Sam Bradford's a Viking

[J. Kapp 11]

For those who think Bradford at his best isn't as good as Teddy, consider Bradford's last 7 games last year. He had only one game with a QBR of less than 90, going 4-3 with a bad team. In his last 3 games, he passed for more than 1,000 yards, exceeding 300 yards in each game. By comparison, Teddy has three CAREER 300-yard games.

I'm not here to claim Sam Bradford is the next coming of Tom Brady. But to say Bradford at his best is nowhere near Teddy at his best is simply overlooking what Bradford has actually accomplished.

Let's not forget just how dysfunctional that Philly team was last year under Chip Kelly. The stories of the team's collective disdain for that guy are truly eye-opening. The fact that Sam Bradford played his best football when the Kelly situation was at its worst says something about his character, as well as his ability.

And make no mistake -- Shaun Hill was NEVER going to match the production Bradford is capable of.

After giving it a lot of thought and reading a lot (including every opinion expressed on this board), I'm OK with this. It's not what I would have wanted, but at least it gives us a chance to be competitive -- if he can stay healthy.

[Mothman]

Oh, the irony...

Ben Goessling @GoesslingESPN
Spielman: "I understand there's a premium you have to pay, because not everybody has the depth Philly does at quarterback."

This is interesting too:

Peter King @SI_PeterKing
In the last 7 seasons, Sam Bradford has had 5 head coaches, 6 offensive coordinators and 6 QB coaches (counting 2 OCs who coached QBs).

Maybe if the Vikings provide Bradford with some stability, he'll eventually thrive. That would be nice.

[dead_poet]

Worth the read.

http://www.dailynorseman.com/2016/9/3/1 ... ce=twitter

[Purple Martin]

Oh, the irony...
This is interesting too:
Maybe if the Vikings provide Bradford with some stability, he'll eventually thrive. That would be nice.

Wow, Bradford has been in the NFL 7 seasons? That's pretty amazing for a guy who was only drafted 6 years ago!

[Mothman]

Wow, Bradford has been in the NFL 7 seasons? That's pretty amazing for a guy who was only drafted 6 years ago!

King must be getting sloppy... or maybe he just threw in an extra season, even though Bradford wasn't in the NFL that year. After all, the statement's still true. We could just expand it to his age: "In the last 28 seasons, Bradford has had 5 head coaches, 6 offensive coordinators and 6 QB coaches (counting 2 OCs who coached QBs)."

[halfgiz]

The Minnesota Vikings fell into a crisis, deeper than most people grasped, at the moment Teddy Bridgewater went down last week with a left knee injury. After years of methodically building a Super Bowl contender, and on the eve of entering a new stadium, the Vikings had arguably the least-talented quarterback group in the 32-team NFL.

I agree with that...our QB situation is on Rick, if he would have been more proactive we wouldn't have had to do a Bradford trade.

[losperros]

For those who think Bradford at his best isn't as good as Teddy, consider Bradford's last 7 games last year. He had only one game with a QBR of less than 90, going 4-3 with a bad team. In his last 3 games, he passed for more than 1,000 yards, exceeding 300 yards in each game. By comparison, Teddy has three CAREER 300-yard games.

I'm not here to claim Sam Bradford is the next coming of Tom Brady. But to say Bradford at his best is nowhere near Teddy at his best is simply overlooking what Bradford has actually accomplished.

Let's not forget just how dysfunctional that Philly team was last year under Chip Kelly. The stories of the team's collective disdain for that guy are truly eye-opening. The fact that Sam Bradford played his best football when the Kelly situation was at its worst says something about his character, as well as his ability.

And make no mistake -- Shaun Hill was NEVER going to match the production Bradford is capable of.

After giving it a lot of thought and reading a lot (including every opinion expressed on this board), I'm OK with this. It's not what I would have wanted, but at least it gives us a chance to be competitive -- if he can stay healthy.

