It's a key crossroads season for Rams QB Bradford

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Bernie Miklasz
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/it-s-a-key-crossroads-season-for-rams-qb-bradford/article_42bd75cf-ccbe-55f7-8c82-41f41f57118f.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 7118f.html</a>


[wrapimg=left]http://i.imgur.com/La3hKNV.jpg[/wrapimg]The other night, in a conversation with a friend, the topic turned to Rams quarterback Sam Bradford.

What kind of season will he have? Is he ready to make a leap to elite status among NFL quarterbacks?

Here’s what I truly believe: watch out.

In his first three NFL seasons Bradford was bloodied and bruised but he still is standing, and in 2013 he’ll be in a fair fight for the first time in his NFL career.

The hard knocks of the NFL couldn’t kill Bradford. He took a merciless beating after joining the worst NFL franchise as the NFL’s No. 1 draft pick in 2010. But it didn’t wreck his body or drain his morale.

From 2010 through 2012, Bradford was sacked 105 times, or more than all but four NFL quarterbacks.

According to Pro Football Focus, no NFL quarterback absorbed more hits while delivering a throw than Bradford over the past three seasons, and only a few teams dropped more passes than the Rams.

Bradford has started 42 games for the Rams, and over that relatively brief time he’s played for two owners, two head coaches, two general managers and three offensive coordinators.

He’s thrown to 11 different starters at wide receiver, and seven starters at tight end. His pass protection suffered during a turnstile count that put six different starters at offensive tackle, six starters at guard and four at center.

Bradford is 15-26-1 as a starter. Somehow, that record was all Bradford’s fault — well, at least to his most impatient critics.

Bradford spent most of the past three seasons operating under the worst possible circumstances for an NFL quarterback. If you drew up a plot to ruin a career, this would have been it.

Bradford took all of the punches, took the unfair criticism, took the misdirected blame. He survived all of it. And now he’s working in a stable program led by Jeff Fisher, a terrific head coach.

In my view the blows made Bradford stronger. You never know what people are made of unless they’re confronted by adversity. And Bradford was steam-rolled by it.

But as he prepares to enter his fourth season, things are changing for Bradford.

The NFL couldn’t break Bradford, and now he’s poised for a breakout year.

And now — finally — help is on the way.

Last year the Rams drafted two gifted wide receivers, Brian Quick and Chris Givens. This year they drafted two more playmakers, Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey.

The Rams signed Jake Long, a four-time Pro Bowl left offensive tackle. They signed tight end Jared Cook, an all-terrain vehicle capable of muscling defenders inside or running deep.

The Rams have two other promising young targets in third-year tight end Lance Kendricks and third-year slot receiver Austin Pettis. They began making plays in 2012, combining for nine touchdown catches

Sure, this fun bunch is inexperienced. At age 26, Cook will be the oldest wide receiver, running back or tight end on the likely regular-season roster.

And so what?

After what Bradford has been through, he’s thrilled to be surrounded by enhanced talent —even if none of the skill-position players have started more than 24 NFL games.

“I’ve been waiting for this, just wanting to see this offense succeed and maybe do some things we haven’t been able to in the past,” Bradford told USA Today last month.

In terms of knowledge, Rams offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer described Bradford as being “a thousand years” ahead of where he was a year ago in his first season of working with Schottenheimer.

The buildup puts more pressure on Bradford to emerge as more of a difference maker, and winner, in 2013.

Bradford made significant strides last year, a reality that escaped the notice of too many short-attention spans.

Bradford was one of the league’s best red-zone quarterbacks over the final eight games, throwing for nine touchdowns and one interception for a passer rating of 101.8.

Bradford’s QBR rating — the advanced ESPN model for assessing quarterback play —jumped 10 points over final eight games.

Bradford ranked 10th among starting quarterbacks in fourth-quarter passer rating, leading the Rams to four fourth-quarter comebacks and three game-winning drives. Only two NFL quarterbacks had more fourth-quarter comebacks, and only five had more game-winning drives.

According to Pro Football Focus, Bradford was among the most accurate passers on deep balls in 2012, and he graded well for his accuracy when under pass-rush pressure.

Bradford improved when his pass protection firmed up —hardly a coincidence in a team sport.

In the first eight games last season, Bradford endured the fifth-highest sack rate among NFL quarterbacks and had eight touchdowns and seven interceptions.

