The Philadelphia Eagles seemed to have their starting quarterback locked up prior to the start of free agency this week.
That came in the form of a two-year, $36 million contract to last year’s starter Sam Bradford.
This might all be thrown out the window following news that the team signed former New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs backup quarterback Chase Daniel on Wednesday.
It’s not that Philadelphia brought in another veteran. In fact, Daniel has proven himself to be one of the top backups in the game.
Instead, it’s all about the amount of cash Philadelphia handed to Daniel. He reportedly received a three-year, $21 million deal with $12 million guaranteed.
That’s not necessarily what we would call “backup quarterback money.”
Now comes this report from NFL Media’s Albert Breer indicating that Daniel was brought on to compete with Sam Bradford for the starting job:
The Eagles will be giving new QB Chase Daniel every chance to wrest the starting job from Sam Bradford, per source. Not signed as a backup.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 9, 2016
Outside of the presence of Bradford and his deal in Philadelphia, this shouldn’t be considered too much of a surprise. Daniel worked under new Eagles head coach Doug Pederson over the past several seasons in Kansas City. The two are said to have a solid working relationship.
The interesting dynamic here is that Philadelphia is now on the hook for nearly $30 million annually at the quarterback position with Mark Sanchez still under contract.
All things equal, it makes more sense for the Eagles to go with the $18 million man under center. However, Bradford is nowhere near guaranteed the starting job. That much is obvious after the Daniel signing.