Agree with all the above. I see a night and day difference between Hill and Bradford, and Bradford has more experience (especially during adversity) than Bridgewater.

I think this year's Vikings roster contains the most talented group of players Bradford has ever played with in a single season. I imagine that must have caused some excitement for Bradford.

I hate seeing the Vikings lose a R1 pick but I'm happy about the trade. The Vikings organization stepped up and did what they had to do.

[Mothman]

Worth the read.

http://www.dailynorseman.com/2016/9/3/1 ... ce=twitter

Thanks for the link. Regarding this section of the article...

One of the reactions I saw that irritated me the most was that the trade signals the Vikings know Teddy is going to be out two years, or his career is in deep jeopardy, if not over.

Everyone stop with that. No one knows how bad it is. Until he has his surgery, there's no way to know. But, Spielman cannot just sit and do nothing and wait to see what happens with Teddy and rehab, because Hill/Heinicke/TJ Maxx guy is not a good long term plan. It's a bad short term plan, and this takes lemons...grown largely by Rick Spielman...and turns it into a somewhat palatable lemonade.

Why is this his fault? Because Spielman screwed up by not addressing the backup QB situation in the off-season, and rolled he dice on Teddy not getting hurt. When that blew up in his face, he needed to fix it, and he did. Bradford does two things:

A. He gives the Vikings a competitive bridge to 2017. A guy that gives you a legitimate chance to win every week this year, and once Teddy comes back next year, a high quality backup that can come in and play if needed.

I'll use the author's own words: stop with that. I don't know if Bridgewater will be out two years, if his career is in deep jeopardy or if he will be fully rehabbed and ready to start next season but that last option remains in doubt and depending on how Bradford performs, at this point the assumption shouldn't be that he is just holding the down the fort until Bridgewater can start again. Based on their careers so far, there's no reason anybody, especially the Vikings, should just assume Bradford will take a back seat next year if Bridgewater is healthy. At the very least, there should be a QB competition and if Bradford excels (a tall order this season, especially given the timing of events) perhaps it will even be his job to lose next year.

I have no idea how all of this will play out but when Bridgewater is ready to start again, he should have to earn the job, especially because we don't know if he'll even be the same player at that point.

Vikings fans need to accept the possibility that Bridgewater's days as the "future of the franchise" may be over. The team needs to proceed as if that's true and if he comes back strong, that will be a wonderful bonus and a great story. Why do I say this? I say it because I saw what happened to Daunte Culpepper's career after he suffered a similarly devastating knee injury. He recovered enough to start for Miami the following year but he clearly wasn't ready to start and he played like a shadow of his former self. Eventually, his leg improved to a point where he could be somewhat more effective but he never got close to being the player he was pre-injury. I don't know what fate has in store for Teddy but this franchise, in particular, should be able to recognize that they can't count on him to come back and be the player he was or the player they thought he would become. Maybe he'll return and reach that potential but they can't count on it. That would be dangerously magical thinking.

[TSonn]

There is a reason everywhere I have seen people are laughing at us for making this deal.

Please show us where people are laughing at us. I see no sign of it - a couple of semi-critical articles but they still understand the move.

[mondry]

Peter King @SI_PeterKing
In the last 7 seasons, Sam Bradford has had 5 head coaches, 6 offensive coordinators and 6 QB coaches (counting 2 OCs who coached QBs).

Personally I'm pretty excited about Bradford. Don't get me wrong I think Teddy was going to prove a lot of people wrong this year but now that that isn't going to happen this is the next best thing. He thrived in his rookie year with Shurmur at the helm and has always had a boat load of talent and work ethic.

He's had some injury problems and of course the above quote does not make it easy on a young QB but this is a guy who could legitimately thrive for us, push Teddy for the job, and even win it. That's the kind of competition we've needed at QB for a long time. Yes it was expensive which I admit sucks, but this is a QB we're talking about. It's hard to get any one with any kind of potential still especially at this point in the season.