In the last eight games, Bradford benefited from the fifth-lowest sack rate and responded with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. The Rams went 4-2 down the stretch, with Bradford commanding the offense to a pair of game-winning drives.

Bradford passed for more touchdowns than Detroit’s Matthew Stafford — and Stafford has the game’s best receiving weapon in Calvin Johnson.

Bradford passed for one fewer touchdown than Baltimore’s Joe Flacco, who ultimately led the Ravens to the Super Bowl title.

One national pundit recently compared Bradford’s 2012 regular-season stats to Flacco’s and was astounded to discover there wasn’t much difference.

Well, except for this: Flacco played for a much better team.

The old perceptions remain, however.

As retired NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb said last week on the NFL Network: “It’s time for you to flourish, before you get put in that Mark Sanchez category. Sam Bradford, it’s time for you to step up.”

Those of us who study NFL history have seen this career arc before. Many heralded quarterback prospects needed time to reach their potential.

Here are the names of 11 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Jim Kelly, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Bob Griese, Frank Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Steve Young, Sonny Jurgensen and Bart Starr.

In their first three NFL seasons, they combined to win 116 of 336 games.

That’s a winning percentage of 34.5.

Bradford’s winning percentage in his first three seasons: 35.7.

Phil Simms, Jim Plunkett, Doug Williams, and Drew Brees aren’t Hall of Famers, but they won Super Bowls. Here are their records in the first three seasons as NFL starters: Simms 14-20, Plunkett 14-28, Williams 19-22, and Brees 10-17.

Granted, for every Troy Aikman and Phil Simms there are a dozen David Carrs.

As Bradford enters 2013 he’s standing at an intersection. One road leads toward Aikman, and the other takes him down the path where careers have crashed.

Bradford already is headed in the right direction; it’s just that people haven’t noticed. But they will in 2013.
 

-X-

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Here are the names of 11 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Jim Kelly, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Bob Griese, Frank Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Steve Young, Sonny Jurgensen and Bart Starr.

In their first three NFL seasons, they combined to win 116 of 336 games.

That’s a winning percentage of 34.5.

Bradford’s winning percentage in his first three seasons: 35.7.

Phil Simms, Jim Plunkett, Doug Williams, and Drew Brees aren’t Hall of Famers, but they won Super Bowls. Here are their records in the first three seasons as NFL starters: Simms 14-20, Plunkett 14-28, Williams 19-22, and Brees 10-17.
Damn! Bernie can bring the stats and facts when he wants to.
 

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
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BRADFORD BY THE NUMBERS

Bernie Miklasz
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/bradford-by-the-numbers/article_65d68663-fa05-5f89-94b4-7433f0151a9c.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football ... 51a9c.html</a>


Percentage of dropbacks under pressure, 2010-2012

1. Michael Vick 40.9
2. Jay Cutler 39.7
3. Josh Freeman 35.9
4. Philip Rivers 33.9
5. Sam Bradford 33.6

SOURCE: Pro Football Focus


Most times sacked, 2010-2012
Number of games in parentheses


1. Aaron Rodgers 118 (46)
2. Philip Rivers 117 (48)
3. Jay Cutler 113 (40)
4. Joe Flacco 106 (48)
5. Sam Bradford 105 (42)

SOURCE: Pro Football Reference


Most dropped passes, NFC West, 2010-2012

1. Rams 95
2. Arizona 93
3. San Francisco 85
4. Seattle 79

SOURCE: STATS LLC
 

FRO

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Really hard to argue those numbers. Watching the Rams you knew the supporting cast was bad. This just puts numbers to what I already knew and what should be common knowledge.
 

LesBaker

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X said:
Here are the names of 11 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Jim Kelly, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Bob Griese, Frank Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Steve Young, Sonny Jurgensen and Bart Starr.

In their first three NFL seasons, they combined to win 116 of 336 games.

That’s a winning percentage of 34.5.

Bradford’s winning percentage in his first three seasons: 35.7.

Phil Simms, Jim Plunkett, Doug Williams, and Drew Brees aren’t Hall of Famers, but they won Super Bowls. Here are their records in the first three seasons as NFL starters: Simms 14-20, Plunkett 14-28, Williams 19-22, and Brees 10-17.
Damn! Bernie can bring the stats and facts when he wants to.

Meh.......another article about make or break year for Bradford, and the one millionth mention of lack of weapons and an oft underperforming OL.

