Roseman On Bradford: ‘We’d Like To Have Him Back’

The Eagles are hoping to get Sam Bradford back under contract, according to Howie Roseman. It’s just a matter of whether the two sides can find some middle ground.

Speaking to Dave Spadaro on the team site’s podcast, Roseman was asked for his thoughts on where things stand with the free-agent to be.

“We’ve all been clear that we like Sam, and we’d like to have him back. It goes then between all of us and whether we can figure something out that makes sense on both sides,” said Roseman. “Sometimes we get into a situation where we sit here and it will make sense from the team’s perspective but when you’re talking about a negotiation, it’s also got to work for the other side and the player, and we understand that. But hopefully this will all work out and we’ll look at that depth chart when we line up here in July and be really excited about the position.”

The team has until 4 p.m. on March 1 to apply the franchise tag, though there haven’t been any signs to this point that the Eagles plan to use it. That would allow Bradford to test the market, which as we laid out on Thursday, appears a bit murky for the QB at the moment.

With such uncertainty at the position, the Eagles are exploring various avenues. Roseman was asked about the report that they are expected to inquire about potentially adding Nick Foles.

“Well it’s our job as we run this team as we help kind of put it together to look at every option at that position,” he said. “You sit in the office right now and there’s not a lot of names on the quarterback depth chart that are under contract right now. And so we’ve gotta look at every option. We’ve gotta look at every possibility, and they go from starting possibilities to backup possibilities to who’s going to be our third. We take four to camp, we’ve got one right now on our roster, and so we’ve gotta bring quarterbacks in here. So every discussion that we’re having isn’t necessarily only on the basis of who’s going to be our starter, it’s also: who’s going to be here to compete and add depth and value to that position?”

A couple other highlights:

— Roseman talked about the state of the salary cap after actively signing some of their own to new contracts early this offseason:

“It’s challenging as we go forward here this year and next, but the name of the game is to have good players and to keep good players and we have to make sure we’re able to do that not only again for this season but as we get into 2017 and 2018, knowing that we’re keeping these guys…

“Probably a little tighter than it had been in the past. We had gotten accustomed to pushing over a lot of money (from the previous year); it’s going to be much more difficult to do that.  We still have a couple things we’d like to do here in this offseason.”

— Including working out a long-term deal for Fletcher Cox. Roseman talked about where things stand with the d-lineman.

“We want him here long-term. There’s no question. He knows that we feel that way.

“It’s just sometimes these things take longer because they are complicated when you’re not talking about one, two, three million dollar a year player, and then the dynamic of the years under contract and everything that goes into a negotiation. But there’s no question what type of player he is and what kind of person he is and how important he is to this team and how important it is for all of us to have him here going forward.”

You can listen to the entire podcast here.