St. Louis Rams Really Sticking With Sam Bradford in 2015?

Recently, St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher stated that injured quarterback Sam Bradford was still part of the team’s future plans as they continue their pursuit of an NFC West title. Fisher took the job in 2012 when the Rams traded the rights to the second overall pick in the NFL Draft to a king’s ransom of picks, one that has resulted in a heck of a core of young talent in St. Louis.

The Rams have made the mistake of building around Bradford these last couple of years, and while they have picked up some great players along the way, they have failed to get a decent option as a backup quarterback, resulting in a defense that is on the verge of being completely dominant losing games that it shouldn’t, like the one they played on Thursday night against the Arizona Cardinals.

St. Louis has enough talent to compete for an NFC West title in my opinion, even considering that division consists of the reigning Super Bowl champion. The problem is, they don’t have a playmaker at the quarterback position who can lift the team when the need arises. Bradford could have been that guy, but he’s not reliable enough health-wise. Being on injured reserve what feels like every season of his career, you’d think the Rams could still put together a playoff team without him and perhaps plan for situations such as this, but they didn’t.

At the beginning of the season, they threw Shaun Hill into the mix right away and immediately switched to Austin Davis. The question many have is why the Rams would entertain the idea of going into 2015 assuming that Sam Bradford is yet again their guy. He is entering the final year of his rookie contract next season, a contract that at the time was setting records for a draft pick at $50 million guaranteed over the first four years of the deal.

The question I have is, since none of Bradford’s base salary next season is guaranteed, why would the Rams not cut bait and start over? You can see both sides to the argument here. On the one hand, if they don’t spend some money on a quarterback or use a relatively high draft pick, they have Bradford in a deal where he has to prove himself for one year before hitting the open market in 2016.

On the other hand, they could keep Bradford with no guaranteed money in his contract remaining and still spend some money on a good backup or go after a player with a high draft pick like UCLA’s Brett Hundley. That is the option that right now makes sense, but I find it hard to believe that the Rams are going to once again put all their eggs in one basket as it pertains to Bradford. He has proven to be one of the most unreliable players in the league and it’s not like he’s so good that they can’t afford to upset him by making alternate plans.

Right now, it seems likely that Bradford will go into 2015 as the Rams’ de facto starting quarterback, but he’ll be on thin ice and if he can’t stay healthy, you can fully expect the Rams to have the next QB of the future behind him at this time next season, ready to start, ready to take the reins.