After the 2010 season saw Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams emerge as ersatz playoff competitors in the perennially weak NFC West there was little point in talking about Andrew Luck, the Stanford super-prospect who is, depending on who you ask, the best quarterback prospect of the last five to 9000 years. The Rams had a great young quarterback, and there was no way they'd ever, say, go 0-4 and then get involved in 2012 NFL Mock Draft talks in October, right?
↵Or maybe not. The Andrew Luck sweepstakes have begun already, and despite Sam Bradford's spotty start to the 2011 season they're not in it as competitors for his services, as much as that creates the risk of being the Portland Trailblazers, passing on Michael Jordan because they already had Clyde Drexler. They're in it with the hope of trading him for some bounty of draft picks and impact-ready wide receivers or wide-receiver-confounders.
↵Right now I'd figure the Indianapolis Colts have a better chance of winning the sweepstakes than the Rams, and it would be fitting, in a way—after looking totally lost without Peyton Manning they could draft his successor, although Luck might not be especially pleased to sit behind a potentially resurgent Manning in 2012.
↵It's impossible to tell where Luck will go this early—the Seattle Seahawks, still helmed by Tarvaris Jackson and Charlie Whitehurst, are certainly competitors for his services, and a Bradford-Luck rivalry would help sell tickets in both places. But one thing's for certain: If a team gets him and can't use him, they'll be compensated handsomely.
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