Vikings Acquire Bradford!

Earlier today the Eagles traded Sam Bradford to the Vikings for their 1st and 4th round picks. Social media will tell you the Vikings just made a huge mistake. People are posting things like have you seen him play (meaning Bradford), or they overpaid for a below average QB, or Bradford makes questionable decisions, and so on. When I first saw the trade my thought was good for the Vikings, they are not letting this opportunity go to waste. I honestly liked the trade for both teams,and I think it makes perfect sense.

Let’s take a look at the Eagles first. Being completely honest, the Eagles were a long a shot to make a run this year. They traded up to get a top rookie QB, so we all knew Bradford’s days were numbered. Carson Wentz is not ready to start yet, but he will be sooner than later. Growing up in Philadelphia I can tell you first hand their fans have no patience. Every single mistake that Bradford would have made this year would be followed by a “Why did we draft a guy second overall to not start him?” It would not matter if the mistake was Bradford’s fault or not, the boo birds would be out every chance they got. So knowing Wentz could be ready to lead the team sooner than later, why not ship out the only guy that really stands in his way of starting. At this point, Wentz can start as soon as he is healthy enough to do so. Then even if Wentz falls flat on his face, no one will care because the alternative would be to put Chase Daniel in and no one will want that. So for the Eagles this makes sense. Ship out the guy that stands in the way of our rookie QB and get some great picks in return so they can continue to rebuild from the mess the last coach left behind. Now from a fantasy perspective, this just about kills the value of many of the Eagles offensive players. I think guys like Zach Ertz, Jordan Matthews, and Dorial Green-Beckham all just took a big hit. Even Ryan Mathews, who I was never big on, takes a hit. Wentz is still clearly learning a lot about being a QB in the NFL so it could be some time before those guys return to fantasy relevance.

Now for the Vikings. The Vikings had a lot of hope entering this season. Adrian Peterson looks almost as good as ever. They a number 1 receiver in Stefon Diggs and drafted a top receiver in Laquon Treadwell. Plus guys like Charles Johnson and Kyle Rudolph were looking healthy and comfortable with the offense. The defense was solid and one the better in the league last year. Finally, Teddy Bridgewater was ready to take the next step as an NFL QB. Then Teddy got hurt in a noncontact drill and to this day we are still not sure exactly what it is and the extent of it, but we do know it’s pretty bad. In order not to waste this team, and possible AP’s last good season, the Vikings had to be aggressive and go out and get a QB that could fill the void left by Teddy’s injury. They did just that when the traded for Bradford. Some will say they overpaid, but what other options did they have? Mark Sanchez or maybe trade for Josh McCown? I think given the current options they did well. Many people will say Bradford is just an average QB how does he help? Well, last year the Vikings went 10 – 6 and Teddy’s completed 65% of his passes for 3,231 yards and 14 TD’s with 9 INT’s. In today’s NFL those are very low numbers. Now let’s look at Bradford’s numbers. He completed 65% of his passes for 3,725 yards and 19 TD’s with 14 INT’s. Still not great numbers compared to most, but still an improvement to Teddy’s stats. Plus Bradford played in 2 less games than Teddy. So to assume Bradford is a step back from Teddy would be a mistake. The biggest challenge will be how fast Bradford can learn the offense. Just like the Eagles this trade made a lot sense for the Vikings to execute, but for the fans of fantasy football how does this change their player’s values. When Teddy got hurt, every Vikings player fantasy value took a hit, now with the addition of Bradford, I think all of the values pretty much return to pre-Tedddy injury status. They may dip a week or two as Bradford gets up to speed, but overall I think they will be fine now that the Vikings made this trade. The only player I am curious about is actually Stefon Diggs, he clearly had good chemistry with Teddy, and should remain the number 1, but sometimes you never just know which receivers will click the most with a QB.

Bottom line here is this deal made sense for both teams. The Eagles are now clearly in rebuild mode and the trade clears the path for their rookie franchise QB to start this season and the picks will help tremendously in the rebuilding process. The Vikings were knocking on the door of a Super Bowl run pre injury and post injury they were not looking good at all. Post trade the Vikings are right back in the playoff race. If the trade leads to a deep playoff run and or Teddy is more hurt than we know, then people won’t think the picks were too much to acquire Bradford’s service. At this point, all we can do is wait and see if the aggressive move the Vikings pays off or backfires. I lean towards pays off, for both teams.

Michael Kelley is a member of the Going For 2 team. You can check out his website Dynasty League Problems for more writings or follow him on Twitter @mikekelleydlp.
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