FanPost

Not Yet Time to Give Up on Sam Bradford and the Rams.

Sam-bradford_medium

via blogs.orlandosentinel.com






The Rams have lost a horrible game to the Jets. This was a game where all signs pointed towards a lose for the Rams. All the analysts pick us, all the better have us as the favorites, fans of both teams were probably expecting a Rams win. And then the Rams, after a promising first 10 minutes, started going into suck mode. Fans have gone rabid, starting to give up on the season and Sam Bradford. Maybe a lot of it was hyperbole, but it sure didn't seem like it. Let me be a voice of reason, and point out some things that may have slipped peoples mind.

The Rams are the youngest team in the NFL, maybe even one of the youngest ever, and this is a two edged sword. For one thing, it means this team has a ton of room to grow, and in a couple of years, they can become a dynasty. The talent on this team is extraordinary high. The problem is that a young team has its fair share of problems. A young team can not be expected to have a good season, because they have to adjust to the NFL game, especially if a lot of the rookies are from smaller schools (like pretty much all our rookies) The rookies will make rookie mistakes, if they didn't then it wouldn't be called rookie mistakes, would it? Also as this team has no experience, certain things that only a vet would know is missed. Never, ever write of a young team. They can be great one game, horrible the other. They are learning. IN years to come, they will be much more consistent.

The Fans want to give up on Sam Bradford before he has even finished playing his third season in the league. Lets go back in time, why not? His rookie year, ROTY. He plays in a system that allows him to excel and that hid the offensive line problems. Also he had a younger Steven Jackson. Second year, the NFL is in a lockout. Sam Bradford does his second season with no offseason to gel with his team. He loses his offensive coordinator, and instead gets one who has one of the most complex systems in the NFL. He and his extremely young group of wide receivers had to learn this system with no coaching at all. Also, Sam Bradford had no QB coach, and his technique visibly digressed. he didn't play the whole year either. Now, to judge him in his third year, with yet another offensive coordinator just isn't fair. In Sam's second year, he was supposed to improve, to progress. You can't be a great Quarterback without learning for a couple of years. In his second year, with no QB coach, his technique got messed up. This year, he is correcting it. This is in theory, Sam Bradford's second year to learn how to play NFL football.

The weapons around Sam frankly, suck. The only player he has who is known outside the Rams Fan base is Danny Amendola, who is getting injured more often now. He had two rookies in 2011. One of them has left the team, the other is slowly progressing. This year he has two more rookies. Both of them have potential but that's it for now. he doesn't have a Reggie Wayne like Luck does, or a Santana Moss/ Pierre Garcon like RG3, neither does he have a A.J Green like Dalton, or Megatron like Stafford, or Roddy White/ Julio Jones like Matt Ryan or Andre Johnson like Matt Schaub. Instead he has Brandon Gibson. Once Sam gets some weapons, or once the weapons he has develops, then we can compare him to the above quarterbacks, until then it is just unfair.

The O-line that Sam has is horrible. The reason is because of the 5 players on the line, 2 of them are horrible. The rest are good, but for an O-line it is only as good as its weakest link. For the Rams, this happens to be the worst tackle in the NFL last year, Barry Richardson and Shelly Smith, a former sixth round pick, who is playing in the regular season for the first time. Constantly, the opposing defense send pressure via these two offensive lineman. And it works. The Rams need an O-line that can give Sam time, so that fumbles like what happened in the jets game doesn't happen again.

Last but not least, the Rams have faced some of the better teams i the league, especially in defense. He have faced the 49ers, the Jets, the Bears. These three defenses are the top in the NFL. The Defense won the game for the Jets and the Bears. against the 49ers, the Rams showed that they can attack. With the teams that the Rams face in the upcoming games, I can see the Rams maybe fighting for an outside playoff chance, but that dpends on if the young team can become consistent or not.

In the end, the Rams are a young, inexperienced, inconsistent team, led by a young Quarterback who is yet to find his footing in the NFL, and has some poor weapons. I see Sam as Elway, or Aikmen or Plunkett. All three of these quarterbacks had almost no supporting cast, just like Sam Bradford. As soon as they got some weapons, well, all of them except Plunkett (who won two superbowls) are in Canton. And for Bradford? Well I see him leading the Rams to some playoffs in the near future, and maybe a couple of Superbowls eventually.