Sam Bradford might go down in history as the most overpaid player in NFL history.

He’s such a weird case. He’s the final first overall pick to receive the benefits of a mega contract before playing, before the league instituted the rookie wage scale. The contract had at least 50 million dollars of guaranteed money. It’s going down as the biggest rookie deal in history. This past week, he signed a new contract with the Eagles with 26 million guaranteed money. I’m ignoring the non-guaranteed money because I don’t know if he’s earned any of it. Because Sam Bradford remains a complete enigma. He’s going to make over 70 million dollars over 8 years of play…and we still have no idea if he’s good or not. Obviously I’m severely simplifying the contracts here but you get my general point. Sam Bradford has been in the league for 6 seasons and done so little that he remains a huge question mark for all the wrong reasons, but he’d made a ton of money anyway.

A lot of people are laughing at the Eagles for this deal. Eagles fans seem mostly fine with it. From an unbiased(Stop laughing, I’m trying to be objective here) look, I think it’s a bit too high but I understand it on the Eagles part. Bradford’s first season in St. Louis was fine and looked like a good player to build on. Since then he’s been out of the game more often than in. Last year he was about average. He showed flashes of something, but he’d also drop a stinker on routine too. To his credit he seemed better as the season went on. That of course means nothing now because he has an entirely new offense to learn. If I try to be objective, Bradford is middling. He’s a journeyman. I think he’s not an answer and he probably shouldn’t be a starter anywhere after this contract is up unless he turns into something he hasn’t been so far. He’d probably be a backup already if the Rams hadn’t invested so much money in him up front and Chip Kelly wasn’t a nutjob.

But I can’t blame the Eagles for the contract. There is no one on the roster better than Bradford. There is no free agent QB better than Bradford. They are basically in a rough spot. Either let Sam go and hope they can draft someone better, or overpay him a little and keep him around while they try to fix a myriad of other problems (And possibly draft a QB anyway). With a new coach in place and a patient owner, a couple of years overpaid for an average QB who couldĀ still be good doesn’t seem that stupid. Although if Bradford turns out to be bad, it will surely bite them in the ass (From a totally biased Giants fan perspective, please please please it would be hilarious).

But the fact remains that Bradford is a mystery and has gotten paid more than any other player I’ve seen for doing so comparatively little.