The NFL struck gold, by accident, with this year's compressed free agency period. Fan interest and excitement over the end of the lockout and the swarm of free agent signings reached record levels. The St. Louis Rams certainly did their part, adding almost a dozen new free agents and sparking new excitement among the fans.
Of course, the fans weren't the only ones excited by the new additions. Last year's Offensive Rookie of the Year, QB Sam Bradford, shared in that excitement. Here's what Bradford told ESPN 101 yesterday:
It makes everyone excited. And another thing that it does is it creates competition. I think anytime you have competition at a certain position, across the board, it pushes everybody to be better. Now that we have started to go out and bring some guys in, I think everyone who is here understands if they want a spot on this team they're going to have to work that much harder.
As for the new offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, and his new system, Bradford's got a few things to say about that as well.
It's been great so far. Josh has been awesome, he's been very positive. I'm sure it's not easy for him coming in and having to install the offense again. He's done a great job with everyone. I felt like he's a very good teacher. When we have meetings together, I feel like everyone in the room really learns a lot. ... I look forward to seeing how this offense progresses and where we go from here.
Bradford's a long way from having complete command of the system, but he has a good grasp of the fundamentals, thanks to his offseason work.
Yeah, I think everything we did this summer, getting together as a team, throwing routes, talking about some of the plays ... I think it was all great. It gave me a little bit of a head start, but by no means does it mean that I have a full grasp of this offense going into practice number four. But I think everything we did this summer was a good way to form the base.
And as far as the changes for him to things like drops, etc., there really isn't much change at all:
I really don't think so, other than obviously some minor footwork things that are different in our run game or our pass game. But, for the most part, we did everything last year that I would be doing athletically this year as far as throwing on the run, moving up in the pocket, things like that. By no means are they asking me to run the option this year.