Sam Bradford Trade Jump Starts Carson Wentz Era In Philadelphia

In a stunning move, the Eagles have traded their starting quarterback Sam Bradford to Minnesota. And by helping to shore up the Vikings QB situation, Philadelphia has jump-started the Carson Wentz era as the new starter for the team.

As reported by the NFL, Sam Bradford was traded to the Vikings for a first and fourth round draft pick. Minnesota, a Super Bowl contender when the year began, became desperate after their starter, Teddy Bridgewater, went down with a serious knee injury, leaving them vulnerable at the most important position on the team.

The Eagles meanwhile, had their own issues at quarterback. They signed Sam Bradford to a two-year $35 million dollar contract, with $22 million of it guaranteed as noted by Spotrac. But then the Eagles went out and drafted QB Carson Wentz with the number two overall pick that led Bradford’s camp to demand a trade during the offseason. As the NFL noted, the Eagles had chances to move on from Sam, but never pulled the trigger.

“It was hard to imagine Bradford playing elsewhere in 2016 after the Eagles shielded him all offseason. There were plenty of inquiries, including by the defending Super Bowl champion Broncos, but Philadelphia was determined to keep Bradford as a buffer for the developing Wentz. Bradford, meanwhile, wanted to get out of Philadelphia…his wish was granted in a significant way Saturday.”

Bradford eventually reported to camp and it seemed like everything was smoothed over. And with Chase Daniel’s “shaky” performance during the preseason, as described by CSN Philly coupled with early injuries suffered by Wentz the Eagles QB situation was seemingly squared away. In fact, Daniel’s last preseason performance did little to inspire confidence in the veteran signal caller beyond the backup role.

“Daniel got the start for the preseason finale against the Jets on Thursday, capping off an uninspiring summer with a shaky performance. He completed 14 of 22 passes to post a solid 63.6 completion percentage, but for only 6.0 yards per attempt. Worst of all were a pair of ghastly interceptions, one of which came on a promising drive the signal-caller led into the red zone.”

With Bradford gone, the thought originally was that Chase Daniel would start, as reported by NBC’s Pro Football Talk. They sited head coach Doug Pederson’s relationship with Chase Daniel as the reason not to accelerate plans for Carson Wentz.

“Eagles coach Doug Pederson has long been a big believer in Daniel, who will get the third start of his NFL career when the Eagles take on the Browns in Week One. Pederson coached Daniel in Kansas City, and Pederson believes Daniel can play.”

But that turned out not to be the case as ESPN’s Adam Kaplan took to Twitter to suggest Carson Wentz will instead start Week 1 assuming he’s recovered from the aforementioned injury.

#Eagles are planning on starting Carson Wentz against the visiting #Browns if he’s recovered enough from his rib injury, sources said.

— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) September 3, 2016

And as for Minnesota, the Sam Bradford trade completely reshapes the conversation in the NFC. With a capable quarterback behind the helm, the Vikings remain a favorite to rise up and make a Super Bowl run considering they have a healthy Adrian Peterson and a stout defense to work with.

It also weakens the already depleted NFC East that saw Tony Romo go down with a serious back injury earlier this preseason. With Chase Daniel at the helm and the possibility of Wentz assuming the starting role down the road, the Eagles can all but be eliminated from playoff talk.

What do you think? With the Sam Bradford trade complete, do the Eagles have any chance of making the playoffs with Chase Daniel as the starting quarterback? Or should they turn to Carson Wentz sooner rather than later?

[Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images]