By Theodore N. Beitchman
Let me see if I get this straight:
The Minnesota Vikings make Eagles big boss Howie Boy Roseman an offer he can’t refuse — a 2017 No. 1 draft pick and a 2018 No. 4 (which could be a 2 if the Vikes win the Super Bowl) for average quarterback Sam Bradford — and the butt boys in the Philly media are deifying Roseman as the greatest general manager in the team’s history!
Might I remind the butt boys that Joe Kuharich traded a quarterback in 1964 — the future Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen to the Redskins for perfectly ordinary Norm Snead! — and uttered the priceless:
“Trading quarterbacks is rare but not unusual.”
Bubblehead Kuharich ruined the Eagles for a generation by trading the great Jurgensen, who played another 11 years for the Redskins, and Roseman’s trade up to get Wentz and then sending Bradford packing could have similar consequences.
So I can’t quite figure out if Roseman is more like “The Godfather’s” Hyman Roth, the behind-the-scenes brains of the operation, or Fredo Corleone, who could fuck up a rock fight!
By trading Bradford, Roseman has completed his offseason-long expunging of every significant move from Chip Kelly’s tenure in charge of the Eagles.
Gone are Bradford, DeMarco Murray, and cornerback Byron Maxwell, and the bill for all three will cost the organization $14.3 million in dead cap money this season.
The Eagles still had to pay $11 million for Bradford in 2016 — in the form of the signing bonuses he already got this spring — but Roseman essentially traded $11 million in cap room for a first-round pick next spring and a fourth-round pick in 2018. That’s a deal worth taking. In the long term, netting a first-rounder for the QB was in Philly’s best interests, but by starting Carson Wentz (which it will reportedly do, if he’s healthy), the team’s chances of struggling this fall increase significantly.
If Wentz has a good first season and goes on to a Jurgensen-like NFL career, then I will admit Howie Boy is Hyman Roth.
But if rushing the North Dakota State rookie into starting action this Sunday and this season stunts his growth and leaves Philly with another mediocrity, then Howie Boy will be Fredo.
As Roth famously said, “This is the business we have chosen.”
I’ll be checking back on this dynamic as this Eagles season unfolds.
