COWBOY KILLERS
Who does Bradford think he is?
Sam Bradford wants out of Philadelphia. This news came just days after Howie Roseman announced the Eagles would be drafting a quarterback with their newly acquired second overall pick.
Bradford’s agent, Tom Condon, said Monday on Sirius radio that Bradford “doesn’t want to be there [in Philadelphia] holding a place card”.
Hard to imagine why Bradford saw himself as a long term option at quarterback for the Eagles considering the team only signed him to a two-year contract. The Eagles have said that Bradford is still their starting quarterback and that they plan to sit whichever rookie they draft for the year. Bradford however, still decided to ask the Eagles to move him.
Which begs one question. Who does Sam Bradford think he is? The former Oklahoma star has had a very underwhelming NFL career, and should consider himself lucky that he is still on a roster let alone a starter in the league. In the long history of the NFL there has been many players to be considered a first round bust. The disgruntled Eagles’ quarterback is certainly right at the top of that list. In his 6-year career Bradford has a total of zero winning seasons, zero playoff appearances, and has a dismal 60.1 completion percentage. In addition to his less than impressive resume, he has only managed to play in 2 full seasons due to injuries. The injuries alone are reason enough to not believe in Bradford. If the starting quarterback of your team has shown he can’t stay healthy, then how can you be expected to invest in him long term? The most impressive part of Bradford’s career is the amount of money he has been paid for being such a bad player. To be exact Bradford has been paid just over $80million since his rookie year. He has clearly been paid like an elite quarterback, but hasn’t played anything of the sort.
There has been a long list of excuses afforded to Bradford for how his career has turned out to this point. We have heard he’s played on bad teams, he’s experienced too many coaching changes, or he’s played behind bad offensive lines. Those excuses have long been over used, and it has come time for everyone, including Bradford, to realize he just doesn’t have what it takes to be a successful NFL quarterback.
“Sam’s a competitor and he wants to go someplace that he’s the man.” Said Condon in defense of his client.
How can any team take Bradford serious as a competitor when he ran away from competition here in Philadelphia? Rather than Bradford seeing this as an opportunity to finally live up to the potential we keep hearing he has, he decided to hide behind his agent and cry. Bradford has been handed the starting job most likely since high school, and has now cowered away rather than fight for the starting job. How Bradford thinks he is going to walk into the Eagles locker room or the locker room of any other NFL team and have respect from his teammates is astonishing. Especially after saying that he wouldn’t attend the Eagles voluntary team work outs. While the rest of his team is working hard to learn a new system, Bradford will instead be elsewhere not getting in much needed work and learning. By not showing up to workouts it shows the rest of the team that he is a selfish player and not interested in trying to improve the team’s record from a year ago. The starting quarterback of an NFL team is supposed to be fearless and undeterred in the face of adversity. Bradford however has not showed he possesses either of those attributes. If he hasn’t already lost the respect of his team, I would be very surprised.
By trying to run away because an unexperienced rookie is going to be brought in Bradford shows he has no confidence in his game. So if Sam has no confidence in himself, why should his team have any in him?
QuarterSTACKED
Wednesday afternoon the Eagles have acquired the 2nd overall pick in the draft from the Cleveland Browns in exchange for multiple picks. The bigger story however, was that President of Football Operations Howie Roseman had lost his mind. With this trade it is all too obvious the team is looking to draft either Carson Wentz or Jared Goff to be the future quarterback in Philadelphia.
I would now like to recap the past couple months of moves the Eagles have made. It was only back on March 1st that the team signed QB Sam Bradford to a 2 year $36 million contract, with $26 million guaranteed. The move came after months of debate and speculation as to whether or not the team would sign, franchise tag, or let Bradford walk. Then, just 8 days later, free agent quarterback Chase Daniel signed a 3 year $21 million contract, $12 million of the contract was guaranteed. Daniel, has started 2 games and played in 55 to this point of his NFL career.
In just 8 days’ time, Roseman tied up $37 million into one position on players who have well underachieved in their respective careers. How could a man in Roseman’s position invest so much into one position already, and then invest more months later? The answer to that is simply that owner Jeff Lurie has put too much trust in Roseman and has given Roseman too much confidence. I will give credit where credit is due however. The trades made earlier in the off-season to free up cap room and acquire the 8th overall pick, were nothing short of amazing. Which makes the trade on Wednesday so much more unbelievable and harder to swallow.
The picks traded away in future drafts are less the issue than the ones given away in this year’s draft. Their week offensive line, could have benefited from a young stud player who could provide stability in the years to come. The offense that lacks a serious threat to opposing defenses, would have been changed dramatically with a player like Ezekiel Elliot. It was already stated by Eagles brass that the team was in love with both Wentz and Goff and would draft either available player with the 2nd pick. The plan seems to be to go with Bradford this season and groom the new rookie on the bench. Most fans know the Eagles are far from a complete team or one that is ready to contend for a Super Bowl. However, drafting players that would play this season could have gotten them closer to a championship sooner rather than later. Speaking as someone who never liked Sam Bradford and didn’t like the signing of him, I still would have not traded away the prospect of three starters for one position, especially when so much money was already invested.
