The Arizona Cardinals released veteran quarterback Sam Bradford on Saturday afternoon
In a move that was surprising to virtually no one, the Arizona Cardinals released quarterback Sam Bradford on Saturday. The Cardinals were his fourth NFL stop in nine seasons.
Bradford was benched after the third week of the 2018 season after he struggled mightily to move the Cardinals offense and win games. Let’s be clear however, there are many more issues greater than Bradford that led to his demise.
Bradford turned the ball over three times in his last start against the Chicago Bears on September 23rd. The Cardinals took a 14-0 lead only to lose 16-14. It was the nail in Bradford’s coffin in Arizona.
Turns out though, he never had a chance to succeed. He was signed in March but after other free agents such as Kirk Cousins passed over the Cardinals for other teams.
Bradford’s career has been marred by injury. He was still one of the most accurate passer’s in NFL history. At least from my standpoint, I believed Bradford could win here as long as he stayed healthy.
Turns out health was never an issue during his brief stay here. The fact that the Cardinals decided to draft Josh Rosen in the NFL Draft was the biggest reason why Bradford’s days were numbered from that point on, no matter how much Bradford succeeded on the field.
Many fans wanted to see him fail and expected him to. Many wanted Rosen to be the opening day starter. Others did not.
But once Rosen was drafted we all knew. We all knew unless Bradford was perfect, he wasn’t going to stick here. We just hoped the time would have been longer.
They spent $13.5 million to watch a quarterback basically play three games. If you are weighing against just regular season games, Bradford earned a nice $4.5 million per game.
When Rosen was named the starter for the game on September 30th against the Seattle Seahawks, it definitely was the end for Bradford. Some expected him to be released immediately.
He spent the last month on the sidelines in street clothes, inactive every week since his last start. The biggest question is, why the wait? If this was going to be the move, why now?
Bradford’s performance sure didn’t help him but Cardinals fans never really considered Bradford a viable option after he was signed and once the Cardinals were going to complete the week two game against the Los Angeles Rams. People thought he would destroyed in that game.
Turns out his health wasn’t destroyed that week or any other. His erratic throwing was and inability to get the ball into the end zone was.
Again, not all on Bradford. The Cardinals fired offensive coordinator Mike McCoy on October 19th.
For what it’s worth players liked Bradford a lot. He was named a team captain and it was recently revealed that some unnamed Cardinals players would have rather stayed with Bradford and not turn to Rosen yet. We wish him all the best in whatever he does after this.