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waterfield
Another aspect of this is the money. The Rams have drafted players before with high expectations-even QBs-who for whatever reasons didn't play as expected. Yet they didn't seem to generate the venom similar to Bradford. Take away the enormous contract he signed with the Rams just before the CBA changed things a his injuries and perceived failures wouldn't be so bothersome to many. It's simply a lot easier to dislike a person who is making so much more money than we could ever imagine and yet somehow doesn't match our expectations than someone who with similar failures but not making near the same money.. And when I use the work "dislike" I'm referring to those who call him a fake or fraud or some other derogatory comment directed at him, not as a player,but as a person. In a word its called "envy". (i.e. " I wish I could make that kind of money for doing nothing" )
The funny thing about the contract is, it turned out to be a bargain .
The new CBA set up 4 year contracts and Bradford, who was drafted and signed under the old CBA, was on a 6 year. That meant that starting in year 4 and going through 5 and 6 he was getting less than other 1st and 2nd round qbs up for 2nd contracts. So in 2015 he was a 12 M a year qb in a league that was paying Dalton 16 M, Tannenhill 19 M, Newton 20.7 M, and Wilson 22 M.
Another thing...and I believed (and said) this before the 2010 draft...he was not an elite qb prospect. His "tier" was to be good to very good, like Flacco and Eli in their best years.
So the irony was, I was debating people before the draft in 2010 who said he would be elite (I didn;t see it) and then afterward, saying he would be good in good circumstances to people who said he was a bust. Sometimes it was the same people I was debating in 2013 that I had been debating before the draft in 2010.
The Bradford debates were always loaded with extracurricular issues, as you said.
He's still on the list of better Rams qbs. That's in spite of the fact that from 2011 through 2013 he only played 15 of 33 games with a relatively healthy OL. And I don't mean an injury here or there, from 2011 through the first half of 2012 the OLs were Battle of the Somme level injured and diminished. We don't wish that on Goff.
Goff will be the better qb longterm but what destroyed SB as everyone knows is the long series of injuries.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2018 09:50AM by zn.