Vikings should Extend Bradford

[PnkPanther]

Bradford has one year remaining and what little I know, best case scenario is Teddy can resume activity late 2017 meaning earliest he'd be ready is 2018 season. Who knows what'll happen

Overall I'm happy with Bradfords play. If you need him to be Aaron Rodgers/Tom Brady he just isn't, but I think our offense can be pretty decent with better O line and legit run game.

 

[Nosferatu]

I could be wrong but I really don't think they should commit to Bradford, let's see what he does next year before we go spending a bunch of money because no matter how he plays without offensive line help, a running back and another receiver we ain't going anywhere no matter who the QB is.

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

I could be wrong but I really don't think they should commit to Bradford, let's see what he does next year before we go spending a bunch of money because no matter how he plays without offensive line help, a running back and another receiver we ain't going anywhere no matter who the QB is.

Although he wasn't some one trick pony like Kaepernick, Teddy definitely relied on his mobility to a decent extent as a QB. Pretty much all of the medical experts who have commented on Teddy's injury have said that even if he can return to the NFL at all, the chances of him being the same QB that he was pre-injury are almost non-existent. That leg injury will forever haunt his mobility. That being said about a young QB who hadn't properly developed his pocket passing game yet (despite signs of making strides pre-injury), I think it's foolish at best to assume he's going to ever pan out to be franchise QB we hoped he'd be. This injury happened at a very unfortunate time of his career - it'd be a different story had he demonstrated significant development in his pocket passing skills already.

Bradford has shown he was able to survive and still have the best season of his career behind a Swiss cheese O-line and the league's worst rushing attack to compliment him. Even looking purely at his stats alone, I'm hard pressed to see why anyone here would not be hoping for Bradford to turn into our long-term QB. In 15 games - 20 TDs vs 5 INTs for a 4-1 ratio, and 258.5 yards passing avg per game - again I stress, with the league's worst O-lines and RB's, and no truly established top receiving threats aside from Rudolph, who didn't really break out as a receiver until Bradford came to town.

I'm VERY skeptical that Teddy would have performed that well under the same circumstances this season, or that a post-injury, immobile version of Teddy is going to come in and outperform Bradford baring substantial improvements to the rest of the offense. It's also hard to imagine post-injury Teddy surviving a season of beatings every game like Bradford endured. Given how terrible the offense aside from Bradford, Rudolph, and Diggs at times were, imagine giving him some upgrades in said areas.

For all these reasons, us Vikings fans should be drooling at the idea of keeping Bradford long-term. I'm all for letting him "prove it" in this second and last year of his contract before locking him up for 5+ years, but as of now, I'm backing Bradford in MN. It's nice to see a guy with a legit TD/INT ratio and who passes for 250 - 300 yrds/game compared to the jokes we've had at QB since like the 80's (aside from some brief stints of old QB's doing well out of their primes). Is Bradford Aaron Rodgers or Brady, no. But he's certainly top-10+ QB material if given a halfway decent supporting cast. I'll take that any day over the league bottom feeders we've had at the position lately like Ponder and T-Jax.

 

[27mtrcougar]

I could be wrong but I really don't think they should commit to Bradford, let's see what he does next year before we go spending a bunch of money because no matter how he plays without offensive line help, a running back and another receiver we ain't going anywhere no matter who the QB is.

The problem with that is he will be a FA after next season and can sign with anyone. Quality QB's are hard to come by. Look at the Rams. After trading Bradford away they have been searching for a QB since. Finally desperate they had to give up 6 top draft picks to move up to get Goff and there is no guarantee he will even work out.

 

[Nosferatu]

The problem with that is he will be a FA after next season and can sign with anyone. Quality QB's are hard to come by. Look at the Rams. After trading Bradford away they have been searching for a QB since. Finally desperate they had to give up 6 top draft picks to move up to get Goff and there is no guarantee he will even work out.

Well obviously my opinion doesn't matter to the Vikings but I say so what, the offense isn't just minus a QB from being great, the line sucks, we have no running game, the recievers are average at best. I take my chances with letting Bradford earn a new contract in 2017, he had a nice year throwing Tom Brady passes but we could honestly find anybody to throw 6 yard passes all game long...

 

[27mtrcougar]

Well obviously my opinion doesn't matter to the Vikings but I say so what, the offense isn't just minus a QB from being great, the line sucks, we have no running game, the recievers are average at best. I take my chances with letting Bradford earn a new contract in 2017, he had a nice year throwing Tom Brady passes but we could honestly find anybody to throw 6 yard passes all game long...

