09-07-2017, 01:06 AM
Doug Farrar, NFL1000 Lead Scout for Bleacher Report, recently kicked off his Week 1 quarterback rankings. Since the season will start all players and teams with a blank slate, Farrar specified that the ranking was done based on “past performance, offseason movement and player acquisitions, and future projections” rather than game-to-game performance.
Farrar listed Vikings QB Sam Bradford at No. 6 overall heading into Week 1. He said that it was “unclear” what the Vikings were receiving when they traded for Bradford last September because of the passer’s “injury and inconsistency” over six NFL seasons – but Farrar was impressed by Bradford’s 15 games in Purple. He wrote:
Despite an indifferent running game, and without a top-flight group of receivers, Bradford set a single-season NFL record with a 71.6 percent completion rate in 2016, completing 395 of 552 passes for 3,877 yards, 20 touchdowns and five interceptions. The low pick rate and high completion percentage would indicate that Bradford had a lot of success with short passes, and that’s true.
But he also posted the third-highest quarterback rating on passes 20 or more yards in the air, completing 23 of 47 such throws for 754 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. The deep ball wasn’t a primary component of Bradford’s game — it was more important to get him working in a new system and extending drives with completions — but he’s no risk-averse Alex Smith, and given his overall deep accuracy, don’t be at all surprised if he heaves the ball downfield more in 2017.
http://www.vikings.com/news/lunch-break/...11912846=1
Farrar listed Vikings QB Sam Bradford at No. 6 overall heading into Week 1. He said that it was “unclear” what the Vikings were receiving when they traded for Bradford last September because of the passer’s “injury and inconsistency” over six NFL seasons – but Farrar was impressed by Bradford’s 15 games in Purple. He wrote:
Despite an indifferent running game, and without a top-flight group of receivers, Bradford set a single-season NFL record with a 71.6 percent completion rate in 2016, completing 395 of 552 passes for 3,877 yards, 20 touchdowns and five interceptions. The low pick rate and high completion percentage would indicate that Bradford had a lot of success with short passes, and that’s true.
But he also posted the third-highest quarterback rating on passes 20 or more yards in the air, completing 23 of 47 such throws for 754 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. The deep ball wasn’t a primary component of Bradford’s game — it was more important to get him working in a new system and extending drives with completions — but he’s no risk-averse Alex Smith, and given his overall deep accuracy, don’t be at all surprised if he heaves the ball downfield more in 2017.
http://www.vikings.com/news/lunch-break/...11912846=1