New Rams coach Jeff Fisher decided to keep the quarterback he inherited, Sam Bradford, rather than draft a franchise quarterback of the future, after talking to many of the people he respects most around the NFL and concluding that Bradford has the potential to be the best quarterback in football.
“There’s no doubt,” Fisher said on Mike and Mike in the Morning. “There’s a number of friends of mine in the league that know the league, and I had one of them tell me during the process that they thought Sam may be one of the better quarterbacks — or the best quarterback — in the league, he just hasn’t had a chance to prove it yet. That weighed very heavily in my opinion. Very, very impressive player. I think he has a tremendous upside.”
Bradford was the first overall pick in 2010, the final year before the new rookie wage scale was implemented, which means that if he becomes anything less than a great quarterback, the Rams are overpaying for his services. Fisher also pointed out that the rookie wage scale made the Redskins willing to give the Rams a bounty of picks — three first-rounders and a second-rounder — in order to move up to No. 2 overall, because the Redskins know they won’t have to pay Robert Griffin III the kind of monster rookie contract that Bradford got.
“We ended up, at the end of the day, with a great deal,” Fisher said. “Washington’s really excited and we’re really excited.”
Fisher also said he never would have hired Gregg Williams as his defensive coordinator if he had known that Williams was about to be indefinitely suspended, but he also said he’s open to hiring Williams in the future if Williams is ever reinstated to the NFL.
“Gregg is very, very remorseful at this point — he regrets everything that took place,” Fisher said.
That remorse came only after Williams got caught, however, and too late to save his spot on the Rams’ coaching staff.