Sam Bradford

[BigRedArk]

that is true of any player though

i don't think bradford is fragile by any means - his injuries were on the lower end of the scale for AC joint injuries and the surgery and rehab should make the area as strong (if not stronger due to the specific rehab) than before the injury

he could of suffered the same injury falling off a bicycle as it was the force of his body that did 90% of the damage

I do think his frame could use some specific conditioning and there are questions because he really wasn't hit that much at OU

however, i think he really needs practice in how to absorb a hit and learn how to fall ...... kind of like how they tell you the worst thing you can do is extend your arm and take the whole impact across your wrist/elbow/shoulder

in both cases he fell pretty much the same way and IMO that is what caused his injury more than anything as it doesn't take much to cause the injuries he received - you just need to be smarter in protecting them

Interesting thinking there Osprey. I remember when they showed the highlight of when Bradrord landed on his shoulder on ESPN (don't remember if it was the the 1st on turf or the 2nd time on a grass field) that Lou Holtz commented that he needed to learn to "fall on his back when he is hit instead of his shoulder."

I still think he will likely do better playing for a team on grass than on turf though unless he plays for a team on turf that has a really good OL. For the Rams he is gonna have 9 games at least on turf before the schedule is even set each year. Without a good OL to protect him it might take its toll on him over a period of time. I hope not as I don't want any player to get hurt regardless of who he plays for.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

definitely - some of these guys are in bad positions playing on unforgiving surfaces for teams that don't really have the capability to offer much protection

it's hard for a veteran QB to make it through the season when the line isn't great - let alone a new kid who is still physically maturing, adjusting to the speed of the game, learning the offense, still figuring out how his protection schemes match up against the defenses that he's never seen before, etc