St. Louis Rams fans continue to wait for Sam Bradford to play like a No. 1 overall pick. He hasn't played poorly through four seasons, but he often leaves observers wanting more.
It begs the question: When might the Rams' front office think about alternatives?
Thankfully, we have NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport and NFL Media Columnist Mike Silver to ask these types of questions. Rapoport and Silver spent time with Rams coach Jeff Fisher, general manager Les Snead and Rams president Kevin Demoff in St. Louis this week.
"We have decided that Sam Bradford is our guy. If they came to us and wanted to do a contract extension right now, we'd do it in a minute," Demoff told Silver.
Bradford's deal doesn't run out until 2015. He's due $27 million over the next two seasons, which is a lot of money for a mid-level starter.
Rapoport and Silver reported on NFL Network's "NFL Total Access Kickoff" that Bradford is in no rush to work on an extension. Bradford knows how highly the Rams think of him, but he'd like to wait until he has the stats to back up the kind of contract he wants. (We'd argue that Bradford doesn't have the stats to back up the contract he has now.)
If the stats don't come this season (and they didn't in Thursday night's 35-11 loss to the 49ers, as Bradford completed just 19 of 41 passes for 202 yards), Rapoport reports that Bradford will play another season and reassess after 2014.
Bradford is not going anywhere, and there is no pressure to do a new contract soon. He's owed a lot of money in the next two years, and the Rams clearly are on board with paying it.
At some point, Bradford is going to have to play like a top-shelf starter in order to get paid like one. Bradford has time on his side.
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