Rams Name Bradford Starting QB (Officially)

Added on Sep 05, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

'Drop this pass and Laurinaitis' dad kicks your ass!'

Just as we said they would, the St. Louis Rams have named rookie Sam Bradford as their starting quarterback. As of Friday, the team continued to hem and haw in response to media queries about whether Bradford or veteran A.J. Feeley would get the starting nod. Coach Steve Spagnuolo made the official announcement on Saturday night, and didn’t mince words:

“We’re confident. The staff’s confident. The team’s confident. It’s well deserved.”

We said as much on Friday–here’s how we concluded our previous post on the Rams’ starting QB situation:

Bradford should and will be the starter when the regular season begins for the Rams at home against Arizona next Sunday. With obvious improvement every time he takes the field, some already impressive skills and an apparent positive impact on team chemistry–not to mention the fact that Feeley’s throwing hand still isn’t 100%–if he’s not the starter Rams’ management should publicly question the sanity of their coaching staff. At this point, it looks like the team is just trying to figure out the best spin to put on the ‘Bradford as starter’ decision. Their belief that spin is necessary is curious–Bradford already has more credibility as a starting QB in the NFL than many veterans.

I never liked Bradford in college for some reason, but he’s sure saying the right things now that he’s playing on Sundays for pay (as opposed to playing on Saturday’s for pay?). Here’s his response to being named starting QB:

“I feel like coach has given me a great opportunity to start next week against Arizona. I realize there is a lot of responsibility that comes with that opportunity.”

Asked if he thinks he’s ready for the challenge:

“Definitely. I’m a competitor. I sat on the bench last year with an injury and it’s something that I did not enjoy at all. Just to have the opportunity to play football again, it’s really something that I look forward to.”

Maybe I’m being a total mark and Bradford really has me fooled, but he sure strikes me as a good kid with the perfect mix of skills, personality and swagger to be a great NFL QB. Coach Spagnuolo thinks so to:

“It was evident in these last three games that he had pretty good control of what we’re doing. The team kind of rallies around him.”

Deservedly, he gave props to A.J. Feeley who is the perfect fit to back up Bradford in this situation:

“I think we’re very, very fortunate to have A.J. Feeley in this particular role as a backup quarterback. He’s a seasoned vet who knows the ins and outs and he can feed that to Sam as he goes along.

“I don’t think anybody in this situation coming in as a rookie quarterback is ready for everything. I’m sure these defensive coordinators will fire things at him.”

Bradford will definitely take some lumps this season–that’s just the way it works for rookie QB’s in the NFL no matter how good they are. Hopefully he can avoid injury and have a Mark Sanchez-esque rookie season. Don’t look now, but the Rams could be building something good in the Gateway City–they’ve got arguably the best rookie QB in the league who sure seems to have all of the tools to be a star and they’ve got some talented young players and leadership guys on the defensive side of the ball (where Road Warrior Animal’s kid James Laurinaitis was just named defensive captain). Facing a weak schedule befitting their 1-15 record a year ago, and in the weak NFC West they could actually break through for a winning record this year if things break right.