Being Brutally Honest....how Much Longer Do We Give Sam?

[NERamsFan]

I am a huge Bradford fan. My avatar is Bradford, my computer background at the office is Sam. But we need to be honest and think of the team. Fisher and Snead have us on the verge of being a division contender and I see some great days coming....but

How much longer do we stick with Sam and not consider drafting or trading for another QB. He was solid last year until he went down. If he comes out and does that again this year, great. But guys, as much dedication as we feel for Sam, we need to think of the team.

How many more years do we give Sam?

Funny, I have Bradford posted up on a bunch of my stuff too! Was a HUGE supporter of his when he came out, but my support for him is starting to fade a bit.

It's crazy, heading into last year many media outlets were calling this past year Sam's make or break year, but many fans/St. Louis journalists refuted that belief. Now there should no excuses. I think this will be Sam's last chance to prove to the organization he can lead the team to the playoffs. For me, it's playoffs or bust. I don't care about numbers or any of that jazz. Sure, it'd be cool to see our qb have Brees-like numbers or whatever, but we are not built for that and those kind of numbers aren't necessary.

We know what we bring on D and we've seen our offense move somewhat effectively up and down the field. Sprinkle in new off-season additions and another year of experience for these young guys, and there should be no excuses as to why our team can't rise to the occasion and play in the tourney next year. Obviously it goes without saying we HAVE to fix the penalties situation.

 

[Ram_of_Old]

I don't want to think about it in those terms. He's my guy right now and I'll leave the future to the future.

I would like to agree with you, but we can't allow our emotions to blind reality. I hope these subject moot and he will come out next year and blow the NFL away....

But what if we drop to the bottom of the NFC West again and have a losing record half way into the season....what will the front office do?

 

[rickrawk]

Until Fisher says otherwise.

Straight Like That!!!

GO RAMS!!!!

 

[Lunchbox]

I like Sam. Always have. Always felt he possessed all of the qualities necessary in a QB to lead a team into the postseason. I've also always felt his progress was hindered by coaching changes and lack of talent and continuity he's had to work with up until this point.

If we fix the O-line and possibly add a #1 type receiver I think he'll have a great year in 2014. If we don't he will most likely become a scapegoat in the eyes of the public for the lack of progress of the TEAM. If he again misses time due to injury the vultures will be circling.

I think he's got a couple of years. I don't believe Fisher buys the thinking that all that's wrong with the offense falls on Sam. IMO he's got a longer leash than most think.

 

[Alan]

Snisher has to think about those things but since I'm completely (I'm not sure why) lacking in any ability to effect the outcome of our QB situation I'm free to ignore the possible problem.

As Oddball once famously said to Moriarty in Kelly's Heroes:
Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?

Moriarty: Crap!

 

[NERamsFan]

Not to sway the conversation too much, but here's something to consider.

Hypothetical, what if Sam doesn't pan out next year:
Does Fish lose his job?
Do we consider rebuilding with the likes of Mariota, Hundley, Winston, etc..?
Does Fish (if retained) give Shotty the boot and restart with a new offense to go with his new qb mentioned above?

Ahhh so many questions and so many scenarios. I think we could solve them all by just getting to the playoffs. COME ON SAM!!!!

 

[HeiseNBerg]

I have these frigin Redskins fans coming into my office and asking me when we are cutting Bradford loose....I want to put it into their face!

Want to make the Redskins fans leave you alone? Just say "Thanks for the #2 pick in next year's draft", then watch how fast they go from snarky to full head slump.

 

[RFIP]

Knee recovery a side, how anyone thinks he is not even better than he was this past year, to the point where he was 110+ rated for the 3+ games in the "Stacy era" with a 7/1 td/int ratio is just beyond me.

What is he suddenly going to forget he's that good?

And during that stretch when he actually had a running game (still no rushing tds mind you) you have the dropped td by Quick and the called back td due to J Long's trip or he'd have been a crazy 9/1 td/int in 3+ games.

I just shake my head when I read crap on this guy, its just stupid to be honest. Andy Dalton can make the plays 3 years in a row and he did throw 33 tds this year but had 20 ints and a stack of fumbles to boot...BUT when you have a D to bail you out you are somehow considered a superior QB? Mind you, in his playoff career Dalton still has ZERO td's and 8 ints, stats you will NEVER see for Bradford.

The circumstances against Sam from the jump where staggering, everyone knows them, then the division went from worst to best in a blink...no matter, once the Rams take over it will only make their trip shorter to the Super bowl...and it's coming folks.

 

[BigRamFan]

RFIP....I love you man!

 

[RFIP]

RFIP....I love you man!

Thanks bro. (Though my boat don't float down that river! LOL! :woot: )

 

[Lesson]

Not to sway the conversation too much, but here's something to consider.

Hypothetical, what if Sam doesn't pan out next year:
Does Fish lose his job?
Do we consider rebuilding with the likes of Mariota, Hundley, Winston, etc..?
Does Fish (if retained) give Shotty the boot and restart with a new offense to go with his new qb mentioned above?

