Vikings GM on Sam Bradford trade: 'No one knows' length of Bridgewater recovery
The MMQB’s Peter King wrote a behind-the-scenes look from both sides of the Sam Bradford trade between the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles and uncovered some very interesting details.
One crucial one being that the Vikings are concerned about the long-term health of Teddy Bridgewater. That uncertainty was a big impetus for the Vikings feeling they had to land Bradford — for both this season and possibly next.
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In the middle of the piece, in what mistakenly could read as a throwaway line, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman admits the unknown nature about the serious nature of Bridgewater’s frightening knee injury.
“What really was significant for us was the second year of the contract with Sam,” Spielman said. “No one knows how long it’s going to take Teddy to recover.”
The trade has been parsed out and dissected over who won and who lost. But you can’t even begin to judge the merit of the Vikings’ bold move without considering that Bridgewater might not be ready to play at the start of the 2017 season. That’s why the Vikings felt it was necessary to not only get a QB capable of playing now, but one who could be good for next season as well.
When they first started calling around after Bridgewater got hurt, it didn’t appear to the Vikings that there were means to that end.
“There was blood in the water, and teams knew it,” Spielman said. “The price was too high. I didn’t want to mortgage our future.”
Spielman added: “To be honest, there was no solution. No good solution.”
But old friends Spielman and Eagles GM Howie Roseman struck up a conversation, essentially picking up a chat they had in the spring.
“We’d seen each other in New York in the spring at a leadership conference at the Brooklyn Nets, with a couple of other GMs,” Roseman said. “He asked me then if we’d be open to trading one of our quarterbacks, and I said it’d be very hard to do anything with any of them.”
This is another part of the story that could be misread. Were the Vikings concerned about Bridgewater’s health or effectiveness before the knee injury? Not likely. Good GMs are always working their contingency plans, their break-glass-in-case-of-emergency options just in case. That’s what it sounds like Spielman did, it appears. He knew the Eagles had three quarterbacks they were heavily invested in and one might not figure into their plans at some point.
Still, Roseman makes it clear that the Eagles had no plans to trade Bradford — until the Vikings met the high price tag that had been set. Once they agreed to give up first- and fourth-round picks (in 2017 and 2018, respectively) the deal was done.
The takeaways here are interesting. The Vikings admit that there was no good option to replace Bridgewater, that the Bradford trade essentially was the best they could do. But in doing so, the team also is not just renting a quarterback to make a run for this season, which is what caused many to question the Vikings’ heavy price for Bradford. Considering their concern about Bridgewater’s unknown health status for the long term, it was a trade they felt they had to make.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
