St. Louis Rams Update: Should the Rams Sit Sam Bradford?

Sam Bradford has been sacked, hit, knocked down or hurried on almost 30 percent of his passing attempts this season.  At least that is what Chris Myers said when I was watching the Rams play the Redskins last week. 

Let that number really sink in.  Bradford is getting hammered on over a quarter of his passes.

How long can a quarterback take this type of abuse?  How many hits can he take before injuries start to take their toll and before bad habits start to form?  According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Bradford is walking in a boot right now.  He was injured on the last play of yesterday's game against the Packers.

Rams fans have seen this before, with Marc Bulger. 

Bulger was a Pro Bowl caliber QB for a four year window (03-06), making the Pro Bowl in '03 and '06.  Of course, Bulger's critics will say he was simply a byproduct of the great talent around him, "The Greatest Show on Turf."  Those same critics are quick to point out that when that talent left, Bulger was a below average quarterback.  While there is no denying that Bulger played with great players (Bruce, Holt, Faulk, Jackson, Pace, etc), there is also no denying the truth about the demise of Marc Bulger.

As they say, "the stats don't lie," and the stats tell us that all the hits Bulger took over the years eventually took their toll.

Year	Sack %	QB Rating	QB Record
2002	5.3%	101.5	6-1
2003	6.5%	81.4	12-3
2004	7.8%	93.7	8-6
2005	8.3%	94.4	2-6
2006	7.7%	92.9	8-8
2007	8.9%	70.3	2-10
2008	7.9%	71.4	2-13
2009	5.4%	70.7	1-7

As you can see, as the hits kept coming, and the talent kept leaving, Bulger's QB Rating really dropped.  That is what happens in a Mike Martz offense.  Somewhere, Jay Cutler is reading this and nodding his head.

I could get really deep and talk about touchdown to interception ratio's and completion percentages, but that's not the point.  Look at the wins and losses.  Look at what happened to Marc Bulger's career.  That is the point of this article.

The Rams couldn't win.  Marc Bulger became a shell of himself.  The Rams had to start over.  Marc Bulger is no longer here.

Is that what we want for Sam Bradford, a kid with such a bright future?

The ultimate Bradford comparison, in my opinion, has to be David Carr.  Like Bradford, Carr was the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft (Bradford 2010, Carr 2002).  Like Bradford, Carr was a prolific college QB that came out of a pass happy offense.  And like Bradford, Carr was thrown straight into the fire as a rookie, and he took a ton of hits early in his career.

Carr broke the NFL record by being sacked 76 times as a rookie in 2002.  He was sacked 68 more times  in 2005.  During his five years as the starting QB in Houston, Carr was sacked 249 times, or basically 50 times per season.

Here are the stats on David Carr:

Year	Sack %	QB Rating	QB Record
2002	14.6%	62.8	4-12
2003	4.8%	69.5	3-8
2004	9.5%	83.5	7-9
2005	13.8%	77.2	2-14
2006	8.5%	82.1	6-10

Now I said all of that to say this: David Carr lasted five years in Houston.  Think about poor Sam Bradford, getting hit, knocked down, hurried or sacked on almost 30 percent of his throws this year.  He is being sacked on 9.7 percent of those throws. 

Do the Rams really want their franchise QB following the career path of David Carr?

According to Football Outsiders, the Rams offensive line is ranked 30th in the NFL in adjusted pass protection.  Bradford has been sacked 19 times in the Rams first five games, meaning he is on pace to get sacked about 61 times this season. 

That is getting into Bulger/Carr territory.

The Rams made a huge investment in Bradford.  If we want to see that investment pay off, then Rams owner Stan Kroenke needs to protect Bradford by any means necessary.  Forget about all the hype about the recent trade for Brandon Lloyd for just a minute.  Kroenke needs to tell the coaches and GM that this offensive line needs to start protecting Bradford, or else we are sitting him down. 

We want to see Bradford end up like Aaron Rodgers, not Marc Bulger or David Carr.