Bradford Demands Trade, Will Not Show for Future OTAs

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) — Eagles starting quarterback Sam Bradford has requested a trade and will not be showing up for any of the Eagles' future offseason workouts, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Bradford is predictably upset at Philadelphia's trade last week for the No. 2 overall pick on Thursday night and Howie Roseman's subsequent admittance the Eagles will be taking the team's future at quarterback, presumably Carson Wentz, with the selection.

Bradford, who was re-signed to a two-year deal by the Eagles earlier this offseason with $22 million of guarantees for 2016, "is mad and wants to show everyone who's best," a source, likely Bradford's agent Tom Condon or someone close to him, told Schefter last week.

The Eagles acquired the No. 2 overall pick from the Cleveland Browns last Thursday with draft picks acquired in the trades that sent Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso to Miami, as well as DeMarco Murray to Tennessee.

It took less than 24 hours for the first report to surface claiming Bradford would try to ask out of his situation.

“I’ve talked to a source who said it’s likely that Bradford is going to ask for a trade at some point in time, or some way to get out of Philadelphia so that he can move on with his career somewhere else with a team that is going to be invested in him long-term.” Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole said. “That’s the kind of solution that Bradford is looking at this point in time.”

The request has now been made and highlights the flaws in the plan of redshirting a high-profile rookie for a year while using Bradford as the bridge and Chase Daniel as the backup.

In fact, expecting the Oklahoma product to play the good soldier while mentoring his obvious replacement is a little Sam Hinkie-like in that it fails to take into account the human element of the situation.

From a practical perspective moving on from Bradford will not be easy for Philadelphia even if it wants to accommodate the veteran’s wishes to try to get to say Denver or the New York Jets.

After agreeing to pay Bradford the $22 million in guaranteed money this year trading him before June 1 would mean $11 million in dead money this season. After that date would be a more palatable with $5.5 million spread over two years.

From the Eagles standpoint, however, the bigger issue may be the 2017 first-round pick they shipped to Cleveland in the blockbuster. With the unproven Daniel or a rookie under center for the majority of the ’16 season, all of a sudden that pick is almost guaranteed to be in the top 10 and likely to be a top-five selection, making the original haul even more expensive than it looked.

After making the deal last week Roseman claimed nothing had changed regarding Bradford.

“Let me be clear – Sam Bradford is our starting quarterback,” the Eagles executive VP of football operations said. “We’ve told Sam that. We intend to support him, and the moves we’ve made this offseason we believe will give us a chance to compete this season.”

Roseman doubled down on that thought during an interview with NBC Philadelphia's John Clark today.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973ESPN.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen