Last season, the St. Louis Rams rolled out their quarterback of the future in Sam Bradford. At times, he dazzled us with his ability to put the football on target and on time in small gaps in the defense. To put it lightly, he was the next big thing. Bradford was supposed to bring the “greatest show on turf” back from the dead.
Sam Bradford’s honeymoon season is in the rear view mirror. As with many young stars, Bradford is experiencing what has been coined “the sophomore slump.” Suddenly, Bradford’s performance has some fans calling for a re-evaluation of his talent. While those fans are still vastly outnumbered by those that are calling for the Rams to continue to build around Bradford, their numbers are growing, and we simply haven’t seen the progress from Bradford that we expected in his second campaign as an NFL quarterback.
As a rookie, there were concerns as to whether Bradford could stay healthy. He answered his critics by playing in all 16 games of his rookie season. This season hasn’t been the same story. Bradford has played in only 10 of the Rams’ 13 games. While he hasn’t missed a huge amount of time, those 3 games that a teams’ starting quarterback is injured can mean the difference between a playoff run and sitting in a bean-bag chair, eating Cheetos, and watching the playoffs at home. If you don’t believe me, just ask the Chicago Bears how they feel about missing their starting quarterback.
Health, however, has been the least of the Rams’ concerns in 2011. Bradford simply hasn’t performed on the field. As a rookie, Bradford threw for 18 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. The expectation coming into this season was that he would throw in the neighborhood of 20 touchdowns, while cutting back on the turnovers. That hasn’t been the case. He’s thrown just 6 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. While it’s true that he hasn’t been turning the ball over as often, he hasn’t been putting points on the board for the Rams either. In fact, the Rams rank dead last in the NFL in scoring offense at just 11.8 points per game.
Many of Bradford’s struggles have been attributed to what can be described as one of the worst wide receiving corps in the league. Outside of Brandon Lloyd, Bradford really has not targets to speak of. That’s a fair point, but ultimately it’s the quarterback’s job to find a way to move the ball down the field, and that just isn’t happening at all.
Touchdowns and interceptions aren’t the only concerns that fans are expressing with regards to Bradford’s play. His completion percentage has also taken an unexpected nosedive in 2011. As a rookie, Bradford completed 60% of his passes, which is impressive considering the problems the Rams’ offense has had in the past few seasons. This year, however, that number has dipped to a completely unimpressive 53.5%, ahead of only Blaine Gabbert and Tim Tebow.
Now, let me be clear with this statement. It is not time to give up on Bradford. Yes, he’s had a rough year, but the circumstances surrounding the Rams are less than ideal. Bradford has one noteworthy receiver to throw to, his head coach now appears to be a lame duck, and he hasn’t been completely healthy this season. The Rams should keep building and giving Bradford the tools he needs to succeed as a quarterback. This is no time for desperation, this is time for vigilance, and I believe the Rams will make the right decision moving forward.