He can do what we need a QB to do with this run game and defense. I like the fit, it's just a matter of how fast he can get up to speed.

[Norv Zimmer]

For those who think Bradford at his best isn't as good as Teddy, consider Bradford's last 7 games last year. He had only one game with a QBR of less than 90, going 4-3 with a bad team. In his last 3 games, he passed for more than 1,000 yards, exceeding 300 yards in each game. By comparison, Teddy has three CAREER 300-yard games.

I'm not here to claim Sam Bradford is the next coming of Tom Brady. But to say Bradford at his best is nowhere near Teddy at his best is simply overlooking what Bradford has actually accomplished.

Let's not forget just how dysfunctional that Philly team was last year under Chip Kelly. The stories of the team's collective disdain for that guy are truly eye-opening. The fact that Sam Bradford played his best football when the Kelly situation was at its worst says something about his character, as well as his ability.

And make no mistake -- Shaun Hill was NEVER going to match the production Bradford is capable of.

After giving it a lot of thought and reading a lot (including every opinion expressed on this board), I'm OK with this. It's not what I would have wanted, but at least it gives us a chance to be competitive -- if he can stay healthy.

Great post, especially the part about hill not even close to.Bradford.

Don't get me.wrong I like teddy but, he wasn't amazing. Bradford has a chance to be very good or even amazing with this team around him.

[HardcoreVikesFan]

Oh, the irony...
This is interesting too:
Maybe if the Vikings provide Bradford with some stability, he'll eventually thrive. That would be nice.

I have come around on the trade since yesterday - after the shock wore off. I am still not exactly thrilled about giving up a first round pick, but, I understand that the team had to make a move.

I wasn't going to give up on the team last week when it looked like Shaun Hill was going to be our starter. Sure as hell am not giving up on them now. I hope Sam succeeds because I have admired his career in the NFL. I just hope he finally shows us all why he was the first overall pick in 2010.

Still, I would be remiss if I didn't question the trade. I want to know how negotiations went. Was Philly insistent on the first round pick all along? Did we try to offer less? Was there a way we could have recouped a low round draft at the least? Too many questions remain that we will probably never know.

[Texas Vike]

Please show us where people are laughing at us. I see no sign of it - a couple of semi-critical articles but they still understand the move.

I'm guessing he means the masses (i.e. fans' comments in the first round of articles that announced the trade).

Folks informed enough to actually be hired to analyze and write about the NFL have had a very different response from what I've seen.

[Norv Zimmer]

I have come around on the trade since yesterday - after the shock wore off. I am still not exactly thrilled about giving up a first round pick, but, I understand that the team had to make a move.

I wasn't going to give up on the team last week when it looked like Shaun Hill was going to be our starter. Sure as hell am not giving up on them now. I hope Sam succeeds because I have admired his career in the NFL. I just hope he finally shows us all why he was the first overall pick in 2010.

Still, I would be remiss if I didn't question the trade. I want to know how negotiations went. Was Philly insistent on the first round pick all along? Did we try to offer less? Was there a way we could have recouped a low round draft at the least? Too many questions remain that we will probably never know.

Too bad we will never learn about the negotiations. My guess is they were asking for a lot all along... why wouldn't they? The Vikings were holding zero cards and every team.knew it.

[Mothman]

Ben Goessling points out the financial ramifications of the Bradford deal, which have also been mentioned in this thread:

http://www.espn.com/blog/minnesota-viki ... it-vikings

Goessling focuses primarily on Bradford and Peterson, although I've been assuming the Vikes would probably try to re-work AD's deal next offseason anyway. Maybe that's assuming too much?

The article also mentions the cost of picking up Bridgewater's 5th year option:

The Vikings will likely pick up Bridgewater's fifth-year option next May, at a price of more than $12 million.

Here's some ore info about how that works:

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/agent ... decisions/

All of this is, thankfully, a long way off...