I think this is the product of nothing else to write about because its slow. FFS why can't the guys in STL interview a coach or player rather than this type of thing. It lazy and dull and unimaginative.

Bradford and about 10 guys are in OK practicing and not ONE reporter has said bubkus or bothered to call any of them or heaven forbid fly down and "report" on what's going on.

Lame. These guys have the easiest job in the world. Half the time they can just (and seemingly do) check message boards for topics and go from there.

I'm not kidding these guys should be embarrassed of themselves. And they should be happy I'm not their editor or supervisor.
 

den-the-coach

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The qualitative and quantitative data are what they are, however, like most on this board I have watched Samuel Jacob Bradford play every game in the NFL and these are my observations.

1. Sam is much better when he's thinking on his feet, it keeps him in the games more and when he's running a no huddle offense he seems to thrive.

2. Last season although still becoming 100% on that ankle Sam did run more often. Not looking for him to be like Tatoo Sally of the 49ers just looking for Sam to keep the play alive or run for a key first down and Sam does have the athletism to do so.

3. This will be his year and like many I'm not worried about Sam. He has the ability to be a great leader, but he's far more humble than some. Sam is much smarter than many others in more ways than one and I'm in agreement with Mr. Miklasz that this will be Sam's year and one day he will have all us drinking again from the silver cup and taking the highway to the sky!
 

wv

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den-the-coach said:
2. Last season although still becoming 100% on that ankle Sam did run more often. Not looking for him to be like Tatoo Sally of the 49ers just looking for Sam to keep the play alive or run for a key first down and Sam does have the athletism to do so.

"Tatoo Sally" ?

Maybe Tatoo Flipper,
might be appropriate.

w
v
 

-X-

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LesBaker said:
X said:
Here are the names of 11 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks: Jim Kelly, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Bob Griese, Frank Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Steve Young, Sonny Jurgensen and Bart Starr.

In their first three NFL seasons, they combined to win 116 of 336 games.

That’s a winning percentage of 34.5.

Bradford’s winning percentage in his first three seasons: 35.7.

Phil Simms, Jim Plunkett, Doug Williams, and Drew Brees aren’t Hall of Famers, but they won Super Bowls. Here are their records in the first three seasons as NFL starters: Simms 14-20, Plunkett 14-28, Williams 19-22, and Brees 10-17.
Damn! Bernie can bring the stats and facts when he wants to.

Meh.......another article about make or break year for Bradford, and the one millionth mention of lack of weapons and an oft underperforming OL.

I think this is the product of nothing else to write about because its slow. FFS why can't the guys in STL interview a coach or player rather than this type of thing. It lazy and dull and unimaginative.

Bradford and about 10 guys are in OK practicing and not ONE reporter has said bubkus or bothered to call any of them or heaven forbid fly down and "report" on what's going on.

Lame. These guys have the easiest job in the world. Half the time they can just (and seemingly do) check message boards for topics and go from there.

I'm not kidding these guys should be embarrassed of themselves. And they should be happy I'm not their editor or supervisor.
I agree the subject matter is tired, but this one had fresh content. Right now most of the STL columnists are covering the Cardinals and don't have the budget to go fly out to OK for two days and cover a camp hosted by Bradford. It would be NICE if they took the initiative, but there will probably be interviews and stuff afterward though.

And look, I'm not a huge Bernie fan, but he's been growing on me lately. I know he can be shrill at times, and he likes to call out his readers that go against the grain, but so what? I like to do that too. Maybe that's why I'm developing an appreciation for what he does. I don't care if he's flip-flopped before, or plays both sides of the argument to elicit a response. That's what he gets paid to do. Increase readership and get conversations going. He's not a historian or anything. Just a guy who has a job. One that I would love to have.
 

fearsomefour

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To me the most remarkable thing about Bradfords career so far is avoiding the truely terrible year. He has had stretches where he wasnt good, but, in terms of performance in a QBs first couple of years I think he has accounted himself well, espcially given the circumstances listed in the article and known by all.

However, while the raw talent has been improved, I must keep saying that there will be a learning curve with getting everyone on the same page with this offense. We have seen an O go through big changes in one offseason and come out on fire (1999), but, no one on this roster (skill positions) has the level of skill those guys had, including the OC. So, I expect very good things from the group, but, it will take time. I just hope that writers like Bernie dont start calling for Bradfords head if there are some growing pains. I think there will be moments with WRs cutting routes off when they shouldnt or a WR and Sam making different reads at the line. Having more faith in your guys outside can lead to pushing the ball more and can lead to more pics....all of that said, the momentum is moving in the right direction. If the D can maintain its level of play (or improve as there are better answers found at LB and S) even putting up 7 more points a game and holding the ball for several more minutes a game can have great results.

