Vikings' Spielman: Teams wanted 1st-round pick, core player for QB

The Minnesota Vikings paid a steep price to acquire quarterback Sam Bradford from the Philadelphia Eagles, but it could be a bargain based on what other teams were asking for when the Vikings first started making calls about a trade.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman traded his 2017 first-round pick, plus a 2018 fourth-round selection that can rise to a third- or second-round pick depending on how far the Vikings advance in the playoffs, to the Eagles for Bradford.

Bradford is expected to start in place of Teddy Bridgewater, who was lost for the season to a devastating knee injury.

Spielman told Peter King of The MMQB that in his initial discussions with other teams, the market price for a quarterback was even higher than he paid for Bradford:

I made a bunch of calls. I am not gonna mention teams. But there was blood in the water, and teams knew it. The price was too high. I didn’t want to mortgage our future. Some teams asked for a first-round pick and a core young player. I can understand the pick. But we worked too hard over the past three years to put all that time and energy into drafting and developing a solid core of this team. I was taken aback who they were asking for. Players who'd been in the Pro Bowl. I mean, in the offseason, you've got time. There's not blood in the water in the offseason. But now, there was.

Considering the position of weakness he was trading from, perhaps Spielman did well only to surrender the two draft picks. Then again, a first-round pick is an awful lot to give up for a passer who might be a one-year bandaid.