Vikings Plan To Bring Back QB Sam Bradford For 2017 Season

Tom Pelissero of USA Today reports that the Vikings plan to bring back QB Sam Bradford for the 2017 season.

Bradford has a $4 million roster bonus on the fifth day of the 2017 league year for the Vikings to consider, but the expectation, according to Pelissero, is that he’ll be on their roster next season.

Pelissero mentions that this move makes plenty of sense for the Vikings, considering that they still don’t know if Teddy Bridgewater will be able to play in 2017 after suffered devastating knee injury right before the start of the season.

Minnesota responded quickly by trading a 2017 first-round draft pick and a conditional 2018 selection to the Eagles for Bradford, who gave them the option of buying Bridgewater another season to get his knee as close to 100 percent as possible.

Interestingly enough, Pelissero mentions that the possibility exists that the Vikings could make Bradford available for trade next year, but has actually been one of the team’s more reliable players this season, despite having major offensive line issues, virtually no running game and a change of offensive coordinators midseason.

Bradford, 29, signed a two-year, $36 million contract that included $26 million guaranteed with the Eagles over a month ago. He stands to make base salaries of $7 million and $13 million over the next two years.

Minnesota gave up their 2017 first-round pick and a conditional 2018 fourth-round pick for Bradford.

In 2016, Bradford has appeared in 10 games for the Vikings and threw for 3,245 yards while completing 71.6 percent of his passes to go along with 14 touchdowns and four interceptions. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 13 quarterback out of 37 qualifying players.