St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher has been pretty clear since the day the team hired him to be their next head coach that quarterback Sam Bradford was the guy. In fact, Fisher pointed to Bradford and his potential as one of the reasons he opted for the gig in St. Louis ($7 million a season and not dealing with Jeff Ireland and Stephen Ross were probably also important). General manager Les Snead has said the same thing about Bradford. The third-year quarterback revealed to NFL.com that they told him the same thing.
Said Bradford:
"Pretty much from the beginning, they told me that I was their guy and that I had no reason to worry about them taking a quarterback in this draft."
Had the Rams been so inclined, they could have held onto the second pick in this year's draft and selected Robert Griffin III. There was never any real need to start over in St. Louis.
Bradford won the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2010. Last season he struggled, a victim of injuries to the player around him and overall organizational disarray. Having a month to learn a new, more complex offensive system thanks to the lockout did not help Bradford's sophomore campaign either.
All of that is now firmly in the past. The Rams have a new coaching staff, an experienced coaching staff, that players are enthusiastic about.