Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie defends bold QB strategy
The Philadelphia Eagles have come under fire this offseason for the amount of resources they've poured into the quarterback position.
The Eagles handed Sam Bradford $35 million over two years, made Chase Daniel the league's highest paid backup, and mortgaged their future to trade up for former North Dakota State standout Carson Wentz.
All in all, the Eagles will pay out just over $43 million to the three quarterbacks in 2016 - the highest positional amount in the league - although the combined cap hit of all three players is a manageable $22.35 million.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie defended his team's approach recently, arguing that opportunities to secure franchises passers don't come along often, and that in a pass-happy league, you must do all you can to secure the quarterback position.
"We see it differently than I guess some other people may," Lurie said at last week's league meetings, according to Jenny Vrentas of MMQB.com. "We see Sam (Bradford) as absolutely the right guy to quarterback the team. We are so rarely able to draft in the top five in the draft. It's only been twice in about 15-20 years. So we saw the opportunity, and we liked two quarterbacks. We had to make the move to secure having a potential franchise quarterback for many, many years.
"Having a lot of assets at the most important position in the NFL is a good strategic move for now. And it can only benefit us. Because in the NFL, it's the one position you can't just go get. And so when you have an opportunity, you've gotta take your shot, and you've gotta be bold. Otherwise, if you say to yourself, 'you know, it is probably a 50-50 shot that maybe the quarterback will be really good,' you can't let that deter you. So that's how I look at it: you either have a really good QB and you compete for the Super Bowl, or you don't and you are probably not competing for the Super Bowl. And that's simple."
The contracts of Bradford and Daniel contain little long-term commitment or financial ramifications for moving on from either.
So while the number of picks given up by the Eagles for Wentz was substantial and could limit their ability to retool their roster in the future, few will care about Philadelphia's overspend on the position this year if the 23-year-old lives up to the hype.