gets Sudfeld on that deal but must give their second-round pick (in the 2019 draft) to the Eagles.
It is hard to imagine a team risking both cap space and their second-round pick to sign Sudfeld, likely as their own backup.
Names the Eagles could look at to compete with Sudfeld include Ryan Fitzpatrick, Teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles or Mike Glennon (neither of whom would affect the comp pick formula), Trevor Siemian and Tyrod Taylor.