Sam Bradford-Philadelphia Eagles
Bradford has been fairly decent as an NFL QB. It’s almost impossible to even finish that sentence, though, without including the “when he’s been able to stay on the field” qualifier. The oft-injured former #1 pick did have some success in a Rams’ offense with limited weapons before being moved this offseason.
Bradford was acquired by the wheeling-and-dealing Chip Kelly this offseason as he remade the Eagles offense. No head coach will be under more pressure than Kelly, and he’s staking a lot on the ability of Bradford to stay healthy.
From a fantasy perspective, any QB that starts in Kelly’s up-tempo, high-volume offense is worth considering. He took Nick Foles into the top-ten conversation on a weekly basis and even made Mark Sanchez a viable fantasy option.
If Bradford is the starting QB in Kelly’s system as all signs point to him being, he’s an option who could pay off even with the depletion of weapons around him. He should have an awesome running game with DeMarco Murray, Darren Sproles, and Ryan Mathews, and his receiving corps has plenty of potential.
Whether Chip Kelly’s system is good enough to win in the NFL is still a point that is open for debate. His effect on fantasy football, though, is to turn QB sleepers into fantasy contenders.
If you can grab Bradford around the 15th QB off the board, you’ll be getting plenty of potential. The key factor to his production is still (all together now) “if he can stay healthy.”
Next: 2. Eli Manning