Exciting time for the Rams and Bradford.
 

libertadrocks

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Good article by Bernie. I agree with him whole-heartedly.

However, I worry that Bradford wont quite live up to expectations this year. Bradford finally has the talent surrounding him, but all the weapons are extremely young and raw, which Bernie touched on. It doesn't matter if Bradford has a mastery of the offense if his WRs are running the wrong route and making the wrong reads.

I dont think we'll see that. I hope we dont see that. I guess my worry is a way of hedging my bet.
 

-X-

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libertadrocks said:
Good article by Bernie. I agree with him whole-heartedly.

However, I worry that Bradford wont quite live up to expectations this year. Bradford finally has the talent surrounding him, but all the weapons are extremely young and raw, which Bernie touched on. It doesn't matter if Bradford has a mastery of the offense if his WRs are running the wrong route and making the wrong reads.

I dont think we'll see that. I hope we dont see that. I guess my worry is a way of hedging my bet.
We'll probably keep it simple to start and let these guys' athleticism do most of the work. Know what I mean? It's hard to not run a 9-route right, or a bubble screen, slant, or comeback. Give these receivers (the new ones) just enough leash to make a play, but not so much that they're forced to account for changes in defensive looks right before the snap and change their routes. That'll come later.

As the season wears on, maybe the playbook will expand a bit more and we'll see the whole thing on display. I think the coaching is there, and the work ethic is there. Just need to ease them into it gradually to keep the confidence high and hunger level up.
 

A55VA6

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Great article. So many facts out there showing the reasons behind Sam's "struggle". Most of it isn't even his fault.
 

libertadrocks

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X said:
libertadrocks said:
Good article by Bernie. I agree with him whole-heartedly.

However, I worry that Bradford wont quite live up to expectations this year. Bradford finally has the talent surrounding him, but all the weapons are extremely young and raw, which Bernie touched on. It doesn't matter if Bradford has a mastery of the offense if his WRs are running the wrong route and making the wrong reads.

I dont think we'll see that. I hope we dont see that. I guess my worry is a way of hedging my bet.
We'll probably keep it simple to start and let these guys' athleticism do most of the work. Know what I mean? It's hard to not run a 9-route right, or a bubble screen, slant, or comeback. Give these receivers (the new ones) just enough leash to make a play, but not so much that they're forced to account for changes in defensive looks right before the snap and change their routes. That'll come later.

As the season wears on, maybe the playbook will expand a bit more and we'll see the whole thing on display. I think the coaching is there, and the work ethic is there. Just need to ease them into it gradually to keep the confidence high and hunger level up.

Hope you're right X. I would like to think that the staff is smart enough to bring the new guys along slowly and not just throw the whole playbook at them.
 

fearsomefour

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We'll probably keep it simple to start and let these guys' athleticism do most of the work. Know what I mean? It's hard to not run a 9-route right, or a bubble screen, slant, or comeback. Give these receivers (the new ones) just enough leash to make a play, but not so much that they're forced to account for changes in defensive looks right before the snap and change their routes.

This makes sense. Keep the odds of a bad read ect. down to a minimum. That is part of what makes Austin so interesting. You can keep his responsibility (on a play) pretty limited while still lining him up on various spots because he is so athletic. The concept of Austin in motion out of the backfield should give D coaches nightmares. No jam on the line, creating mismatches....that has a 5 yard catch turning into a 30 yard gain written all over it.
 

RamFan503

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LesBaker said:
Meh.......another article about make or break year for Bradford, and the one millionth mention of lack of weapons and an oft underperforming OL.

I gotta admit, that's the first thing I thought when I saw the title. At least this one was a decent read though.


LesBaker said:
Bradford and about 10 guys are in OK practicing and not ONE reporter has said bubkus or bothered to call any of them or heaven forbid fly down and "report" on what's going on.

On this I couldn't agree more. Hop a puddle jumper and get your ass down there. If nothing else, pick up the phone and get an affiliate to do a piece based on the Rams - not Sooners. I'm sure their beat writers have some free time.