Pederson: Bradford, Cox ‘Losing Valuable Time’
Doug Pederson. (USA Today Sports)
Sam Bradford and Fletcher Cox are in different situations. While the Eagles don’t appear to want the quarterback long term, they hope to build their defense around the Pro Bowl tackle.
Still, according to Doug Pederson, they’re in the same boat when it comes to holding out of voluntary workouts.
“Anybody that’s not in any of the 32 offseason programs is losing valuable time at that club,” Pederson said. “So anybody that’s not in the offseason program, yes, would lose the time.”
ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio reported on Thursday that Bradford isn’t answering calls from his head coach, while Pederson confirmed yesterday that he hasn’t had any contact with his quarterback.
Pederson was asked about how much time Bradford would have to miss for it to impact his ability to start.
“I think it depends on how and when he does come back and how fast we can catch him up and put him back in that situation and see where he’s at at that time,” Pederson said. “Again, no one makes the team in April. We’re not making any roster adjustments and letting people go. It’s all about evaluation, and he’s in that evaluation process. But as I’ve said in the past, he was one, Chase is two and we’re moving on from there.”
As for Cox, Howie Roseman said there’s not much new to report.
“I’ll say the same thing that we’ve said: he’s a huge part of our football team going forward. Our intention is to keep him here for the long term,” Roseman said. “Our intention is try to figure out a number that everyone is comfortable with. It’s going to be an aggressive number, but in terms of specifics of that, that’s between us and his agent.”
Roseman also discussed the Eagles’ trade up to draft Carson Wentz, and how — after talking to others around the NFL — the team doesn’t think the North Dakota State quarterback would’ve fallen to the eighth pick had they not made the move.
“We go back to when the Jaguars took Blake Bortles, nobody knew they liked Blake Bortles,” Roseman said. “All we know is there’s a lot of love for this player throughout the league, it’s a hard to find position and I think if we were sitting here and tried to get cute and didn’t end up getting him, it would be something we regret for a long time.”