The Philadelphia Eagles have yet to see new quarterback Sam Bradford take a practice, preseason or live play snap, but they're reportedly already interested in reworking his deal.
With the recent big money pacts handed to young signal-callers like Colin Kaepernick, Andy Dalton and, most recently, Ryan Tannehill, does the notion of an extension between Bradford and the Eagles become wholly unrealistic?
When you take into account the fact that Bradford is set to make just under $13 million in salary in 2015, the final year of his pre-rookie wage scale contract, it starts to make some sense that the Eagles want to rework his deal.
When you then add in the fact that franchise tagging Bradford for 2016 - assuming he plays well next season and the team wants to keep him around - would amount to approximately $20 million, or about 13 percent of the 2016 salary cap, assuming it goes up to somewhere in the vicinity of $150 million, it makes even more sense.
Unfortunately, Bradford seems to hold most of the proverbial cards at the moment.
"There's no incentive for Bradford to do anything," former agent and contract/salary cap expert Joel Corry said recently. "You can't really do anything with his deal because Bradford is not going to sign an extension right now. Any extension you offered him wouldn't be worth his while most likely because he is in a buy-low position right now. Coming off two injury-plagued years, what type of deal could he get?"
During the pre-2015 NFL draft process, when reports were swirling that Eagles head coach Chip Kelly was maneuvering for a potential trade up to land Marcus Mariota, Bradford's camp made sure to get the word out, via ESPN's Chris Mortensen, that they wouldn't be signing a contract extension with anyone but Philly.
It's fair to infer then, that mutual interest exists between the injury-plagued signal-caller and the Eagles brass on getting a new deal worked out.
"Logic suggests that they will want an incentive-laden contract that will pay him like a franchise quarterback if he plays like one, but protects them financially if he can't stay on the field and/or doesn't live up to expectations," writes Tim McManus of PhillyMag.com.
Tannehill was given a six-year, $96 million contract by the Dolphins Monday, which, per ESPN's Adam Schefter, carries $45 million in guarantees. As is always the case these days though, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio revealed shortly thereafter that Tannehill actually received just $21.5 million fully guaranteed at the time of signing and the other guarantees come in installments over the early portion of the deal and are dependent on his being on the roster and producing like an elite signal-caller.
Per Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, $57 million of Tannehill's deal comes in the final three years, during which time he'll either have established himself as a true franchise quarterback or the Dolphins will likely have already parted ways with the former college wide receiver.
The deal is somewhat similar to the one signed by Colin Kaepernick last year. Widely touted as a six-year, $126 million deal, it was actually, for all intents and purposes, a two-year, $25.9 million deal which had $61 million guaranteed for injury only and carries numerous de-escalators based on his performance and production - per a separate report from Florio, Kaepernick loses $2 million every year if he doesn't take 80 percent of the snaps or be named first or second-team All Pro.
He's already felt the sting of this structure, as his salary in 2014 went from $12.4 million to $10.4 million thanks to a down season for the entire Niners squad.
Kaepernick was also forced to purchase a $2 million disability policy as part of his new contract.
The Cincinnati Bengals handed Andy Dalton a similar pact last August, only instead of de-escalators, his six-year, $115 million deal - actually a two-year, $25 million deal - carries escalators based on production-based feats much like Kaepernick.
For Bradford and the Eagles, while the bloated initial figures seem daunting, the structure of all the recent quarterback deals may actually work in their favor.
Bradford's lengthy injury history and his muted production when healthy makes the proposition of an extension this offseason a questionable one, but the financials of recent quarterback contracts which, if followed by Philly, would allow the Eagles to front-load the deal, give Bradford ample compensation in the first couple of seasons but maintain flexibility and the option to part ways after just a season or two, could certainly point to a deal getting done.
Bradford would be betting on himself of course and after watching Kaepernick suffer from that decision already he may balk at certain structural elements pushed by the Philly brass in contract negotiations, but in an NFL where little is guaranteed, it wouldn't be much different from operating under the franchise tag - or the final year of his deal as he currently is - and hoping he can cash in sometime in the not-too-distant future.
With a new incentive-laden deal, he'd still be cashing in via his own achievements, he'd just be doing it while simultaenously providing increased salary cap flexibility for the Eagles to continue to improve the defense and surround the former Ram with legitimate weapons.
Still, there's no pressure for either side to do a deal now - the Eagles still haven't seen Bradford helm Kelly's offense and Bradford knows that his recent history will mean a lower-level contract than he may otherwise be entitled to.
It seems increasingly likely that Bradford will play out the remainder of his current deal and either walk after 2015 if he doesn't perform well next season or the two sides will come together for more serious negotiations if he does manage to light it up under Kelly, but the funny money contracts teams are giving to young signal-callers may actually allow the Eagles to lock up Bradford with what seems like a big new contract now, when in reality they'll simply be securing his services while simultaneously ensuring they have a way out should things not work out as planned.
