Green Bay Packers: NFC North QB grades and rankings
3. Sam Bradford
The past two years have been a whirlwind journey for the 2010 No. 1 overall draft pick that has seen him get traded in back-to-back years.
The second deal that sent him to the Vikings a full eight days before his new team’s season-opener afforded Bradford two weeks to get acquainted with his new playbook and surroundings before making his first start in purple and gold.
Most would agree that the one-time Oklahoma Sooner hasn’t come close to fulfilling the expectations that were set upon him. Yet in all fairness, the 29-year-old has made a career out playing behind bad offensive lines.
Former Texan and current NFL Network TV analyst David Carr can attest to what poor protection did to his confidence in the pocket in that it essentially shattered it.
Bradford was no different in St. Louis and Philadelphia, where he developed that “skittish” moniker attributed to signal callers that perceive pressure even when they’re in no immediate danger of getting hit.
To his credit, the 8th-year veteran stayed healthy enough behind an awful line to make all 15 of his starts since Week 2.
Bradford accomplished that feat by often getting the ball out of his hands in about 2.0 seconds, and because of that, as one would expect, the Vikings offense wasn’t much to look at most weeks.
When teams know there are holes to exploit in the offensive line, they will add extra bodies in the box and dare you to stop their blitz schemes.
The result was a Vikings offense that ranked 23rd in total touchdowns with Bradford averaging a pedestrian 7.0 yards per attempt.
Overall, the journeyman QB made the best out of unpleasant circumstances considering he threw 5 interceptions while getting zero support from a running game that lost Adrian Peterson in the second week of the season and was statistically the worst in the league.
PFF’s Jeff Ratcliffe recently highlighted Bradford’s accuracy and ability to avoid turnovers by indicating how the Vikings’ field general has thrown an interception on 0.9-percent of his throws over the past two seasons.
The other component Bradford was lacking, as we look back at his 2016 campaign, was a deep threat that could keep secondaries honest.
The front office has taken steps in addressing that deficiency by drafting speedsters Rodney Adams and Stacy Coley along with most recently signing free agent wide receiver Michael Floyd.
Can Bradford take his game to the next level and put Minnesota back on the map as a Super-Bowl contender?
He’s among the most accurate quarterbacks in the league. All he needs is some help from his friends to elevate his personal stats and put a couple of more wins up on the board.
Grade: B-