The St. Louis Rams have stuck to the dogged belief that by surrounding Quarterback Sam Bradford with lots of talent that he could lead them to the same kind of success they enjoyed when Kurt Warner was leading the “Greatest Show on Turf”. They were wrong. On Sunday the Rams learned that Bradford has suffered a torn ACL, the same ACL he has surgically repaired last year. The Rams should have known better and now they’re paying the price.
Sam Bradford has never been able to stay injury free. When
the Rams made him the 1st Pick in the 2010 NFL Draft he was coming
off of shoulder surgery. This didn’t concern the Rams who gave him a six-year
contract worth $78 million. The contract had $50 million of guarantees and had
a maximum value of $86 million making it the largest contract ever for an NFL
rookie. It looked like a good investment because he was the Offensive Rookie
Year and the Rams almost made the playoffs that year. They lost a win and in
game to the Seattle Seahawks for NFC Western Division title. That’s the closest
they have been in the Sam Bradford era. The following season in a harbinger of
things to come as Bradford got injured and missed 6 games. The team struggled
and finished the year 2-14. As result the Rams had the #2 in that years’ NFL Draft
which they traded to the Redskins in the RGIII deal. Again this looked like a
good decision when they went 7-8-1 and Bradford threw for 3702 yards to go
along with 21 touchdowns vs. 13 interceptions. He was off to good start last
year 14 touchdowns vs. 4 interceptions when he torn his ACL. Despite losing Bradford
in the 7th game of last season the Rams managed to finish the year
7-9. The Rams again had the #2 pick in last year draft (thanks to RGIII trade)
to go along with their own 1st round pick. You would think at this point
with their starting quarterback only a few years removed from shoulder surgery
on his throwing shoulder and having had his ACL surgically repaired the Rams
would invest an early round pick (say late 1st round or 2nd-4th round) in a promising rookie quarterback or maybe trade for a young quarterback to groom as
a potential starter. You would be wrong. The Rams did neither and the qb who
had helped to that decent record (Kellen Davis) was allowed to leave as free
agent. They signed Shaun Hill who was older than guy he replaced (he’s 34,
Davis is 31) as the back-up, kept Austin Davis who they got as an undrafted
free agent, and when they did draft a qb it was in the 6th round (Garrett
Gilbert). Its not as if the Rams have to look very far to see the importance of
having a good back-up qb. The reason the Packers made the playoffs last season after
losing Aaron Rodgers for the bulk of the season is because of the play of their
back-up quarterback (Matt Flynn). Add to
this the Rams play in the most competitive division in the NFL (the NFC West)
where all the teams outside of the Rams had a winning record last season. And
each of these team has a starting qb who have better credentials than Sam
Bradford even if he was healthy. Plus all those teams seem to have noticed the importance
of having a good back-up qb. So the Rams who have one of the deepest and
talented rosters in the NFL outside of the quarterback will most likely miss
the playoffs this season and will have to invest a high round pick (most likely the 1st
round) on a quarterback all because the front office and coaching staffs
thought that an injury prone quarterback could lead the team to glory because
the team had talent everywhere else.
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