How much pressure on Sam Bradford this year

[mozichrome]

http://grantland.com/features/sam-bradford-st-louis-rams/
Bradford has missed 15 games over the past three seasons with various injuries, including a torn ACL he suffered halfway through the 2013 campaign. Bradford is the owner of the the seventh-largest cap hit for any player in the NFL in 2014. Russell Wilson will make about as much this season (in terms of base salary) as Sam Bradford will by the end of the third quarter of St. Louis’s game against Minnesota in Week 1. This is suboptimal.

Bradford’s 2013 season wasn’t really all that bad before the torn ACL. He played a weird mix of great pass defenses (Arizona, Carolina) and terrible ones (Atlanta, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Houston), but he produced what was unquestionably his best-looking seasonal line as a pro, albeit in a shortened campaign. Over seven games, he finished with a downright gaudy 14 touchdowns against just four interceptions, which was the fourth-best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the league among qualifying quarterbacks last season. He set career highs in completion percentage (60.7 percent) and passer rating (90.9) and a career low in sack rate (5.4 percent).

Under Bradford’s leadership, the Rams have been a dink-and-dunk offense, throwing an endless stream of passes underneath while failing to take the top off of opposing defenses. It’s clear to see in the numbers and the tape that the Rams don’t get downfield enough, and that it limits Bradford’s value as a passer.

Bradford passing chart for 2013

 

[Kenny West]

0 like always

pleas are copped year after year

 

[Arrogance.]

It’s harder to make the case that the Rams haven’t done enough to surround Bradford with talent. Since drafting Bradford with the first pick of the 2010 draft, the Rams have invested heavily in weapons for him at wide receiver. In fact, using the Chase Stuart Draft Value Chart, the Rams have spent more draft capital on wide receivers than anybody else in football. St. Louis has spent a first-rounder (Tavon Austin), a second-rounder (Brian Quick, using the first pick of the second round), two third-rounders (Austin Pettis, Stedman Bailey), and three fourth-rounders (Greg Salas, Mardy Gilyard, Chris Givens) on wideouts over the past four years.

I want Bradford gone because he's eating up too much of the cap and doesn't do enough to win, but St. Louis' WR core over the last few years has been abysmal. Minus Austin and Pettis, none of the WRs drafted are good enough. The offensive scheme has changed every year, and last year's was the worst of them all until Bradford went down and the team was forced to go to a run based format. If you watched Rams games last year (don't blame you if you didn't), 3rd down was 4/5 receiver curl down, every single time.

Since Jeff Fisher has hitched his horse to the Bradford bandwagon, it's on him to make the offense more palatable. Bradford doesn't throw deep because the scheme never calls for it, nor does he have the WRs (minus Austin) who can get away from defenders downfield. Regardless of all of this, if the Rams don't finish at least 8-8, everyone failed. The defense is nice, the D-line is full of guys who can bully an offensive lineman around, and a run first, ball control offense should be enough to put enough points on the board to grind to a decent record. I still hope the Bradford experiment ends after this year and the Rams go into the draft next season with a QB in mind.

 

[ill]

Kenny Britt's gonna have his breakout year finally. Bradford is overrated as fukk but will show some potential this year if he can get the ball to Britt.

 

[curz]

Since Jeff Fisher has hitched his horse to the Bradford bandwagon, it's on him to make the offense more palatable. Bradford doesn't throw deep because the scheme never calls for it, nor does he have the WRs (minus Austin) who can get away from defenders downfield. Regardless of all of this, if the Rams don't finish at least 8-8, everyone failed. The defense is nice, the D-line is full of guys who can bully an offensive lineman around, and a run first, ball control offense should be enough to put enough points on the board to grind to a decent record. I still hope the Bradford experiment ends after this year and the Rams go into the draft next season with a QB in mind.

I dont know what happen to Givens last year, he was looking like that guy