Report: Sam Bradford to IR

ED note: I mistakenly confused the timeframe for the PUP and IR designated to return. If Bradford gets healthy, the Vikes could activate him in time for the playoffs, if that’s a thing for them, but not for any remaining regular season games. My apologies for the mix up, and the post has been corrected to reflect. Thanks, Ted

With Teddy Bridgewater being activated, the Minnesota Vikings had to make another roster move to keep them at the 53 man limit. That move, unfortunately, was the other starting QB, Sam Bradford, going to injured reserve:

It was reported yesterday that Bradford had arthroscopic surgery done by Dr. James Andrews to ‘clean up’ the knee, and he will be out indefinitely. It’s a cruel twist of fate for Bradford, who finally looked like he might have found a home in Minnesota. He had an off season to work with an offense and offensive coordinator he was familiar with in St. Louis and Philadelphia, he had weapons to throw and hand off to, and he finally had a really good offensive line to work behind.

But he re-injured his knee in week one against the Saints, in what was the best game of his career, and has only played an ineffective two quarters of football since then. His injury went from what was supposed to be a ‘one week’ deal, to week to week, to no timetable, to injured reserve.

How does this effect his future in Minnesota? Well it’s murky, at best. The Vikings can return two players from IR in one season, so if the 4-6 week recovery time holds, he could be activated by at the end of the season, and the Vikings could, conceivably, have a healthy Bridgewater and Bradford as QB’s 1 and 2 for part of December and hopefully the post season.

But if his knee is as slow to respond as it has up until this point, he’ll be on IR for the rest of the regular season, and post season if there is one. Assuming Bridgewater plays reasonably well, Bradford’s time in Minnesota is probably done. Both Teddy and Bradford will command starter money in 2018, assuming both are healthy, and the Vikings won’t have the cap space to pay both players and retain their younger core guys that are coming due for new deals. Bridgewater is younger, was drafted by GM Rick Spielman, and is loved by both him and head coach Mike Zimmer. It just feels like the Vikings will go with Bridgewater, assuming all current conditions remain the same.

No matter how you feel about who the QB should be for the Vikings, you can’t help but feel for Bradford, though.