St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford has had a lot of injuries in his short career so far. That mixed with his extremely high salary cap number of over $16 million and low amount of dead money if cut, only $3.5 million, he’s a good candidate to be cut. During draft season, when rumors are aplenty, Bradford makes for a prime candidate to have rumors start circulating about him.
Rand Getlin from Yahoo Sports reported that the Buffalo Bills might be willing to trade for the services of Bradford. The Bills had a stout defense last season but were pretty underwhelming on offense. Their young quarterback, E.J. Manuel, was benched for veteran Kyle Orton who is now retired. They desperately need a quarterback and to them Bradford might be the best option. However, the Bills don’t have their first round pick for this draft and only have six picks total in the 2015 NFL Draft. So if they plan on trying to make this trade they’ll need to offer something more substantial than draft picks.
According to a story from NJ.com, the Rams have shown interest in Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles. While this rumor doesn’t directly involve Bradford, it would certainly affect him if it was true. If the Rams were interested in Foles that would mean they’re looking to get rid of Bradford or could have very little faith in Bradford being able to stay healthy for an entire season.
Another rumor is that the Browns would be more than willing to trade for Bradford if the Rams decide to put him on the trading block. That would certainly make Cleveland even more of a circus - the 2010 first overall pick competing for the starting job with Johnny Manziel, 2014 first round pick. The Browns would certainly benefit from making this trade but St. Louis is extremely unlikely to make a trade like that.
Jason La Canfora has also reported that the Rams have given Bradford and his camp permission to seek a trade. Of course, these are all just rumors and, in my opinion, unlikely rumors at that. Rams head coach, Jeff Fisher, has gone on record multiple times saying Bradford is their quarterback moving forward and they’re comfortable with that. The biggest reason I believe these rumors to be outlandish is because when the Rams promoted quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti, Fisher said that Bradford played a major role in the decision to promote Cignetti. If the Rams had any intentions at all to move on from Bradford in 2015, why would they consult him about such a serious coaching staff decision? With that little piece of information alone it tells us everything we need to know about their quarterback situation.
As much sense as it makes to let Bradford go and free up a ton of cap space, I would be shocked if the Rams actually went in that direction. I’m sure the rumors will continue to emerge up until the new league year starts on March 10th and the Rams aren’t able to cut him anymore. But the most likely scenario is that Bradford remains in St. Louis for at least another season.