The Philadelphia Eagles announced that they re-signed quarterback Sam Bradford to a two-year extension earlier this evening. The deal, per ESPN's Adam Schefter, is worth $36 million, $26 million of which is guaranteed.
However, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network says that prior to announcing the extension, the Eagles did wait to see how a divisional rival proceeded with their starting quarterback.
There were a few teams, including the #Eagles, #Jets, and #Broncos, waiting to see how the #Skins handled Kirk Cousins before proceeding
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 1, 2016
Cousins was eventually franchise-tagged by the Washington Redskins, meaning he will make close to $20 million in 2016 if he doesn't reach a long-term extension with the team.
On a few fronts, the idea that the Eagles would have waited to finish a Bradford deal to see what happened with Cousins makes sense.
Benjamin Allbright of AM 1430 in Denver reported yesterday that he expected the Eagles to announce an extension with Bradford 'soon'. While his report was rather vague, it's fair to believe that the Eagles either agreed in principle or were close to agreeing to a new deal with Bradford at the time of his report. It seemed very unlikely that the Redskins were going to let Cousins walk, so the Eagles could proceed with Bradford, while also holding out on the possibility that Cousins did reach free-agency. Had that happened, the Eagles hadn't finalized a deal with Bradford, so they could have waited past the franchise-tag deadline this afternoon, assuming the Redskins didn't use the tag, and if Cousins didn't agree to a long-term deal with the team, they could have talked to the agents of both Cousins and Bradford in free-agency. If Cousins wasn't tagged today, but reached a long-term extension before hitting free-agency, the Eagles could have still attempted to lock Bradford up before free-agency.
It also makes sense that this version of the Eagles would be interested in Cousins, because vice president of football operations Howie Roseman was reportedly among those in the organization that wanted to take Cousins over Nick Foles in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft.
Either way, it appears that barring a shocking trade, Cousins and Bradford will square off twice in 2016, with Cousins playing for the Redskins and Bradford playing for the Eagles.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is an editorial assistant for Eagledelphia.com.