The move to me feels like a Sam Hinkie type move by Howie Roseman. In drafting Wentz or Goff, it gives him a few years of job security. Roseman, just last year had his power taken away from him by Jeff Lurie, and clearly wants to ensure he keeps his job at all costs this time around. If there is no immediate success for the new Eagle’s quarterback, it could be 4 or 5 years before the plug is pulled and the slate is wiped clean. Howie Roseman has made the biggest gamble in the history of this franchise. When all is said and done if the gamble ends up being a loss, Roseman will be gone, and the fans will be left to dwell in the aftermath.
Lack of Rest for Mason is Killing the Flyers
Steve Mason has started 20 of the final 23 games the Flyers have played since March 1st. The heavy workload placed on Mason has been due in large part to the injury suffered by backup goalie Michael Neuvirth. Neuvirth suffered a lower body injury in Chicago on March 16th, and wouldn’t play in another game until nearly a month later in the season finale against the New York Islanders on April 10th. Dave Hakstol, the Flyers’ rookie head coach, was forced to rely heavily on his starting goaltended with his team in the middle of a playoff hunt. Anthony Stolarz was called up from Lehigh Valley to backup Mason, and did not play in any of the 12 games he was on the roster for.
Signs that Mason was in much need of a couple games off were apparent at the end of the regular season. The Flyers earned their playoff spot on the second to last day of the season, only after they lost 3 straight games that were all started by Mason. Two of the three losses were to Detroit and Pittsburgh both of which were teams ahead of the Flyers in the standings at the time. It was understood at the beginning of the season that the Flyers were going with the youth movement and weren’t expected to make the playoffs. With all of this known, why was it so hard for Hakstol to put Anthony Stolarz in net for a few games. Hakstol had the perfect opportunity to use the rookie goaltender against Toronto when his team was coming off a loss to Detroit the day before. Toronto was a team that was long out of the playoff to that point with nothing to play for in addition to their lack of talent. Giving Mason the game off against the Leafs would have given him two very needed consecutive days off before a huge game against the Penguins. The Flyers would go on to beat the Penguins and clinch their playoff spot, but let us not forget names like Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Fleury were not in the Pittsburgh lineup. During the game Pittsburgh’s starter Matt Murray was injured, and replaced by Jeff Zatkoff. Zatkoff had only played 34 NHL games prior to that since being drafted in 2006. Pittsburgh had already clinched their spot in the playoffs and was playing more to stay healthy then they were to win the game.
Hakstol’s decision not to relieve Mason in any of his teams’ final games has turned quickly into a detriment for the Flyers. It is very easy to see the exhaustion in Masons play during the past three playoff games against Washington. He has gone from a confident ice in his veins type player, making acrobatic saves and shutting down opponent’s offenses, to an easily beaten and at times flustered looking net minder. It was never more apparent than a goal scored by Washington’s Jason Chimera, who lofted a flat slow gliding puck from center ice at Mason in game two which then went through Mason’s legs. The shot was as routine as it gets, and yet turned out to be the game winning goal in the tilt. Fast forward to Monday’s game three. A dump in goes off a stanchion behind Mason which was then miss played by Mason, and resulted in a goal for Washington’s Evgeni Kuznetsov.
More times than not during this playoff series Mason has looked amateur and has been a shell of himself, which is in large part to the excessive amount of games he has played in the past month. Not only have some of the goals allowed been cupcakes and usually would be routine saves, but Mason has coughed up huge rebounds that have led to more scoring chances to the NHL’s top team.
These playoffs should be taken as a huge learning experience for rookie head coach Hakstol. His loyalty to Steve Mason has his team down three games to none and playing sad, undisciplined hockey. The need for a Michael Neuvirth to start has become long overdue, and if the change comes now it may be too little too late. Neuvirth has arguably been the better of the Flyers’ two goalies, and could have emerged as the team’s number one option if not for injuries during the year. He proved many times during the season he can play lights out in big games, and now the Flyers are faced with the biggest game of them all in game 4 on Wednesday. To me, the best time to make the goalie swap would have been when Mason allowed Chimera goal in game two. Switching it up right there in that moment would have showed the team that subpar and undisciplined play would not be tolerated, and could have lit a fire under the team at a critical point. Instead the team as a whole played flat and played defeated hockey for the remainder of the game. This play carried over into game 3 by both the Mason as well as the team in front of him to the tune of a 6-1 embarrassment on their home rink. An easy wrist shot by Alex Ovechkin in the second period beat Mason, who was in perfect position and saw the show the whole way, gave Washington a 2-1 lead and they never looked back.
It is very easy to look back in hindsight at a playoff series and say what should have been done. Unfortunately for the Flyers and their fans what should have been done was not done. The team now goes into game 4 on Wednesday looking to begin a miracle comeback like that of the 2010 Flyers against Boston. This however is not a fairytale and miracles usually occur once in a lifetime.
-Mark “Flagman” Michaels
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