Should The Rams Trade Sam Bradford?

Oct 13, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (8) directs the offense against the Houston Texans during the first half at Reliant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports

In this upcoming draft, fans have been all about the Rams once again pulling off another blockbuster trade for the number two overall pick. But as we covered last week, there is always the scenario in which the Rams cannot trade away the nice piece of luxury.

What do the Rams do then? Recently on CBSsports.com, Jason La Canfora proposed that the Rams should trade Sam Bradford, and how it could be beneficial. La Canfora brought up some interesting points and the story is certainly worth a look.

Back in 2012 when the Rams pulled off the RGIII trade, teams were calling for Bradford then and Les Snead didn’t pull the trigger which makes it unlikely that he would pull it now. However, crazier things have happened, the Eagles did release DeSean Jackson.

In a class of quarterbacks with no true front runner, and given the amount of teams in need of a quarterback, e.g the Texans, Jaguars, Browns, Raiders, Buccaneers, Vikings, and possibly even the Bills, there may actually be a market for Bradford, and the Rams may just be able to get a good price for him.

"“They love the kid, at least the ones I’ve talked to about him,” one NFL executive said. “He’s still a pretty popular figure with them. And everyone knows he’s a tremendous kid. If he was available I would expect there to be a lot of coaches in personnel meetings who would think they would be the guy to get him to fulfill his potential.”"

Given the lack of a quarterback market, the Rams might be able to get good value for Bradford as well. A high first round pick may be stretching it, but certainly a second round pick would be something the Rams could get in return.

Trading Bradford would release a significant amount of cap space, cap space that could be used to extend Robert Quinn next offseason and cap space that those teams in need of a quarterback could take on.

The biggest problem with trading Bradford now is that, as mentioned earlier, this isn’t a great quarterback class. Not to say there aren’t any good quarterbacks, but most certainly the Rams would be forced to take a quarterback in the first round, or take a huge risk and take A.J. McCarron, Tajh Boyd, or Zach Mettenberger in the third or fourth round.

Trading away Bradford would almost certainly set a rising team back and force them to almost start all the way back at square one. There just isn’t a quarterback in this class that would make the Rams better than Bradford does.

There is no question that 2014 will be a big year for Bradford. Questions about the quarterback are starting to rise even in the minds of the Bradford supporters. The Rams have 12 picks  in the upcoming draft including four in the top 75. Hopefully that will be enough to help solidify Bradford as the starter and get the Rams over the top and into the playoffs.