Sam Bradford Drafted #1 Overall: Today in Sports History

On April 22nd, 2010, the St. Louis Rams drafted Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford first overall. Bradford began his career with a solid campaign, throwing for 3512 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions, leading the Rams to a 7-9 record while being named the Rookie of the Year. From there, injuries would plague his time in St. Louis. In 2011, Bradford suffered a high ankle sprain, keeping him out of six games. When he did see the field, the quarterback only won one of his ten starts. The Rams 2-14 campaign would see the end of Steve Spagnuolo's head coaching tenure. 2012 was a bounceback campaign, with numbers similar to Bradford's rookie season. However, his 2013 would end prematurely with an ACL tear in his left knee during Week 7. After rehabbing back to playing football, Bradford would tear the same ACL during the 2014 preseason, losing another full year of his career. It just wasn't coming together for Sam, so the Rams sent him away in March 2015 with a 5th round pick in a deal with the Eagles for a 2015 4th, a 2016 2nd, and quarterback Nick Foles. Bradford returned to the same form he showed early on while in Philadelphia, throwing for 3725 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions in 2015. The Eagles managed to sell high on him, flipping Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2017 1st round pick and a 2018 4th round pick. The Eagles kept both of those picks, becoming Derek Barnett and Josh Sweat respectively. In 2016, Bradford had his best season as a professional with Minnesota, throwing for 3877 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just five interceptions. Finally, things looked like they were turning around for Sam. In Week 1 of 2017, he aggravated his left knee in Week 1. Yes, the same knee he tore his ACL in twice. He would miss most of the season before becoming a free agent. Somehow, Bradford parlayed this into a 1-year, $20 million contract with $15 million guaranteed with the Arizona Cardinals. Bradford spent most of the 2018 season behind rookie quarterback Josh Rosen before being released in November.