Ahhh so many questions and so many scenarios. I think we could solve them all by just getting to the playoffs. COME ON SAM!!!!

Why would Fisher be fired if Sam doesn't pan out? RG3 has had injury issues and the #2 pick the Rams traded to the Redskins brought back a #2 pick to the Rams.
Schottenheimer, while he's caught some flak, has been fine for the most part in his tenure with the Rams. How the Rams played with Clemens at QB for most of their games, IMO, was impressive.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Knee recovery a side, how anyone thinks he is not even better than he was this past year, to the point where he was 110+ rated for the 3+ games in the "Stacy era" with a 7/1 td/int ratio is just beyond me.

What is he suddenly going to forget he's that good?

And during that stretch when he actually had a running game (still no rushing tds mind you) you have the dropped td by Quick and the called back td due to J Long's trip or he'd have been a crazy 9/1 td/int in 3+ games.

I just shake my head when I read crap on this guy, its just stupid to be honest. Andy Dalton can make the plays 3 years in a row and he did throw 33 tds this year but had 20 ints and a stack of fumbles to boot...BUT when you have a D to bail you out you are somehow considered a superior QB? Mind you, in his playoff career Dalton still has ZERO td's and 8 ints, stats you will NEVER see for Bradford.

The circumstances against Sam from the jump where staggering, everyone knows them, then the division went from worst to best in a blink...no matter, once the Rams take over it will only make their trip shorter to the Super bowl...and it's coming folks.

^ This.

 

[Rams and Gators]

Funny, I have Bradford posted up on a bunch of my stuff too! Was a HUGE supporter of his when he came out, but my support for him is starting to fade a bit.

It's crazy, heading into last year many media outlets were calling this past year Sam's make or break year, but many fans/St. Louis journalists refuted that belief. Now there should no excuses. I think this will be Sam's last chance to prove to the organization he can lead the team to the playoffs. For me, it's playoffs or bust. I don't care about numbers or any of that jazz. Sure, it'd be cool to see our qb have Brees-like numbers or whatever, but we are not built for that and those kind of numbers aren't necessary.

We know what we bring on D and we've seen our offense move somewhat effectively up and down the field. Sprinkle in new off-season additions and another year of experience for these young guys, and there should be no excuses as to why our team can't rise to the occasion and play in the tourney next year. Obviously it goes without saying we HAVE to fix the penalties situation.

Got to disagree with that, why would we cut Sam if he starts looking like Brees but we don't make the playoffs? Would we cut Quinn as well? Or is it only a QB's job to win games and all else be damned? If we get to the playoffs and Sam isn't putting up good numbers or get's injured I'd cut him and start again with a competent QB.

 

[RFIP]

Got to disagree with that, why would we cut Sam if he starts looking like Brees but we don't make the playoffs? Would we cut Quinn as well? Or is it only a QB's job to win games and all else be damned? If we get to the playoffs and Sam isn't putting up good numbers or get's injured I'd cut him and start again with a competent QB.

Not to mention we'd look like assholes because he'd be unemployed about a millisecond. And the next team he'd play for would be all the better.

Frankly I am getting concerned with all the negative pub that is being spewd toward him he and his agent may not want to resign when the time comes. Yeah we could franchise him but that usually doesn't go well.

 

[-X-]

Knee recovery a side, how anyone thinks he is not even better than he was this past year, to the point where he was 110+ rated for the 3+ games in the "Stacy era" with a 7/1 td/int ratio is just beyond me.

What is he suddenly going to forget he's that good?

And during that stretch when he actually had a running game (still no rushing tds mind you) you have the dropped td by Quick and the called back td due to J Long's trip or he'd have been a crazy 9/1 td/int in 3+ games.

I just shake my head when I read crap on this guy, its just stupid to be honest. Andy Dalton can make the plays 3 years in a row and he did throw 33 tds this year but had 20 ints and a stack of fumbles to boot...BUT when you have a D to bail you out you are somehow considered a superior QB? Mind you, in his playoff career Dalton still has ZERO td's and 8 ints, stats you will NEVER see for Bradford.

The circumstances against Sam from the jump where staggering, everyone knows them, then the division went from worst to best in a blink...no matter, once the Rams take over it will only make their trip shorter to the Super bowl...and it's coming folks.

Tolerance is key on message boards, RFIP. Not everyone is going to think the same way regarding every player on the team. If they did, then there wouldn't be very much conversation. It would kinda just look like this.

But as long as we're talking about tolerance, here's what I don't have much tolerance for (preposition ending sentence notwithstanding). When people come onto RAMS FANS message boards and try to punk a player on the team to the point that their sole mission in life is to convince everyone else that said player is garbage. "He can't read defenses", or "He can only dink or dunk", or "He's an overpaid bust", or "My mom breastfed me until I was 9." That's horseshit in my opinion. If you have a problem with Bradford (or any other player whose sole objective is to improve daily), then find a constructive way to articulate your discontent with that player, and try to avoid doing it at the expense of that player's talents or character. Don't make shit up that fits your agenda. Don't pretend to be some kind of QB talent evaluator savant and assume that your opinion is infallible because everyone else is some sort of dumbass.

