Weinke is high on Bradford
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_0790b625-a067-5ebd-9842-c9f4aafeb8dc.html
No sales pitch was necessary to get new Rams quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke on board with Sam Bradford.
“Love him. Love him,” Weinke replied when asked about the Rams’ presumptive starting QB for 2015. “Historically, I look back at every guy that I’ve evaluated coming out of college.
“A few years ago when Andrew Luck came out they said who would you compare him to? And I said the closest I would see is Sam Bradford.
“And I say that without knowing Sam. I’d never met Sam until this process. Looking at his physical skill set. And then obviously talking to people and understanding his mental capacity and his football IQ, and all those different things.
“Sam by far has had the best pro day out of any guy I’ve ever evaluated from a physical standpoint. And he was coming off an injury at that point in time. So when you look at a guy who’s a pure passer of the football from a physical standpoint, he’s as good as anybody I’ve ever evaluated.”
Keep in mind, Weinke was talking about what he saw in Bradford as an NFL prospect when he turned pro in 2010. Not anything that’s happened in the pros. One more thing: Weinke didn’t begin evaluating college QBs in earnest until the year Bradford came out because that’s the same year Weinke became director of IMG Academy — a training/performance facility in Bradenton, Fla. So it’s not like Weinke is talking about a long period of time.
As part of Weinke’s interview process in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, Weinke had dinner with Bradford. New Rams offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti also attended.
“I flew in on a Monday, Frank picked me up at the airport, and we went and met Sam for dinner,” Weinke saiid. “We spent about 3 ½ hours together.”
Weinke approached the dinner as more of a getting-to-know-you session, as opposed to him interviewing Bradford or vice versa.
“It was comfortable from the get-go,” Weinke said. “What we shared at that dinner was simply, hey, who are you? Who am I? Can we work together? What would this environment look like if I was the guy in that room coaching you?”
Bradford is the only quarterback currently under contract on the Rams’ offseason roster. So, yes, Weinke’s excited about having the opportunity to work with Bradford in 2015. He also put in an unsolicited plug for last year’s Rams backup, Shaun Hill, who is a pending free agent.
“I see a guy that I would love to have back,” Weinke said. “I don’t make those decisions, but Shaun is a consummate pro, and a guy that I actually played with in San Francisco in 2007.”
Weinke was in the final season of his seven-season career in ’07. Hill was in his fifth season, but had not thrown an NFL regular-season pass until playing in three games and making two starts in ’07 for the 49ers.
The San Francisco quarterbacks coach that year was none other than Cignetti. Weinke wasn’t signed that year until early December. In fact, he was at that year’s Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York when he got the call.
“I had a tuxedo on, and I got a call from Scot McCloughan, the general manager,” Weinke recalled. “He said, ‘(Trent) Dilfer just had a concussion, we need you out here for three weeks.’ I jumped on a plane from New York, went right to San Francisco.”
Even though he was with Cignetti for only a few weeks at the end of that season, they stayed in touch and have maintained a relationship over the years. So knowing Cignetti should help make it a smoother transition for Weinke. And should Hill get re-signed by the Rams, Weinke will have another familiar face in the building at Rams Park.
As for Bradford, he and Weinke already have some common ground. They’ve both won Heisman trophies — Weinke in 2000 and Bradford in 2008 at Oklahoma.
So what did Weinke like about that Bradford pro day in the spring of 2010 that left such a lasting impression?
“The ability to throw the ball with ease,” Weinke said. “And put maximum revolutions on a football and throw with great accuracy. That’s a key, obviously, at this position.
“When you looked at it, he never looked like he was trying to muscle a throw. He never looked like anything was too hard for him. He was able to make all of those throws with ease and great accuracy. And those are the key points.”
Weinke said you can see the veins popping out of the neck of quarterbacks who try to put too much on the ball.
“Because they’re trying to throw the football hard,” he said. “That’s not what we’re going to do. That’s not how we’re going to operate.”
During his dinner with Bradford, Weinke said he talked about the confidence that he would instill in Rams quarterbacks. Echoing comments made by Cignetti two weeks ago about simplifying the playbook and the offense overall, Weinke told Bradford he would simplify the game for him.
“Know where we’re throwing the football, and have some fun with,” Weinke said he told Bradford. “So I think it was refreshing for Sam, maybe not knowing who I was as a person, and how I was gonna coach.
“I think he got a little excited about the fact that my whole goal is to get him to play with confidence. That’s it. Or whoever the quarterbacks is, right?”
