Thursday, January 6, 2011

Is Rams' Bradford the best rookie QB ever?

That is the title of an NBC Sports article by Mike Tainer. After a little bit of analysis Mr. Tainer's statistics show that Bradford is well behind Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco and slightly ahead of Vince Young and Mark Sanchez. Keep in mind Vince Young is being cut by his team and Mark Sanchez is still very much a work in progress.

Given that what little statistical analysis Mr. Taniner actually does, reveals almost the opposite of his claim, he comes up with some excuses for Bradford's lower numbers. The main excuse being that his wide receivers are average at best. While I agree that the names may be unknown I'm not certain that this claim is as valid as it may seem since the Rams' receiving corp ranked 6th in the league in yards after the catch. Another excuse by Mr. Tainer is that Bradford takes few sacks. Part of the explanation for both of the excuses, that Mr. Tainer also fails to mention, is that Sam Bradford throws 1/6th of his passes behind the line of scrimmage. That helps boost his completion percentage. keeps sacks low and increases his total passing yards. Additionally Sam Bradford is second to last in the league in yards per attempt. Ahead of only Jimmy Clausen. Bradford may have good numbers for a rookie but he takes very few chances. That method of quarterbacking does not make for a championship quarterback. Remember Joey Harrington had a fairly promising rookie year too and had a record low sacks taken in his second year, eventually earning the nickname of Joey check down. Well Bradford is closer to the Joey Harrington model at this point than Matt Ryan.

But wait you say. The Rams won 7 games this year, which is a huge improvement over their previous year. While that is true, they also had the second easiest record in the NFL and played defenses, that if averaged, would be the 22nd best defense in the league. As a Lions fan I can tell you your schedule has a huge impact on your final standing and your stats.

I'm not suggesting Bradford is a bust, but one of the best rookie ever? Please. Try starting with some facts and then make an opinion.

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