Same goes for the pro-Bradford crowd (myself included). We could also ease up on viewing all criticism as some sort of attack on our senses or an attack on Bradford himself. Those who only want to stir up shit are easily spotted, and those guys will be dealt with by the mods. We should let them do their jobs in that regard and try to avoid getting sucked in by people who really are driven by attention and agendas.

And all that said. Honestly. I don't know how much longer he gets. I'm not 100% sold on him as the future, but I'm not 100% sold on the idea that he's not. Give him his contract and see how it plays out. The market will dictate what he's worth after that. Because he'll either be a playoff caliber QB, or he'll be the QB of the team that failed to make the playoffs during his time here.

 

[V3]

If he's injured or doesn't play well, it's easy; he's gone. If he plays well, he stays. But what if he's in the middle? Are people okay with a middle of the pack QB? If Fisher decides he wants to go another direction from Bradford, how's he going to get a top rated QB now that we don't have multiple picks like this year or last year? I don't want to be the Redskins and mortgage multiple picks just to move up and get a QB. That's what scares me the most about this draft. It's our last one where we will be in a position to take a good QB prospect. I don't think we'll be picking high again even if Bradford is mediocre. That being said, I don't want to take a QB in the first this year.

Fisher has put all his chips on Bradford, but even still, I don't think he'll be fired if Bradford doesn't pan out. Instead, I think blame will be shifted to people like Schotty, WR's, OL, etc. I'd be more worried if I were Schotty than Fisher. I do think that next year all questions will be answered on Bradford- regardless of if he or others get injured or not.

 

[Rambitious1]

I think realistically this year and next. If we don't make the playoffs after 2015, Sam's contract expires and we have to look elsewhere

So say we go 8-8 in both of those years, don't make the playoffs.
Sam throws for 65 to 68% -4000+ yards and 35-40 TD's with 10 int's and we dump Sam?

 

[bskrilla]

So say we go 8-8 in both of those years, don't make the playoffs.
Sam throws for 65 to 68% -4000+ yards and 35-40 TD's with 10 int's and we dump Sam?

While I agree it would be foolish to dump Sam if he put up numbers like that I think this hypothetical is a little silly.

I don't see any possible way we DON'T make the playoffs if Sam puts up numbers like that. Unless our entire defense get's amnesia and forgets what a football is.

 

[RFIP]

I agree and apologize if I offended anyone.

As for Bradford, Jim Thomas just posted a very interesting article stating that most of the national guys only saw Sam once and it was his worst game of the season vs SF on thursday night. A light went on for me after reading this (sorry, not home so I can't post it) that, as I should have known, most of these guys railung on Sam ONLY saw him that night...they don't follow the Rams and have no interest in doing the research on a player.

This all changes once we start making playoff after playoff though.

Tolerance is key on message boards, RFIP. Not everyone is going to think the same way regarding every player on the team. If they did, then there wouldn't be very much conversation. It would kinda just look like this.

But as long as we're talking about tolerance, here's what I don't have much tolerance for (preposition ending sentence notwithstanding). When people come onto RAMS FANS message boards and try to punk a player on the team to the point that their sole mission in life is to convince everyone else that said player is garbage. "He can't read defenses", or "He can only dink or dunk", or "He's an overpaid bust", or "My mom breastfed me until I was 9." That's horseshit in my opinion. If you have a problem with Bradford (or any other player whose sole objective is to improve daily), then find a constructive way to articulate your discontent with that player, and try to avoid doing it at the expense of that player's talents or character. Don't make shyte up that fits your agenda. Don't pretend to be some kind of QB talent evaluator savant and assume that your opinion is infallible because everyone else is some sort of dumbass.

Same goes for the pro-Bradford crowd (myself included). We could also ease up on viewing all criticism as some sort of attack on our senses or an attack on Bradford himself. Those who only want to stir up shyte are easily spotted, and those guys will be dealt with by the mods. We should let them do their jobs in that regard and try to avoid getting sucked in by people who really are driven by attention and agendas.

And all that said. Honestly. I don't know how much longer he gets. I'm not 100% sold on him as the future, but I'm not 100% sold on the idea that he's not. Give him his contract and see how it plays out. The market will dictate what he's worth after that. Because he'll either be a playoff caliber QB, or he'll be the QB of the team that failed to make the playoffs during his time here.

 

[RamFan503]

Bradford will get us to the Show, but I think we should look at drafting a QB prospect either this year or next.

I agree with this. I'm a fan of Sam's and see a very good QB both on and off the field. I just don't see the problems that some apparently do. Yeah he got injured. But he will make it back from it. It's not like he has been concussed several times or something like that. He isn't broken down and he IS very strong. He will bounce back and lead us to the playoffs.

That being said, I think it would be irresponsible to not at least look for his future replacement and I see no reason to wait. If nothing else, a potential starter as the back-up is GREAT trade bait.