Sorry to interrupt the flow of political rants, but sometimes less important things cross the radar and get me all fired up.
The quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings, Teddy Bridgewater, was lost for the season to an injury. This is bad news (unless you are a Green Bay fan…and if that’s the case, I am surprised that you know how to read)…and sent the Vikings running looking for a replacement. If there was to be a bright side, it would have been the timing. This happened just before the final cut day where the other 31 teams had to cut the players that wouldn’t make the roster. This normally puts a few quarterbacks out into the mix that can be picked up for very little cost to the team.
You might think that a person who is running day to day operations of an NFL team would know this. Instead, they pestered the Philadelphia Eagles to trade them Sam Bradford (more on that in a moment). By pestered I mean, Minnesota kept calling and offering better and better trades and then finally, when they offered Ferrari money for a Prius (next year’s first round draft pick and the fourth rounder from the next year plus they take most of the burden of paying the super inflated contract) the Philadelphia front office laughed all the way to the bank. So, was it worth it for Minnesota?
Let the statistics begin. Not only are there other quarterbacks on other teams that they probably could have picked up for a lot less, they already had one on their own team. Yes, they had a backup QB named Shaun Hill. Now you may not have heard of him and he may not be as famous as Sam Bradford…but let’s look at the careers, shall we?
One has a career completion percentage of 62% and the other 60.1%. Not too far apart…one has 6.8 yards per attempt the other 6.5. One has a career ratio of 1.5 TD’ per interception, the other…1.63 TD/interception. You have to know by now that the one with the better numbers is Shaun Hill…the QB that would have cost them zero extra, nothing…no trading away futures. I hear you out there. “These days, throwing isn’t everything. Does one run the ball better?” Yes indeed…one of them does.
Hill averages 3.7 yds/carry and Bradford 2.3. Rushing TD’s? 1 every 21 carries for Hill and 1 every 61 carries for Bradford.
Bradford has missed 32 of 80 possible games due to injury…seems solid to me.
How does Bradford compare to the other 20 QB’s in the league who have started 60 games in the last 5 years? 1 being best…
Comp%: 19
Rating: 20
Y/A: 20
TD%: 20
Wins: 20
TD: 20
Bradford has won zero playoff games. well, that stat is a little misleading…he hasn’t won any because his teams have never been to any. Sure, Hill hasn’t either, but they already had him on the team. They had a QB with the same stats and the same playoff experience.
Now, the players are all on board and toeing the corporate line about how excited they are to have Bradford in town. But really, are they? The team just signed him on with $7 million they have to pay toward his contract this year ($17 million more for next year) for someone with the same performance as a player already on the roster…who costs them $3.2 million…and no draft picks. There goes a bunch of money that could have been used to resign a star player or pick up a valuable free agent…looks like another year of mediocrity awaits!
If the Vikings want to pay someone a couple million dollars to run their team to another 7-9 record, they should call me and I will do it for half the price.
Above the Nonsense 