Teams
- St. Louis Rams (2010-2014)
- Philadelphia Eagles (2015)
- Minnesota Vikings (2016-2017)
- Arizona Cardinals (2018)
“There has been, definitely, some dark times. You fight those battles mentally, but every time you go through that process and every time that you turn the corner and you’re able to get yourself back on the field, I feel like I’ve come back mentally tougher and mentally stronger than I was the time before.”
-Sam Bradford (source)
Sometimes it just doesn’t come together. The talent is there. The flashes of greatness are too. But sometimes it’s injuries or just the wrong situation, over and over again. And for every John Elway, or Troy Aikman, or Peyton Manning that gets taken #1 overall, you also get a Tim Couch, or a David Carr, or yes, a Sam Bradford. The 2008 Heisman Trophy winner suffered his first major football injury the following year, after returning to Oklahoma as a junior. First an early-season sprained shoulder, followed by a decision to go under the knife, prematurely ended his final college season. Still, health concerns weren’t enough to stop the St. Louis Rams, who were coming off a dismal 1-15 season, from taking Bradford #1 overall in the 2010 NFL Draft.
Replacing Marc Bulger as the team’s primary starter under Center, Sam Bradford didn’t exactly remind St. Louis of the “Greatest Show on Turf”, but the improvement was rapid. The Rams jumped to 7-9 as their rookie quarterback started all 16 games, throwing for 3,512 yards and 18 touchdowns. Everything gained in 2010, quickly fell by the wayside in 2011 though. Hampered by a high ankle sprain, Bradford won only one of his ten starts, managing a meager six TDs in those appearances. A.J. Feeley and Kellen Clemens fared little better in relief as the Rams sputtered to a 2-14 season.
Sam Bradford returned healthy and ready in 2012, and looked every bit the part of a player inching toward an elite level. The Oklahoma Sooner passed for 3,702 yards and 21 TDs while the Rams, under new head coach Jeff Fisher, rebounded to a 7-8-1 mark. In 2013 the breakthrough had seemingly arrived. After six games, Bradford was averaging 239 yards passing per game and had 13 TDs to only three picks. Then, during a Week 7 loss to Carolina, he suffered a torn ACL, ending his season. St. Louis would finish 7-9. But the worst was yet to come. After surviving a difficult rehab, Bradford suffered the same injury in the 2014 preseason, and would be unable to take the field again that year.
Perhaps fearing a jinx on their QB, St. Louis cut ties with their former #1 overall pick, trading him to Philadelphia for Nick Foles and an exchange of draft picks. Desperately hoping for a fresh start, 2015 was a mixed-bag for Sam Bradford. On one hand, he managed 14 starts, going 7-7. He also set personal bests in passing yards (3,725) and completion percentage (65.0%). But Bradford was also picked off 14 times, and missed two late-season games due to injury. The uncertainty over his health, and the allure of North Dakota State star Carson Wentz, was too much to ignore. And with the second overall pick in the 2016 Draft, the Eagles selected Wentz to compete with Bradford. Unhappy with this decision, the former Heisman Trophy winner held out following the draft, returning to the team a few weeks later. Then, during the 2016 preseason, Philadelphia sent Bradford to Minnesota for draft picks.
On his third team in three years, Sam Bradford made the most of his debut in Viking purple and gold. He would set a single-season NFL record by completing 71.6% of his passes (broken just one year later by Drew Brees). Bradford would also have the league’s third-lowest INT rate (0.9%) and sixth-best QB rating (99.3), while throwing for a career-high 3,877 yards in 15 games. But after a 5-0 start, Minnesota completely fell apart, finishing 8-8 and missing the postseason.
In 2017, the Vikings went 13-3 and made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game… without Sam Bradford. Seemingly forever cursed, he would make only two starts in five weeks, eventually being placed on injured reserve with, you guessed it, a knee injury. In the 2018 offseason, Sam Bradford signed a one-year $20 million deal with the Arizona Cardinals. The experiment was a miserable failure as Bradford was awful in the Cards’ 0-3 start, turning the ball over six times while scoring only twice. He was cut just over a month later and failed to find another NFL home after that.
Over nine seasons of pro football, Sam Bradford didn’t always do himself any favors. But he was not his own worst enemy, nor were opposing defenses, nor were the ownership and management of the four franchises for whom he suited up. Rather, the former Heisman winner’s own body failed him on what may have been an excellent career. Battling injuries, Bradford showed slow, but ongoing growth in St. Louis. When finally in the right situation, in Minnesota, Bradford put up a season of historic accuracy. But it’s likely fair to say that, even on the field, Sam Bradford was handicapped by a completely wrecked left knee and shoulder damage dating back to his college days. And while Bradford’s on-field glory was severely limited (no winning seasons and no playoff appearances), based upon his injury history it may be a minor miracle that his career even lasted as long as it did.
Chart
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | -0.067 | -0.086 | -0.232 | 0.067 | -0.086 | 0.007 | -0.207 | 0.192 |
| Playoffs | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Longevity Bonus = 0.2 Title Bonus = 0.0
Index Score = -2.376 (average QB = 0.0)
Deviation Rank (out of 150)
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 132nd | 117th | 139th | 60th | 150th | 84th | 146th | 27th |
| Playoffs | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Why isn’t he on the Top 100 list?
Over his oft-interrupted nine-year career, Sam Bradford wasn’t particularly adept at getting the ball in the end zone. He never scored more than 22 touchdowns in a season, and falls into the bottom 20 for total TDs per game and TD rate. Also, he was not much of a deep ball threat, placing in the bottom five all-time for deviation of yards/completion + yards/attempt. The biggest hinderance though is the injuries that prevented Bradford from ever playing in the postseason, and limited him to being his team’s primary starter only six times, giving him a longevity bonus of just 0.2.
But what made him good?
Sam Bradford did not turn the ball over much. He’s #27 all-time for deviation of INTs per attempt, only tossing 61 interceptions in 83 career starts. That also helps limit his total turnovers per game as well, placing him at #60 all-time. Bradford was also slightly better-than-average in the accuracy department, bolstered by his record-setting mark completion rate of 71.6% in 2016.
The Quarterback Project 