Bradford Deserves a Four-Year Deal

Sam Bradford deserves a four year deal, and Vikings fans deserve at least four years of stability at the QB position. Thanks to the crazy year that was 2016 Sam Bradford took a beating and was lucky to come away with his life. His 2016 ended up pretty decent considering the lack of any semblance of a run game and porous and rotational offensive line. He wound up with 3,877 yards, 20 TD’s and only 5 INT’s, with 7.02 yards per attempt, 258 yards per game, a quarterback rating of 99.3 and a completion percentage of 71.6 (An NFL Record). Lets see where that puts him with the rest of the league… 1st in completion percentage, 6th in quarterback rating, 15th in yards per game, 18th in touchdowns and 19th in yards per attempt. Now, I believe that when we try to evaluate his year we should also take into account the lack of an off-season to get acclimated to/with the offense, switching offensive coordinators in middle of the season, and the extreme amount of costly injuries on the offensive line. Still that puts his year at slightly above average in my mind, somewhere 12th to 18th in the league.

This year Bradford is going to make $18 mil, which puts him 17th in quarterback cap hit,… Perfect. So I see no down side to offering Sam a four year deal at his current $18 to $20 mil a year contract, considering Eli Manning at 10th on the cap hit list makes $19.7m. The Vikings only other possible viable starter for the next few years is Bridgewater and there is no guarantee he will ever take a snap again. Offering Bradford a four year deal gives us a guaranteed average (at worst starter) with a very high possible upside for the foreseeable future to build around. Should they wait and let him hit free agency, assuming that he has the same year as last year, you’d end up bidding against other possible teams that may have more to offer (ie warmer weather, a bigger market, etc.). Now why would Bradford sign that deal? it guarantees his future as well instead of rolling the dice with the possibility of injury, subpar season, etc. So it just makes sense for everyone.

Now for me personally I see this year as a breakout year for Sam and this offense which makes this an even better deal for the Vikings, but honestly what other choice do either of them have? Sam Bradford and the Minnesota vikings are now effectively married to each other due to the crazy off-season and regular season that was 2016. So let’s consummate that marriage. It’s time for Sam to prove St. Louis and Philly wrong for giving up on the former 1st over all pick and for our Vikings to have the perfect platform for him to do it. For Spielman and company this should be a no brainier (For both sides) so let’s lock up Sam as our quarterback for the future!

SKOL!

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