Peter King of MMQB reported this morning that an NFL source told him late Wednesday night that the Browns believe they have a good chance to trade for Eagles QB Sam Bradford before the draft.
The Eagles are reportedly doing everything they can to get up to No. 2 overall for Oregon QB Marcus Mariota, which would likely include them parting ways with Bradford.
Jason La Canfora mentions that if Eagles beat out the Browns to get up to No 2 overall, and Bradford is not part of that deal, it could cause his price to drop.
La Canfora mentions that the Browns had been willing to part with a first-round pick for Bradford. However, La Canfora seems to think he could be had for a second- or third-round pick if the Eagles are able to get Mariota.
In this scenario, the Eagles would have Bradford, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Matt Barkley and Mariota on their roster at quarterback, so someone has to go. Bradford making $13 million figures to be the odd man out as that’s just too much money to pay for a quarterback.
The other issue with trading Bradford is that he has one year remaining on his contract and he’s reportedly unwilling to sign a contract extension right now and would instead prefer to wait until after the year to see what his value is at that point.
All indications are that Cleveland is in the market for an upgrade at quarterback, even after they used a first-round pick on Johnny Manziel last year and signed Josh McCown to a three-year contract at the start of free agency.
Bradford, 27, has yet to live up to his draft status and is coming off of back-to-back ACL tears, so there are some serious concerns/question marks about him moving forward.
He has one year remaining on his six-year, $78 million contract that included $50 million guaranteed. Bradford stands to make a base salary of $12.985 million for the 2015 season to go along with a cap figure of $12.985 million.
According to OverTheCap.com, trading Bradford would free up $12.985 million in cap space for the Eagles.
Bradford last appeared in an NFL game during the 2013 season. He finished the year throwing for 1,687 yards while completing 60.7 percent of his passes to go along with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions over the course of seven games.
We’ll have more regarding the Browns and a possible Bradford trade as the news is available.
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Whenever there is a rumor involving the Browns–and some rumors come to fruition–you can be sure that it is insanity at its peak. The Browns make the most incredibly stupid trades of any team in any sport in history.