The Eagles have had quite a busy offseason. As usual, even when the team is in disarray, there's always plenty of action to keep the fan base interested. A lot has happened, so let's recap it, step by step, in stick figure form.
1) Technically, this happened during the end of the football season last year, but obviously, Jeffrey Lurie fired Chip Kelly, which set the wheels in motion for an overhaul of the roster.
2) With one wholly meaningless game remaining on the schedule, Sam Bradford and the Eagles went to the Meadowlands and beat the Giants, thus hurting the Eagles' draft position, potentially putting them out of contention to trade up and draft a quarterback.
3) The search for a new head coach began before the season ended, with the Eagles interviewing anyone and everyone. Even friggin Tom Coughlin looked like a serious contender at one point.
4) Ultimately, the Eagles landed on Doug Pederson, AKA "Andy Jr."
5) With a neophyte head coach in place and a stalled search for a new personnel head, it very quickly became clear who would be guiding the franchise going forward.
6) The first order of business was to sign a number of core players already on the team.
7) Then Howie disposed of Riley Cooper. See ya, #TruckNuts.
8) But the biggest question mark of the offseason remained. What to do with Sam Bradford? After months of fervent debate among the fan base, Bradford ultimately signed a lucrative two year deal that essentially functioned as a one-year deal, that was clear to anyone with half a brain that Bradford was the guy, but only in the short-term. The following picture really has nothing to do with Bradford's deal, but I like it, so it's getting shoehorned in.
9) Howie then turned his attention toward trading players on the roster who no longer fit. He cast out lines to the rest of the NFL.
10) Just before the start of free agency, word began to spread that the Eagles were trading Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell to the Dolphins. That deal would be held up shortly because Maxwell told the Dolphins he was hurt. Eagles fans held their collective breath waiting for the results of Maxwell's physical, and some even offered encouragement from outside the doctor's office in Miami.
11) As it turned out Maxwell would be fine, and a trade of Maxwell, Kiko, and the Eagles' 13th-overall pick would net them the 8th overall pick.
12) Kiko still isn't sure who he plays for.
13) But the Eagles weren't done trading there. Reports began to accelerate that the first of two former Oklahoma Sooners would demand a trade. Initially, it was DeMarco Murray.
14) The Eagles obliged, sending Murray and his terrible contract to go slide on down to Tennessee.
15) Later they would ship the Sanchise off to Denver, where he will charitably give the ball to the other team in a new city.
16) In free agency, as usual, the Eagles went nuts, signing everyone and their mother.
17) And then there was calm...
...for a little while anyway, until... BAM... The Eagles traded up to the No. 2 pick in the draft! Recognizing that the Eagles were going to take a quarterback with that pick, Bradford immediately went on strike and demanded a trade, after already having cashed $5.5 million of his signing bonus.
18) #AsExpected, the Eagles did indeed draft a quarterback with the No. 2-overall pick, North Dakota State's Carson Wentz.
19) Both Howie and Doug said that Sam would not be traded, and would be welcomed back with open arms whenever he returned.
20) They even reached out to him, but Sam would not take their calls.
21) Behind closed doors, Sam couldn't even trade himself in Madden.
So that's where we're at.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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