Long was solid, but he was also the #2 overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. He was supposed to be our monster 4-3 DE, and he turned out to be just solid for 40-50 million dollar contract. Not his fault, of course...No Pro Bowls and No All pro honors as far as I know, hence the disappointment. I expected much more myself.
Bradford got the OROY by dinking and dunking. He was supposed to be a franchise QB, and our guy for a career if he was...He did not make those around him better, and had to either have everything perfect for him to succeed...or it had to junk time where defenses were just playing prevent defense because they were far ahead. It was a bad year for rookie QB talent if memory serves. Sam was disappointing to me because he was supposed to be our guy for his whole career, and was just a highly paid lower level starting QB...Injury pron, to boot!
Bradford made everyone around him better. He has done so consistently. The guys he was playing with? Gibson - never played well again. Givens - was never better than with Bradford. Lloyd - had his best season with Bradford. Salas? Same. Pettis - couldn't play without him. Kendricks - looked ok with Bradford, never performed again. I could go on. He did the same in Philadelphia with Celek, Ertz, Agoholor, Matthews etc. And last year in Minnesota - Diggs, Thielen and Rudolph all had the best years of their careers. Those are facts.
I understand the disapointment with him, but it was just pure bad luck that he hurt his ACL and it obviously wasn't repaired right the first time. Then they gave up on him. He's no longer a 'lower level' starting QB. He probably never was but has played his whole career with lower level marginal starting quality talent. The guys he's played with he's made better.
What he hasn't done is turn the ball over much. As a result he gets called a 'checkdown artist' or 'dink and dunker'. Its a dink and dunk league. Brady is dink and dunk.
Still. All that said, I think he was ultimately disappointing for the Rams because he should still be a Ram and be leading us to superbowls. I get your point about C Long as well. He had talent and gave his all, but wasn't perhaps the star you'd expect with a number 2 overall pick.
There were a lot more 'bad' picks and free agent signings than those two guys though. Tye Hill. Adam Carriker, Alex Barron, Jacob Bell, Scott Wells, Isiah Pead, Brian Quick, Lawrence Phillips, Klopfenstein, etc
Edit - Justin King! He was so bad I forgot about him. Edit 2 - Jason Smith - the pick we're still trying to replace. Edit 3 - Greg Robinson. Out and out bust. Very disappointing.
