THURSDAY, 8:47am: In his full story on the Bradford situation, Thomas clarifies that the Rams have told agent Tom Condon that if he wants to check around to see if there’s a market for Bradford, he can do so. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Rams would be willing to make a trade.
WEDNESDAY, 3:04pm: Snead “emphatically denies” that Bradford is being allowed to explore trade possibilities, tweets Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding that the GM said today that the Rams aren’t “deleting” the quarterback from their roster. Regardless of whether St. Louis is considering trading Bradford, or whether his agent is looking into the possibility, a deal seems unlikely, as I noted below.
1:36pm: The Rams have given quarterback Sam Bradford permission to seek a trade, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). As La Canfora notes, given Bradford’s contract situation and his injury history, finding compensation to the Rams’ liking may be difficult, but the QB’s agent has been given the go-ahead to speak to other teams.
While the Rams have said both publicly and privately that they’d like to bring back Bradford for at least one more season, it appears the front office is intent on finding a solution that benefits both the player and the club. La Canfora notes (via Twitter) that the most likely scenario may still be the Rams working out a restructured contract with the former first overall pick, but that has been a “slow process” so far. Still, discussions on that front are at least underway, GM Les Snead confirmed today (Twitter link via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com).
This year’s group of available quarterbacks is weak – both in free agency and in the draft – and there are plenty of teams looking to add a veteran signal-caller, so there may be a market for Bradford. Jason Cole of Bleacher Report also recently reported that some clubs may be more comfortable adding Bradford than a rookie like Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota. Still, La Canfora tweets that there’s probably no other team that values Bradford more than the Rams do, and the 27-year-old’s contract also makes a deal tricky.
Entering the final year of his rookie pact, Bradford is on the Rams’ books for a $16.58MM cap number, and a $12.985MM base salary. Whether Bradford sticks in St. Louis or joins a new club, it will likely require slashing those numbers to accommodate him. The Oklahoma product is also coming off back-to-back seasons lost to ACL injuries, so any club interested in acquiring him would have to be certain that he’s on his way back to full health.