Report: Rams Give QB Sam Bradford Premission To Seek Trade

Update:

Rams GM Les Snead “emphatically” denied that they’ve given QB Sam Bradford permission to seek a trade, per Jim Thomas.

• Snead says that “deleting” Bradford from their roster is “not the answer.“

However, Snead wouldn’t commit to Bradford being atop their depth chart next year, due to the number of games he’s missed.

“I can’t say he’s top of the depth chart because he’s missed 25 [of the last 32] games,” Snead said, via Pro Football Talk.

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Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports that the Rams have given QB Sam Bradford permission to seek a trade out of St. Louis.

• According to La Canfora, it will be difficult for the Rams to find compensation to their liking, but this won’t prevent teams from speaking to Bradford’s agent.
• La Canfora adds that a restructured contract for Bradford could be the most likely outcome, even though progress has been slow moving thus far.
• La Canfora doubts that there’s a team that will value Bradford more than the Rams do.

This is interesting news given that all indications have been that the Rams were likely to keep Bradford for at least one more year.

There are a number of teams in need of a quarterback, so we’ll have to see if anyone is willing to offer the Rams decent compensation for the former No. 1 overall pick.

It’s worth mentioning that Jason Cole previously reported that there are teams at the top of the draft who prefer to have Bradford over Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston.

According to Cole, the belief with these teams is to take a chance with Bradford should he be available, and use their first-round pick to address a different position all together.

Bradford stands to make a $12.985 million base salary for the 2015 season, so a restructured deal could reduce that figure while offering him the ability to recoup the saving through incentives.

For what it’s worth, the Rams would free up $12.985 million by releasing Bradford outright. This would also create $3.595 million in dead money, but the cap saving would easily be enough to justify such as move.

Bradford, 27, has yet to live up to his draft status and is now coming off of back-to-back ACL tears, so there are some real concerns about him moving forward.

Bradford last appeared in an NFL game during the 2013 season. He finished the year throwing for 1,687 yards while completing 60.7 percent of his passes to go along with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions over the course of seven games.

This remains one of the more interesting negotiations to watch in the coming weeks.