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Sam Bradford was the worst quarterback in football last week, if you like the Football Outsiders' brand of advanced analytics, and just plain not-very-good if you don't, but before that he was looking pretty cromulent. Even after it he's on pace for his best DVOA ever, up from -15.6% in 2010 and -24.2% in 2011 to -10.7%. A few solid games after Danny Amendola returns and the St. Louis Rams' third-year starter could finish the season looking perfectly average. For most young quarterbacks and their fans this would be a season for guarded optimism.
But the Rams, who drafted him No. 1 overall in the hopes he would lead them not just toward competence but out of the wilderness, are left to answer a question that metrics can't prepackage: Is pretty good going to be good enough for this Rams team, or should they move on?
Turf Show Times is asking that very question, and so far fans are showing patience—though they're also showing they're running out of it. If Bradford can get within shouting distance of average this year, despite learning his third offense in as many years and lacking anything resembling a coherent offensive line, I think fans will be ready to see what he can do in Year 2 of the Jeff Fisher regime.
But I think they'll also be expecting him to be the centerpiece of Year 3.