Sam Bradford Will Never Play Again
In the past xx years, the Oklahoma Sooners take experienced arguably their most productive era ever in the NFL Draft.
From the 2000 to 2019 drafts — the entirety of the Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley years — OU has had 95 players drafted.
Using today'due south seven-circular comparison, that's more than than any other 2-decade era in schoolhouse history. In the 1970s and '80s, OU had 131 players drafted, but only 88 were selected in the first 7 rounds.
In the concluding twenty years, the Sooners have produced some historically practiced players. Every day leading up to this year'southward NFL Draft (April 23-25), SI Sooners presents the Peak twenty NFL Sooners of the terminal 20 years.
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No. 19: Sam Bradford
Sooner Nation will always wonder how good Sam Bradford's NFL career might have been if he was drafted somewhere other than the St. Louis Rams.
Sam Bradford
One of the league's nearly downtrodden franchises for most of the previous decade when Bradford went there in 2010 as the No. 1 overall pick, the Rams were riddled with front-office strife and coaching changes throughout Bradford's five seasons, and his pro career never got off to the kind of promise he showed at Oklahoma.
Bradford was a freshman All-American in 2007, then set higher football's record books ablaze in 2008 when he won the Heisman Bays, led the Sooners to the national championship game and shattered numerous NCAA records.
Simply as a inferior at OU, he got injure to start the 2009 flavour and began down a scar-crossed route from which he never really returned.
Learning from iii different offensive coordinators in his get-go 3 seasons did goose egg to help. But that's the peril of playing for one of the league'due south worst franchises — no consistency.
SAM BRADFORD'Due south NFL CAREER STATS
SAM BRADFORD'South INJURIES
Bradford was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Yr in 2010 as he led the moribund Rams to a 7-9 record — just outside the playoffs. He threw for 3,512 yards as a rookie, completing sixty per centum of his passes with 18 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
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Merely that would be one of only ii times in his NFL career in which he played all 16 games.
A high talocrural joint sprain wrecked his second season in St. Louis. Subsequently a nice bounceback twelvemonth in 2012, in which Bradford again played all 16 games, guided the Rams to a 7-8-ane record (just curt of the playoffs), threw for 3,702 yards and 21 touchdowns with thirteen interceptions, things seemed to steady a bit for him in 2013.
Bradford finally had the same offensive coordinator (Brian Schottenheimer) and was posting career numbers (1,687 yards, 14 TDs, iv INTs, a 60.7 completion percent) when, seven games in, he blew out his left knee running from pressure level.
He reinjured the same knee in the 2014 preseason, and his time with St. Louis was over. The Rams traded him to Philadelphia for Nick Foles.
In 2014, Bradford played in fourteen games nether Chip Kelly, led the Eagles to a 7-7 tape (again, just outside the playoff picture) and threw for 3,725 yards, 19 touchdowns and fourteen INTs.
But then the Eagles traded Bradford to Minnesota (a move that set up their future Super Bowl run), and as a Viking, Bradford had the all-time year of his career: an NFL-best .716 completion per centum, a career-loftier 3,877 yards, 20 TDs and just five interceptions as the Vikings went 7-8 under Bradford and narrowly missed the playoffs.
It was the kind of efficiency and productivity everyone predicted for Bradford six years earlier.
But Bradford reinjured his left knee two games into the 2017 flavor (double-decker Mike Zimmer called it "degenerative"), missed the balance of the year and was eventually picked upward in free bureau by Arizona during the 2018 offseason. He played three games for the Cardinals, was released in November and hasn't played since — but hasn't formally announced his retirement.
Injuries, boilerplate roster talent and coaching inconsistencies never allowed Bradford to reach the level many expected he would in the NFL. He did get paid about $130 million for his troubles, including an best record rookie signing bonus of $50 million.
It was that bonus — based on one of the best college seasons any quarterback ever had, and a Pro Solar day showing most scouts said was the all-time they'd ever seen — that showed the kind of promise and potential that ultimately went unfulfilled in Bradford'southward NFL career.
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Our Peak 20 list was called past five voters: SI Sooners publisher John Hoover, deputy editor Parker Thune, long-fourth dimension OU fan and amateur Sooner historian Anthony Jumper, OU school of journalism pupil Caroline Grace, and OU history and stats expert Steven Smith (aka Blinkin Riley).
The criteria was elementary: former Sooners who played at OU during the last 20 years and went on to an NFL career. The residuum, i.east, their NFL career, was purely subjective. Players received 20 points for a start-place vote, nineteen for 2nd, etc., down to one point for 20th. A total of 28 players received votes.
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Source: https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/football/after-ou-greatness-sam-bradford-had-rocky-nfl-career
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