Vikings QB Sam Bradford and Head Coach Mike Zimmer are Slowly Becoming BFF’s. That Could Mean GREAT Things for the Vikes

In a piece posted by the always stellar Ben Goessling of ESPN this morning, it’s been made apparent that Vikings starting quarterback Sam Bradford and head coach Mike Zimmer are slowly becoming what Zimmer and IR’d QB Teddy Bridgewater were before his leg exploded last season (about a month and change from this time of year). Bradford, who’s never experienced a training camp like the one the Vikings and Mankato throw together (He’s always just practiced at the facility of whichever team he was on/disappointing at the time… That’s not a knock on the guy, I love me some Bradford, he just took some time to reach the elite level he’s at right now. Based on this epic long justification to that joke, I should probably just delete it… But, I’m too lazy, despite the fact that this was a ton of work… For my fingers). Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Bradford. So, Bradford stated the following in regards to Mankato, saying:

“It will be the first time in my career that we have ever gone away for training camp, so that will be a new experience, It will be fun to get down there and get to work.”

I, for one, cannot wait for training camp to begin either. This may be the last training camp held in Mankato and while I understand that Vikings Lake will be an epic (I have to stop saying epic… Epic) place to practice (/eat/drink/live/watch movies/give birth to one’s child/etc.), there’s something special about driving down to Mankato each year to watch the Purple and Gold practice. Bradford missed Vikings training camp last season, obviously, as he was acquired the same amount of days before the Packers game as former/brief Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman was in 2013. Unlike Freeman and more like Bridgewater (A QB that Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer had a great relationship with), Bradford is developing a close-knit relationship with his head coach.

In regards to that relationship, Bradford continued:

“We would text almost every day after practice and he would just give me some thoughts about what he saw from us on offense, what the defense was trying to do, things that we could take advantage of, things that they were trying to take away, [It was good to] just get his opinion on what he saw from the defense that day and maybe if there were some blitzes that they put in to beat a certain protection, how we could pick it up; coverages that they put in to maybe take away a route, how we could beat that coverage, what to look for, what tips, what keys give away certain things. Those texts were really nice.”

You have to think that with all of this additional time, Bradford is going to have an amazing season. What he accomplished last year has been overlooked by a lot of the Vikings faithful, I think, especially considering the… Everything. I mean, he came in late, he played behind what was the worst offensive line in team history, he had little talent at the running back position and he still managed to break an NFL record. People like to say that he broke the record for completion percentage just because he was dumping the ball off, but further inspection shows that he also was super accurate down the field as well. He essentially came into his own under fire last season and it was amazing to watch. With the additional time, and talent he now has, it’s hard not to get excited about what he and the team may accomplish in 2017. While he is only contracted through this year, something that may rub some players the wrong way, he seems to be really buying in to what Zimmer and the Vikings are selling. In that regard, he said:

“To have him in our meetings, to have him come up to talk to us on the field, whether it is about football, whether it is about life, whether it is about whatever, I think to have those interactions is good for us, He does spend a lot of time with the defense and those guys are with him a lot, but I think this year he has been around the offense more. I think the guys have really enjoyed it.”

There was some negative press surrounding Zimmer’s coaching method(s) earlier this off-season thanks to the like of Riki Ellison, former Vikings back-up player Rhett Ellison’s father. While Zimmer has been known as a defensive mastermind, he apparently was rubbing some of his players the wrong way in regards, especially, to the way he talked about them to the media (Anthony Barr especially). It’s really great to see that he’s attempting to improve upon his job and not just attempting to say the right things to the media. He said he met with players and other head coaches in an attempt to learn what it means to be a good head coach and Bradford’s quote proves that.

When you combine the fact that Bradford has had all this time to acclimate to what it means to be a Viking with the new players on the team, Bradford’s familiarity with offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur and head coach Mike Zimmer’s new approach to the defense and especially the offense… You can see why some people are saying that this year may be the first year that the city that is hosting the Super Bowl may also end up hosting it’s home team, as well. The one component that the Vikings have been missing, to reach that point, my entire life (I was born in 1984) has been a young quarterback. Now that Bradford (29) is here and playing at nearly an elite level, it seems like they have it. He’s had a rough first year as a Viking, as essentially everything that could’ve gone wrong around him, did. To him, though, that was a blessing. As he finished:

“Once everything ended and calmed down [last year], I thought about the events that had just happened and the past six or seven months and how I got here. I would not trade it for the world, I learned a lot about myself last year, I learned a lot about being a quarterback, being a leader, being a teammate, being put in that position, and I am really excited for training camp this year.”

We are too, Sam. We are too.

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