I agree the OL is a disaster. Yet Bradford put up pretty good #'s still. Why would you let him go? They still need to fix the OL. They should have plenty of Cap space once they cut AP. It looks like around 40m which is plenty to sign some FA's to stabilize the OL. Bradford was 8th in the NFL on deep passes completed this year so when he has time he can complete deep passes with no problem. The thing is you might get him cheaper now with an extension. If he has another good year he will have plenty of QB needy teams wanting him so the price will go way up.

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

I agree the OL is a disaster. Yet Bradford put up pretty good #'s still. Why would you let him go? They still need to fix the OL. They should have plenty of Cap space once they cut AP. It looks like around 40m which is plenty to sign some FA's to stabilize the OL. Bradford was 8th in the NFL on deep passes completed this year so when he has time he can complete deep passes with no problem. The thing is you might get him cheaper now with an extension. If he has another good year he will have plenty of QB needy teams wanting him so the price will go way up.

This.

Bradford is honestly the best long-term QB prospect the Vikings have had since the 1970's with Fran Tarkenton. Give him an average O-line and average running game, and I wouldn't be shocked to see him play at a top 5 QB level based on what he was able to do with total garbage around him on offense this season (and just days to learn the playbook coming into the season). I'm certainly not guaranteeing that he'll play that well next season or anything, but I never see Teddy becoming anywhere near that good. So to me, Bradford is obviously the guy to go with at this time.

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

Well obviously my opinion doesn't matter to the Vikings but I say so what, the offense isn't just minus a QB from being great, the line sucks, we have no running game, the recievers are average at best. I take my chances with letting Bradford earn a new contract in 2017, he had a nice year throwing Tom Brady passes but we could honestly find anybody to throw 6 yard passes all game long...

Based on what you're saying here, you make it sound like Bradford's 2016 performance was easily replaceable, despite the circumstances (AP injured almost the entire year, tons of O-line injuries among a group that already sucked, worst run game in the league, nothing great/consistent for receivers). You say "we could find anybody to throw 6 yard passes all game long" - so you honestly think Shaun Hill, or even an uninjured Bridgewater would have played at least as well as Bradford in the exact same situation?

Alright let's compare some stats for 2016.
Bradford: 15 GP, 20 TDs, 5 INTs, 3,877 yards, 71.6% completion (all-time NFL record), 49 20+yrds, 8 40+ yrds.
Rodgers - 16 GP, 40 TDs, 7 INT, 4,428 yards, 65.7% completion, 57 20+ yrs, 10 40+ yrds.

Granted Rodgers certainly had some adversities in Green Bay this season as well, but it wasn't as significant as Rodgers arriving at a brand new team just a few days before the season began, an all-star RB going down before the 2nd game of the year was over, or nearly as significant of issues as the Vikings had on the O-line.

I'm not saying Bradford is in the same league as Rodgers, but just given the circumstances, I don't think he played badly at all. He has certainly earned a chance to show what he can do if the Vikings manage to improve the O-line and RB situation to be above worst in the entire league status.

 

[Nosferatu]

Sam Bradford 9.8 yards per completion 27th in the league. I never said he played badly, matter of fact you won't find anyone on tHoop who supported Bradford more than I did. I just don't think we throw a bunch of cash at him given it was one year and given the fact Teddy is still on the team. If it were up to me Bradford would start even if Teddy was healthy. I wanna see Sam lead this team to some big wins and the playoffs before I go giving him a big contract, that's just me, if you disagree thats fine.

Using Aaron Rodgers was completely ridiculous by the way, lolzzz...

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

Sam Bradford 9.8 yards per completion 27th in the league. I never said he played badly, matter of fact you won't find anyone on tHoop who supported Bradford more than I did. I just don't think we throw a bunch of cash at him given it was one year and given the fact Teddy is still on the team. If it were up to me Bradford would start even if Teddy was healthy. I wanna see Sam lead this team to some big wins and the playoffs before I go giving him a big contract, that's just me, if you disagree thats fine.

Using Aaron Rodgers was completely ridiculous by the way, lolzzz...

I wasn't trying to disagree with you, and clearly didn't make myself clear in that post, apparently. In short, all I'm saying is that Bradford played a lot better than his stats indicated this season (and even the stats themselves weren't terrible). Also, that it's imperative for the Vikings to aggressively address their O-line situation and bring in a halfway decent RB in order to fairly gauge him next season.