Various endless pre-camp media thoughts about Bradford

RamBill

Sports Illustrated’s Doug Farrar and Chris Burke answer your NFC West questions from Twitter including if Sam Bradford will be resigned and who has the best wide receiving corps in the division. They also answer the question on how many other divisions would the 4th place finisher in the NFC West win. (4:05)

RamBill

Which QB’s Are Entering Pivotal Seasons? Brian Baldinger and Shaun O’Hara talk QB’s, including Rams QB Sam Bradford.

Watch QB’s Discussion

http://www.rams-news.com/which-qbs-are-entering-pivotal-seasons-video/

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Curtis Conway answers a question about each NFC West team in his version of NFC West Summer School. The Rams question: Is Sam Bradford the long term solution for the Rams? (5:29)

http://www.rams-news.com/is-sam-bradford-the-long-term-solution-for-the-rams-video/

Offseason Position Preview: Quarterbacks

Tim Godfrey

http://network.yardbarker.com/nfl/article_external/offseason_position_preview_quarterbacks/16834072

Despite his numbers throughout the first five weeks of the 2013 season, Sam Bradford wasn’t having the best season. The team was 1-3 with him starting under center and 2-0 the next two weeks, thanks to special teams and the defense taking advantage of a weak Jacksonville offense.

Bradford was completing around 60 percent of his passes and the only quarterback to throw fewer interceptions than Bradford was Peyton Manning. But those were bloated numbers that came during the last quarter or few minutes of the game. Since being drafted by St. Louis in 2010, the verdict is still out on Bradford, which is a pretty generous ruling.

The team’s goals however, are not dependent upon Bradford’s health and success. As shown last year, the Rams still have a chance without #8 under center.

Sam Bradford: The former Heisman Trophy winner will be heading into his fifth year with a freshly repaired ACL, which he tore in a Week Six matchup at Carolina. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will no doubt take the comeback slow, relying more on the ground attack and trick plays via Tavon Austin.

Once Bradford becomes more comfortable with his new teammates in real game situations, expect him to throw the ball. Schottenheimer and head coach Jeff Fisher will want to utilize their weapons way more than they did last year. This means Kenny Britt, Brian Quick, Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey (after he returns from his PED suspension) will be seeing a lot of action, as well as the usual suspects, i.e., Chris Givens, Lance Kendricks and Jared Cook.

Bradford’s strength is his short game, which is what he heavily relies on. His comfort zone is anywhere within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage, which leads us to examine Bradford’s weaknesses…

Bradford cannot throw the deep ball accurately. There was a time where he and Givens made quite a few deep plays in 2012, but every year before and since that season, Bradford has been pedestrian at best. Bradford has the arm and he has precision, but confidence in his deep throws is what he lacks.

zn wrote:

I think that was either just one season? or 2 seasons? or not really all of them.

Yeah that was 2011. On Kendricks and Pettis … in their defense, I bet they make a couple of those in later years. But 2011 is hard to watch.

InvaderRam wrote:

Bradford was completing around 60 percent of his passes and the only quarterback to throw fewer interceptions than Bradford was Peyton Manning. But those were bloated numbers that came during the last quarter or few minutes of the game. Since being drafted by St. Louis in 2010, the verdict is still out on Bradford, which is a pretty generous ruling.

is this actually true?

looking at his splits from espn.com

his qb rating when they won by 0-7 points was 93.1.
his qb rating when they won by 8-14 points was 105.3.
his qb rating when they won by more than 15 points actually went down to 85.9.

his qb rating in the 4th quarter +/- 7 points was 136.0.

unless i’m reading this wrong he performed well during close games when they needed him to…

Yes. In 2012 he has 4 comebacks and/or game winning drives at the end. In 2013 he has one.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/comeback.cgi?player=BradSa00

And people have been over and over this “garbage time” thing…it’s nonsense. The Atlanta game was contested after the Falcons jumped out in the 1st half.

Anyway. I don’t know how many of our gang here are heavily anti-Bradford. I know there are skeptics, neutrals, and “want to see it in 2014” posters. So to me, and probably you and ER too, the thing is not that the “writer” is skeptical about SB…that’s fine, I get that, and it’s a topic worth debating. It’s that he makes a poor case, and makes fact claims that don’t stand up. Let’s just say he has a problem with accuracy.

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Bradford completed 68 percent of his passes on first down in 2013, then 62.4 percent on second down and 49.3 percent on third down. In his four-year career Bradford has completed 51.9 percent of his passes on third down.

I really do not know how far this “dividing games” thing takes us.

But fwiw…in 2013, the Rams were different on 3rd down with Stacy. These are team numbers, gotten from looking at ESPN box scores, which include 3rd down performance.

4 games w/Richardson, 25.8% conversion rate on 3rd down
3 games w/Stacy, 38.4% rate

38.4% for the season would rank 14th in the league. And 2 of those 3 games were against top 7 defenses.

25.8% would rank below 32. It would rank 33rd. (The actual lowest was the Jags with 31%).

Yeah just 3 games–but I will still hazard a guess: I don’t think it was an anomaly. 25.8% to 38.4%? From worse than the Jagz to better than the Eagles? That’s a pretty bloody big improvement. Yes and it would be good if it’s real and it holds up.

Though again those are not straight-up Bradford numbers. Without going through play by plays a game at a time, there’s no way to access straight-up Bradford numbers on this if you want to do it by the game. So you can’t compare one set of games to another set of games for the qb only, not unless you want to go through play by plays (as I said).

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That’s what we’ve heard so far