Turf Show Times
Who came out on top in 2015’s QB swap?
The year is 2014 and the St Louis Rams had just finished in the bottom of the NFC West for the second year in a row under the leadership of Jeff Fisher. Sam Bradford missed the entire season after tearing his left ACL for the second time in as many years and the team had to roll with Shawn Hill and Austin Davis who both finished the year with a 3-5 record as starters. The Bradford experience was coming to an end as a contract extension was looming in the near future. Les Snead did control a top-10 pick in the 2015 draft but a weak QB class made him look for other alternatives.
On March 10th, 2015, Adam Schefter broke the news that the former No, 1 overall draft pick in 2010 would be traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for quarterback Nick Foles.
Sam Bradford would start 14 games under Chip Kelly in 2016 and finish at .500. There were glimpses of why he was taken first overall in 2010 with his best game coming in Week 4 against the Washington Redskins where he threw for three touchdowns and zero interceptions while finishing with a 122.6 passer rating. The rest of his season could be best summed up as mediocre with a 19 to 14 touchdown/interception ratio and overall passer rating of just 86.4.
Despite a lackluster effort, the Eagles signed Bradford to a two-year contract extension worth $36 million ($26 million of it guaranteed) that never came to fruition. Chip Kelly was pushed out in favor of Doug Pederson and the new regime traded with the Cleveland Browns to nab the second overall pick in the 2016 draft and get their quarterback of the future (which turned out to be Carson Wentz). Seeing the writing on the wall, Bradford requested a trade and went on to play two years with the Minnesota Vikings.
Nick Foles also did not accomplish much for his new team and was arguably worse despite being just two years removed from a playoff run with the Eagles where he had 27 touchdowns to just two interceptions in 2013. Under offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, Foles would complete just 56.4% of his passes with just seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions and a 4-7 record as a starter. He would be benched in favor of Case Keenum who was traded to the Rams for a seventh-round draft pick by the Houston Texans shortly after the Bradford trade was made.
The Foles experience would last just as long as Bradford’s tenure with the Eagles....
