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It’s been and up-and-down five years for Sam Bradford with the St. Louis Rams. Since coming into the league as the first overall selection in the 2010 NFL draft, the former Oklahoma Sooner has yet to finish more than two full seasons under center.
There have been flashes of the franchise quarterback the Rams thought they were getting when they drafted him. His rookie season went about as expected, finishing the year with 18 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. The next year was cut short due to a variety of different injuries. In 2012, we all saw the Bradford that we thought was going to lead the Rams for the future, throwing 21 touchdowns to 13 interceptions and 3,700+ yards. The 2014 season started off great as well, having a 14 touchdown to four interceptions stat line before going down with an ACL tear.
Talk around the 2014 draft was that the Rams had given up on Bradford and it was time to part ways. Head coach Jeff Fisher thought otherwise and decided to give the fifth-year pro another chance, but Bradford tore the same ACL as the year before in a meaningless preseason game.
Well, coach Fisher, now is the time to sever any hopes you have for Bradford and get what you can for him.
When he was drafted, Bradford signed a six-year, $78.05 million contract, with $50 million of that guaranteed. With this coming offseason being his last under contract with the organization, he is set to make $16,580 million. Any other team isn’t going to want to invest that much money, along with compensation, to a quarterback who has had two separate knee injuries in less than a year. They will, however, be more than willing to take a chance on Bradford at a discounted rate.
Two teams come to mind that should take a shot at acquiring Bradford: the New York Jets and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; both teams have north of $31 million in cap space this coming offseason.
The Jets will likely be under new management and want nothing to do with either Geno Smith or Mike Vick, so a chance to get Bradford, who they’ll be able to pay with their $41 million in cap space, is something they need to consider. This move would then allow them to focus elsewhere when next April’s draft rolls around.
Like the Jets, the Buccaneers are a mess at the quarterback position; Lovie Smith shot and missed when it came to the Josh McCown signing, and he has shown little-to-no interest or confidence in Mike Glennon. Bradford paired with Mike Evans, Vincent Jackson and Austin Seferian-Jenkins could quickly translate into a top-10 offense.
All of this is barring a positive physical from Bradford once he’s 100 percent. Could the Rams be stuck with him for another year? Absolutely. He’s set to make too much money for them to bypass any type of salary cap penalty if they decided to terminate his contract. It’s in their best interest to make a trade and try to turn their former No. 1 into a 2015 No. 111.
Tyler Olson is an NFL blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @to2471 or connect with him on Google.
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