Bradford not worried about Eagles trading up to draft QB

PHILADELPHIA – There was an empty stall next to the quarterback lockers, a looming reminder that the Eagles plan to select a quarterback at some point in the upcoming NFL draft.

The question is how soon. There has been speculation that the Eagles could trade up to No. 2 or No. 3 to select the quarterback the Los Angeles Rams don’t take with the No. 1 pick, whether it’s North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz or California’s Jared Goff.

That possibility did little to faze the incumbent, Sam Bradford, even though taking a quarterback that high would be a clear indication that the Eagles don’t view Bradford as the quarterback of the future. Bradford is only signed for the next two seasons, with $18 million of his $22 million guaranteed coming in 2016. That means he might only hold the job for one more season.

“I really don’t pay attention to any of that stuff,” Bradford said Tuesday as the Eagles began their first minicamp of the offseason. “If it happens, it’s something I’ll deal with when it happens. But if it doesn’t happen, then there’s not a lot of sense of wasting time and thought and energy on that.”

Bradford said he hasn’t asked Eagles vice president of football operations Howie Roseman or head coach Doug Pederson about their draft day plans, nor does he plan to. The draft will be held from April 28-30.

“I think that’s a little above my paygrade,” Bradford said, an exaggeration considering that he’ll make about five times more than Roseman and Pederson combined. “Those guys make decisions regardless of what we players think they should do.”

Besides, Bradford has had a blissful offseason in so many ways to let speculation about the future bother him.

That began in February when the Eagles gave him that two-year extension. To Bradford, that meant that the new regime under Roseman and Pederson valued him just as much as former coach Chip Kelly, who sent Nick Foles and a second-round pick to the Rams last March in order to get Bradford.

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“Obviously, all the conversations I’ve had before free agency, after the season, with the people in this building, I felt very good about their thoughts on me,” Bradford said.

Those good feelings continued when Bradford got engaged to his longtime girlfriend in March. Soon after, he hosted wide receiver Jordan Matthews and tight end Zach Ertz at his house in Oklahoma for three days of passing drills, working out, golf and relaxation.

“We had a great week of working out,” Matthews said. “Got in the weight room a little bit, but also got three good days of throwing. The rest of the time, just bonding, playing Top Golf. It was a really good experience. Hopefully, once we get into the summer, then we’ll do something [in Oklahoma] with everybody.”

Matthews was then asked what Bradford’s house was like. He described the golf course Bradford lives on, and how the room Matthews stayed in was “bigger than my place in Nashville.”

Then he added: “His house is crazy. He has the Heisman, like chilling — no case, no nothing. Both he and Zach got engaged. I was the only single guy. So needless to say, we weren’t going to the club or anything.”

But Bradford is also ecstatic for this coming season for two other reasons.

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For one, in Pederson’s offense, he expects to have the opportunity to change the play at the line of scrimmage, something he couldn’t do under Kelly because the offense emphasized speed in getting the plays off.

“When you go fast, you have sacrifice some things,” Bradford said. “Obviously, you want to feel like if you’re under center or in the shotgun and you’ve got a bad play on, you’d love to have the ability to get out of the bad play and put your team in a better situation.”

Secondly, Bradford is going into an offseason program healthy for the first time in three years. Bradford was rehabbing a torn ACL during the 2014 and 2015 offseasons. That could easily be one of the reasons why Bradford started slowly last season — his first regular-season games since Oct. 2013.

This offseason, Bradford will have the opportunity to learn Pederson’s system on the field, as opposed to last year where he wasn’t cleared for team drills until training camp in August. He has focused on adding weight and strengthening his lower body — and taking some time off.

“I think that’s mentally [beneficial],” Bradford said. “When you’re rehabbing, you have to constantly stay here, you never truly feel like you get a break from the season. It’s just year round. More than anything, just to be able to go home, get around friends, get away from here, it’s a nice break and it makes you more fired up to come back here and get it started up.”

That hardly sounds like a player worried about his future.

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*Defensive end Brandon Graham said he and the rest of the defensive linemen aren’t concerned that Fletcher Cox hasn’t attended the offseason program while Cox tries to get a long-term extension. “He wants to be here, they want him here,” Graham said. “It’s just sometimes contracts take longer than others, and you have to make sure you cover your butt on both sides.”

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.