20–20 Hindsight: Was Sam Bradford Worth the Price?
One Week prior to the 2016 NFL season, starting Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a catastrophic knee injury, completely tearing his ACL (as well as other structural damage) after dislocating his knee on a non-contact play during practice. It was apparent that Bridgewater would be lost for the upcoming season.
The Vikings were open to trading for a quarterback in order to remain competitive but insisted they would not mortgage their future in order to acquire a new quarterback.
One day after Vikings’ GM Rick Spielman made this announcement, the team traded a future first round and fourth round pick in order to acquire former number one overall pick Sam Bradford from the Philadelphia Eagles. Many were left scratching their heads after the team’s perplexing move.
Vikings’ fans were upset at their teams decision to trade for Bradford given his track record. In seasons past, Bradford had played mediocre at best, amassing a record of 25–37. After sitting the first week in order to learn the team’s playbook, Bradford has led the team to two consecutive wins (3–0 overall) despite losing the former league-leader in rushing, Adrian Peterson, to a torn meniscus.
So I beg the question, was the trade worth it?
The easy answer is yes. The goal for any team is to win no matter what. The team sits at 3–0 and recently cracked the week 4 top-5 power rankings.
However, life, and the NFL for that matter, is a little more complicated than that. The complicated answer for the aforementioned question is a resounding — maybe?
A large majority of the Vikings’ success thus far can be attributed to the outstanding play of the team’s defense which is currently third in points allowed this season at 13.3 points per game. Currently there are five teams that are undefeated, four of those teams have a defense in the top five for points allowed.
The thing that sets apart the Vikings’ defense is their level of competition in the first three weeks. Other than its first week opponent, the Tennessee Titans, Minnesota faced two of the NFL’s top offenses in weeks 2 and 3. In week 2 they faced off against 2-time NFL MVP and former Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, and in week 3 they faced last year’s MVP Cam Newton and last years best offense and NFC Champions, the Carolina Panthers.
So was the trade worth it? That’s hard to say. Should Bradford get all the credit? No, but he should get credit for putting his team in a position to be successful. One thing is for sure, no one should sleep on this Minnesota Vikings’ defense.
-Michael Militello
