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Need a little hot take to get your evening going? Lemme help.
Adam Schein, NFL Media member and radio host, offered up a steamer today at dotcom suggesting the Rams should just cut ties with Sam Bradford and move on.
I get the argument for it. He hasn't been other-worldly. Hell, he's barely been middle-of-the-road with the Rams failing to achieve a single winning season since he entered the NFL (forget the years prior...). Successive ACL injuries don't have people drooling. And at this point, it's hard to suggest he's going to make a leap toward his potential ceiling.
But for all that said, take the arguments against it.
Bradford, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010, has been a disappointment. Yet somehow, the Rams haven't learned that they cannot rely on him.
Well that has less to do with Sam and more to deal with Snisher. It's a valid point, but it's not one that really strikes at the issue of whether or not to keep him at this point. If anything, it's a good reminder that the Rams failed to have any kind of legitimate plan B and that they sure as hell better put one together over the next five months.
Consequently, a team with a legit defense -- a defense spearheaded by a front four that gives opposing QBs nightmares -- continues to fall further behind the juggernauts in the NFC West.
They do? Rams went 2-4 in the NFC West this year. They went 1-5 in 2013. If anyone took a step back in the division, it was San Francisco. But they're at the bottom no doubt...which BTW, it's hard to fall further than the bottom, but ok.
When it comes to the game's most important position, the Rams continue to rely on a dangerous word -- potential -- instead of focusing on reality.
The Rams and about two dozen other teams. You're talking about the QB position. It's damn near impossible to staff appropriately. Heck, a few stories after Schein's plea to the Rams on NFL.com's front page was this video explaining why it's that hard to do. If the Rams cut Bradford, they're either relying on potential anyway from a rookie or young castoff from another team or they're playing the Kyle Boller/Kellen Clemens/Shaun Hill game again. Remind how well that works.
Among the quarterbacks currently set to hit free agency, I'd focus on Brian Hoyer. On a lower scale, St. Louis could consider Mark Sanchez or Matt Moore. Not the most exciting list of names, I know.
If that's the best you can do to convince me to cut Sam Bradford, you've failed.
How about making a trade? Chad Henne has plenty of experience and is set to hold the clipboard behind Blake Bortles in Jacksonville. Kirk Cousins has shown flashes in his Redskins tenure, and he shouldn't cost more than a Day 3 pick. But the most enticing trade target to me would be Mike Glennon. I've repeatedly stressed my belief in the young signal-caller, yet the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don't seem to share my enthusiasm -- and they're almost certain to spend the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft on a QB.
See above. The Bucs are almost certain to spent the number one overall pick on a QB because Glennon didn't dissuade them against doing so. But you want the Rams to not only hand him the keys, but trade away capital for him? You want to give away draft picks for Mike Glennon? Awesome idea.
By the end, he gets to the most salient point of the whole thing...and probably what he should've keyed on for his piece.
By passing on a QB in last year's early rounds, the Rams have put themselves in this unenviable state. In St. Louis, at the position that defines football teams in 2015, uncertainty abounds.
Let's change one part of that...
By passing on [coming up with any kind of plan to provide competent QB play in the absence of Sam Bradford which has happened a hell of a lot throughout his five-year career], the Rams have put themselves in this unenviable state.
I'm not all that motivated for or against Sam Bradford at this point. I'm more much more worried that the Rams still haven't found any plan to mitigate the impact of his absence yet, and that the same people who failed to do so are the ones charged with changing that having had their hand forced.
That's as hot as my take can get.