Does Sam Bradford Matter for the Minnesota Vikings?

By Ha Kung Wong

Twitter: @FBGarbageTime

Teddy Bridgewater had a horrible injury, and I really feel bad for the guy.  He deserved to be a starting QB in the NFL, and he had a chance to lead the Vikings to a winning record and potential playoff berth this year.  But from a strictly football perspective, he really wasn’t going anywhere.

Teddy Bridgewater - Getty Images

Teddy Bridgewater – Getty Images

In his rookie season, he completed 64.4% of his passes for 2919 yards 14 TDs and 12 INTs.  In 2015, he completed 65.3% of his passes for 3231 yards, 14 TDs and 9 INTs.  So he did increase his passing yards, but that was more due to volume (447 attempts vs. 402 attempts) than an increase in accuracy.  And he did reduce his INTs, but did not improve on passing TDs (though, to be fair, he did add 3 rushing TDs vs 1 in his rookie season).  Either way, this is all shaping up to be a decent game managing QB, not a breakout offensive weapon.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, as other QBs, such as Alex Smith of the Chiefs, have been very successful being good game managers.  But let’s not overstate Bridgewater’s importance to the Vikings offense.  The Vikings are, after all, still Adrian Peterson’s team, and the offense will rise or fall based on his performance more than anyone else.

Adrian Peterson - Getty Images

Adrian Peterson – Getty Images

So the question is whether Sam Bradford, now acquired by the Vikings from the Eagles for a 2017 1st round pick and a 2018 4th round pick will be able to step in and keep this offense on track.  In other words, will he be able to manage the game well enough to allow AP to do his thing?

Last year, on the Eagles, Bradford completed 65.0% of his passes for 3725 yards, 19 TDs and 14 INTs.  Since he had 532 attempts (16% more attempts that Bridgewater in 2015), you can project out Bridgewater’s lines, had he made the same number of attempted passes, to 3747 yards, 16 TDs and 10 INTs.  I know that’s not exactly how it would turn out, since games obviously vary depending on which defense you’re facing and game personnel (clearly AP is better than any of the RBs on the Eagles roster in 2015), but what this tells me is that Bradford should be a fine stop gap solution for the Vikings.  Assuming he can pick up the offense quickly, I’d say that Bradford gives the Vikings as good a chance to win as Bridgewater did when healthy.  Either way, though, he’s a huge upgrade over ancient Shaun Hill.

Sam Bradford

Sam Bradford

Of course, that raises the big question, which is whether Bradford will manage to stay healthy.  We all know he’s had a long history of injury, so there’s no guarantee he’ll manage to stay on the field as well.

Ultimately, I think the Vikings overpaid for Bradford out of desperation, but that he’ll be a fine replacement.  There’s been some talk that Bridgewater might not be even ready for the beginning of the 2017 season, so Bradford makes for a fine insurance policy as well.

As for the Eagles, this is the best thing that could have happened for them.  Bradford was already upset about the Eagles drafting Carson Wentz, and whined about it publicly, putting him on the outs with Eagles fans.  And we know how forgiving Eagles fans are, don’t we?

Frank_Olivo_Santa

And if you’ve forgotten, that was at a 1968 game against the Vikings.  So now they can go ahead and pelt Bradford with snowballs when they get the chance, because I think we can all agree that Santa is more popular than Bradford.  At any rate, the Eagles needed draft picks, and getting rid of whiny brittle Bradford for a 1st round pick in 2017 is the best case scenario for them.  Doesn’t mean they’ll be winning any more games this year, but at least they’ll get to play with they’re shiny new Wentz toy sooner rather than later.

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