Sam Bradford injury update: Knee forces early exit from warmups
If you were planning on starting Sam Bradford for your fantasy team today, you might want to slow that roll considering reports out of Pittsburgh.
On Monday night, Sam Bradford looked the best he ever has. He was going down the field and throwing with pinpoint accuracy, completing 27-of-32 passes for 346 yards and a trio of touchdowns. Everything appears to be rosy for the Minnesota Vikings, who are trying to erase the memory of last year’s epic collapse.
Then word began trickling out this week that Bradford was getting an MRI on his knee to check for structural damage. While nothing of the sort was confirmed, the Vikings reportedly could not tell if the ACL was in tact. With that in mind, the team called up Kyle Sloter from the practice squad on Saturday, making him active for Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh against the Steelers.
On Sunday morning, Bradford went out early onto the field and without really testing his knee, walked back into the locker room, according to Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL Network.
Uh oh. Sam Bradford walking off the field already. He barely tested knee, didn't drop back at all. #Vikings #Steelers
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) September 17, 2017
If Bradford can’t play for either this week or a length of time, the quarterback situation in Minnesota is dire. Teddy Bridgewater is ineligible to come back until Week 7 as he continues to rehab his broken leg on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. Without Bridgewater or Bradford, the Vikings would have Sloter or Case Keenum, who played last year for the Los Angeles Rams before ceding control of the starting job to Jared Goff.
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Minnesota has designs on making the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, but any serious injury to Bradford would all but end those dreams. Bradford’s contract is due to expire at the end of the season, leaving the 29-year-old in a sort of limbo.