Two days into free agency, the Eagles remain the most fascinating story in the NFL. Chip Kelly perplexed us Tuesday with his trade of Nick Foles for Sam Bradford because we had no clue what he was up to.
Now we do. In theory. Kind of. Kelly says Bradford is his guy -- acquiring the former No. 1 overall pick isn't part of some grander plan. Kelly just thinks Bradford will thrive in his offense and can be a franchise quarterback.
Kelly outright dismissed the notion of mortgaging the future to trade up for Marcus Mariota in the upcoming draft. Nothing anyone says this time of year is the truth but he was certainly forthright about it.
The craziest thing we heard yet though? That Kelly was offered a first-round pick for Bradford on Wednesday morning, i.e., after the trade to get him. Whoever that was, kudos to you for not understanding how economics or telephones work.
More importantly: Bradford is a huge winner out of free agency if he ends up being the starter for the Eagles in 2015.
Bradford succeeding is a plausible notion: Bradford dominated in a spread scheme at Oklahoma, getting the ball out quickly while running an up-tempo offense. But college was a long time ago for many of us, including Sam. It's not fair to give him the benefit of the doubt just because he got slapped in a different system. He can't be playing out the string in St. Louis and poised to explode in Philly.
So Bradford's not a winner because of massive expectations for a huge season. But he is going from a questionable offensive system to one that let Mark Sanchez and Nick Foles produce impressive results. Pretty nice upgrade for him.
WINNERS
JAGUARS: Big day for Duval, as they hauled in a nice sextet of free agents, bringing Julius Thomas, Jared Odrick, Jermey Parnell, Davon House, Sergio Brown and Dan Skuta into the building. For Jaguars fans, it was a pretty strong day. Funny story too: This was the one-year anniversary of the Jags trading Blaine Gabbert to the 49ers; I know this because my cousin has gotten back-to-back big birthday presents from his favorite football team.
@WillBrinson its funny bc this day last year, Gabbert got traded too. My Bday is good luck
— Ford Brodeur (@ford_bro) March 11, 2015
Thomas is ridiculously pricey for a tight end, but you're paying a tax to get him in town as a weapon for Blake Bortles. Odrick ain't cheap either, costing Jacksonville a reported $8.5 million a year (with $22 million guaranteed), but he will improve the defensive line. Parnell (also expensive) beefs up the offensive line and is still young. Sergio Brown's a nice addition to the back end of the defense. Largely here's the takeaway: The Jaguars spent a huge pile of cash but acquired some nice players in free agency. They weren't paying big for the scraps of free agency and needed to spend cash.
ANDREW LUCK: People are probably going to complain about the age of Andre Johnson and Frank Gore when we start talking about nice free-agent additions. Or maybe the cost of the two new Colts. Whatever. That's two guys who will step in the lineup in 2015 and make an immediate impact. Johnson isn't a massive red-zone impact guy but the Colts have tight ends. He'll make life substantially easier for T.Y. Hilton and give Luck a big chain-moving target. As for Gore, here is a list of running backs with 1,000 yards or more for the Colts since 2008:
CARDINALS: Love a good, quiet, solid free-agency period for a team. The Cardinals seem to have pulled those off with regularity under Steve Keim/Bruce Arians and they did it again Tuesday. Arizona snagged the impressive, underrated trio of Sean Weatherspoon, Mike Iupati and Corey Peters in what is hardly a headline day and yet an impressive haul. Iupati's one of the biggest maulers in the run game you'll find and he pairs with Jared Veldheer to give them a nasty presence on the left side of the line. Peters and Weatherspoon both come from Atlanta and present varying degrees of upside. Spoon could be a beast in the Cards defensive system and won't be a prohibitive cost (one-year prove-it deal) after playing in just 20 games the past three years. Peters is a space filler who can take over the role vacated by Dan Williams; at $10 million over three years he's not too expensive.
JEREMY MACLIN: Maclin's a great wideout. He deserves a nice payday after betting on himself last season with a one-year deal and catching 85 balls for 1,358 yards and 10 touchdowns. That's a massive season. But there was no real reason he should hit the market and land $11M a year. And yet, the Chiefs gave him $55 million over five years to join up with his old coach Andy Reid and hopefully vault them into a world where they can manage a touchdown pass to a wide receiver.
LOSERS
BRONCOS: Typically we have seen Denver come out guns blazing in free agency under John Elway. Not so much this year. They brought back Peyton Manning (yay!) but everyone expected that. In the meantime, he has lost weapons to utilize, including versatile tight end Julius Thomas (12 touchdowns last year) and starting guard Orlando Franklin (interior pressure can easily disrupt Manning's game). No one thinks he'll magically fall apart as a result of those two guys departing, but no one should think Owen Daniels is going to easily replace Thomas' production. Rahim Moore and Terrance Knighton are both floating out there as potential additional losses as well.
BUCCANEERS: The Bucs were probably big "winners" last year about this time. Blame all of us for that? They spent $143 million in free agency and wound up with two wins and the No. 1 overall pick. They've already admitted some of those mistakes by cutting Anthony Collins and Michael Johnson, two of the bigger additions from last year's free-agency haul. At least they've gotten the first step down? The next ones are harder, finding quality additions without throwing too much money around.
PATRIOTS: New England isn't a "loser" when it comes to free agency in the sense of the Pats being in trouble. They'll be fine. But their division is getting a lot tougher as a result of the activity over the past two days. Ndamukong Suh is officially in Miami (that's no fun twice a year for Tom Brady), the Bills have secured Jerry Hughes/LeSean McCoy and the Jets locked down Darrelle Revis and appear to be landing more help (Antonio Cromartie?) for their secondary. The AFC East is reacting to the Patriots winning the Super Bowl and reactionary personnel moves don't always work out. But the Pats' opponents look to be hitting pretty well on moves that will make life tough for New England's offense in 2015.
DEMARCO MURRAY: Where is this running back freaking market? We knew it would be tough to get paid as a back out there but this is getting ridiculous. Murray can't generate any major cash from either the Raiders or Jaguars, and oddly the Eagles (who just got rid of LeSean McCoy because he cost too much) are somehow in play here. That doesn't feel like something that's actually going to happen. We'll see if Oakland and Jacksonville come into play too, or if this is just a matter of the Cowboys reading the situation perfectly by lowballing Murray and calling his bluff until he's forced to limp back to Dallas on a short, cheap deal.