Where Would The Rams Be With Sam Bradford?

Exactly one month ago, the one thing all Rams fans dreaded happened. Franchise quarterback Sam Bradford went down with an ACL and would be out for the rest of the season. Bradford has finally had his surgery and now will come the long grueling process of rehab.

A lot has happened since then for the Rams. Zac Stacy has emerged as a future star, the defense has began to play like the defense everyone expected at the beginning of the season, and the Rams have gone 1-2 in games that they should have won all three.

After losses against the Seahawks and Titans you have to wonder where the Rams would be had it been Sam Bradford under center and not back-up quarterback Kellen Clemens. The Rams 2013 season will be known as the season of what-ifs.

What if Bradford has never gotten hurt, what if Zac Stacy had been the starter day one, what if this would have happened, or what if that would have happened? Story of the life of a Rams fan right?

Now don’t get me wrong. Clemens has played exceptionally well at times, Bradford was however onto being one of the top quarterbacks in the league this season and was on pace to have a career year.

Let’s just start with where it all began shall we? In his career Bradford is 2-1 against the Seahawks in the Edward Jones Dome. Now the Seahawks probably game plan differently if Bradford plays, but for hypothetical reason let’s just put Bradford in Clemens’ shoes.

You have to think Bradford doesn’t throw two costly interceptions in that game and more than likely punches at least one of those field goals in for touchdowns including the game winner at the one yard line.

If Bradford is in the game, there is no doubt that the Rams come out with a victory, especially with how well the defense was playing and how poorly the Seahawks offense was performing. Right there the Rams move to 4-4 at the midway point in the season.

The next week the Rams pull above .500 with a victory over the Titans when instead of fumbling, Bradford leads the Rams down the field with 4:44 remaining after a McLeod interception to set up a game winning field goal for Greg Zuerlein.

We all know what happened the next week against the Colts. The Rams defense and special teams came up big for the Rams and won this game single handedly and it would be hard for Bradford to do any better than Clemens did.

Instead of 4-6 the Rams sit at 6-4 and would be in perfect position to make a playoff run. Now if you were to put Zac Stacy in as the starter at running back at the beginning of the season with Bradford to give the Rams a run game you have to think that they would have beaten the Falcons and the Cowboys score may have been a little closer.

If that were to happen, at this point the Rams record would be at 7-3 and they would be in the playoffs heading into a game against a Bears team with a great chance to go 8-3 as the Bears have one of the worst defenses against the run and are right in the middle of the pack defending the pass.

The Rams have been right there this season and you can see what could have been or what might have happened had the Rams had a few different pieces in place and not suffered a major injury. To end this, Ill end it with what Rams fans have been saying for the last 10 years….”There’s always next year.”