Word on the street was that Sam Bradford would return to work this week or next.
The quarterback accelerated the timetable to Monday.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Bradford officially returned to the Eagles facility Monday morning, per a source who has seen the player.
Bradford requested a trade after the Eagles traded up in the NFL draft to select Carson Wentz. He held out of the start of voluntary workouts in an attempt to coax a move. None materialized. The quarterback had little recourse left other than showing up for work.
"I'm excited to be back on the field today with my teammates and coaches," Bradford said in a statement. "The business-side of football is sometimes a necessary consideration. My attention and efforts are focused on the participation in and preparation for a championship season: I am committed to my teammates and the Eagles organization for nothing less."
Philly is in phase two of offseason conditioning, during which on-field workouts may include individual player instruction and drills as well as team practice conducted on a separate basis, but no live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted.
Eagles organized team activities don't begin until next week, so Bradford is getting his return out of the way prior to those on-field training exercises. Bradford missed two out of 10 weeks of offseason work in his holdout.
It always made sense that Bradford would end his short-lived holdout for a trade. After the draft came and went, there was no logical landing place for the quarterback. The best move Bradford can make now is returning to the locker room as soon as possible and break the ice. Teammate Connor Barwin told 94.1 WIP-FM on Monday morning that he doesn't believe there will be any lingering issue about the quarterback requesting a trade.
"At the end of the day, all that we really care about in the locker room is who is the best quarterback who is gonna help us win games," Barwin said. "And I think right now we're excited and we know we draft Carson Wentz, but I think most of this locker room -- or if not all of us -- understand that Sam is our starting quarterback and he's gonna be the best quarterback to help us win next year. So we're all excited to have him back."
Bradford's holdout always felt like a mini-tantrum in which he and his reps misread the market and the quarterback's worth.Â
The Eagles have consistently said they want Bradford as their starter in 2016. His return to the facility enables him to dive into coach Doug Pederson's playbook without falling too far behind -- he'll still have to fend off Wentz and Chase Daniel.
Howie Roseman's trade to draft Wentz might have caught Bradford by surprise, but it shouldn't have affected his approach this season much. Given his contract and play the past few seasons, Bradford was always viewed as a year-by-year proposition. His best course of action, if he's still miffed about the Wentz draft, is to play out of his mind in 2016 and ensure someone will want to start him in 2017.
