What Bradford needs to do before becoming Vikings' starter

Sage Rosenfels is a former 12-year NFL quarterback who now writes, does radio and podcasts about the NFL and college football.

On the surface, many sports fans might assume that a major-league pitcher and an NFL quarterback would have a lot in common.

They both control the game more than any other player. They both touch the ball on every play, and they both require a natural ability to throw well, even at the high school level. I could go on and on with the similarities. But believe me when I say their reasons for success on the field are completely different. Stay with me here.

A pitcher can do his job well, solely by developing a rapport with his catcher, relying on few others. For instance, experts never said Mariano Rivera was dominant due to his teammates' spectacular fielding abilities. No, if a pitcher does his job well, he did so by primarily relying on himself. For most teams, the players on the field hardly impact the pitcher’s ability, save for a handful of pitches each game.

Consider Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith. He was great because he made maybe one or two plays a game that others couldn’t. One or two plays!

So in the baseball world, when midsummer comes around and the trade deadline looms, contenders may deal for another team’s starter, middle reliever, or closer – all with the idea that they can simply be plugged in and perform at their current level.

A top-notch MLB closer gets the job done whether he plays for the Cubs, the Dodgers, or the Blue Jays. Teams out of the hunt are looking to the future and can sacrifice now, especially if a player is nearing the end of his contract.

If only playing quarterback in the NFL was that easy.

Going out and finding a quarterback to plug into your offense and expecting him to play as well, or even better, than his past is asking a lot. This is exactly what Rick Spielman - general manager of the Minnesota Vikings - is hoping for.

Spielman is taking an unlikely shot at something which I personally believe has a low chance of real success. But I don’t second-guess why he made this move for the former first-overall pick and “not quite a bust” quarterback, Sam Bradford.

Bradford has shown periods of strong quarterback play combined with below-average production as a starter. He’s also been injured a lot for a “franchise” quarterback. Former NFL quarterback and college football analyst Danny Kanell said it well this week: “A franchise quarterback is one who starts all 16 regular season games for his team.” Or as former Vikings HOF coach Bud Grant used to say, “Your best ability is your availability.”

Bradford hasn’t been available enough or performed at a consistent Pro Bowl level to make sense of his career earnings or the draft picks he’s been traded for. If Bradford were gold, he would be the metal that keeps getting purchased at the very peak of the market and ends up losing the investor his nest egg.

It's my belief that Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer had no other choice. They have a team which could make a deep run in the playoffs. A team which should have beaten Seattle in the playoffs last year and which would have matched up very well with the Carolina Panthers the following week.

This team is very good from a coaching standpoint (I think Zimmer and his staff are a top-5 group in the league), and has some of the best young talent in the league. Spielman and his scouting department have done a fantastic job finding solid-to-elite players in the past four drafts, and Zimmer’s side of the building has done an excellent job developing these players.

I imagine that - other than the QB position - guys like Bill Belichick and Mike McCarthy wouldn’t mind swapping out many of their own players for these Vikings.

This is the most talented roster since my final Vikings season in 2009. That team was loaded but also had a first-ballot HOF quarterback in Brett Favre.

The late gamble on Favre worked out well for the Vikings. Somehow, Favre showed up just two weeks before the end of the preseason and led us to within a play of the Super Bowl.

Favre also had a long history with the exact offense we ran and a friendship with offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. If anything could have been the perfect situation for a new QB, this was it. That situation fit like a glove.

This brings me back to Bradford. This situation is anything but a match made in heaven. Bradford has never been confused with a HOF quarterback, the offense is brand new, and he’s had zero career overlap with Norv Turner. Every coordinator has different beliefs and styles and Norv definitely has his own, as does Sean Payton, Gary Kubiak, Kyle Shanahan, and Adam Gase.

As a QB, learning and understanding these tendencies doesn’t happen overnight. The relationship takes hundreds or thousands of hours on the practice field, in meetings, in the film room, and most importantly, on game day. Having a feel for what your play-caller may go to in every situation can’t be covered in just OTAs and training camp. There is nothing like game action.

The other challenge for Bradford will be the language. To play QB at a high level, you have to convert the offense's lingo into something you know and understand, as if it's something you’ve been around your entire life. Good luck trying to learn Spanish on your flight to Barcelona next summer - that should go well when you're asking for directions (note the sarcasm).

From my study of Bradford's previous coaches, nobody comes from the pure Norv Turner coaching tree, other than possibly Brian Schottenheimer (the QB coach who drafted me), whose offensive language is a mix of West Coast terminology and a Cam Cameron offense (Norv disciple). This language challenge doesn’t just relate to plays called in the huddle, but also includes audibles, line calls, and even what you label different defenses - “Cover 4 Man” is the same as “Double Switch” to a different coaching staff, for reasons that are unique to that group.

Physically, just getting comfortable with the center-QB exchange takes time. Every NFL practice from May until January starts with this. You spend that time becoming not just comfortable, but confident with the snap. There’s no room for snap anxiety when you’re on national television in front of 20-million viewers; it should be as easy as walking. But when you don’t feel confident with a new center, it can paralyze a quarterback – their thoughts are worried about getting a clean snap rather than focused on what the defense is doing. Again, believe me - this takes time getting used to, and it's critical.

Also, every wide receiver, tight end, and running back runs routes differently. It may look like a 20-yarder in the diagram, but every receiver gets there a different way, and at different times. Some may roll into it, while others like to break down and cut at a flatter angle. You do your best to make it uniform but it never is. Throw in tight man coverage and this gets even more customized.

Every player has different strengths and abilities to get away from their defender. This could make a two- or three-yard difference between where the receiver is and where the QB puts the football. Again, this takes reps in practices and games to understand how each player runs his routes. It’s why all the offseason stuff matters.

It's also important to understand what each player can do. Kyle Rudolph is a tight end who obviously has a huge catch radius, and it’s easy to realize that if you put the ball high, he has a strong chance of coming down with it. But what about Stefon Diggs, Laquon Treadwell, or Charles Johnson? How fast are they? Are they good 50-50 ball guys? How do they separate from the cornerback? Again, players aren’t an actual “X” like the diagram says. They are each unique and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

So, Vikings fans and NFC fans in general will eye the quarterback situation in Minnesota very closely this season. When will Bradford get his first start? How will he perform once he’s in there? What style of football will the Vikings use to win games early until Bradford has a better handle on this offense? This whole situation and process is something I will be analyzing all season.

I will stick my neck out and say I believe this experiment has a decent chance of working. Probably not like Favre in 2009, but good enough to make the Vikings a tough out in January.

Bradford has never been on a team this talented or with a running back like Adrian Peterson. And Norv Turner likes to run the football and take shots down the field. One of Bradford’s strengths has always been his ability to throw the deep ball. That could be a nice fit.

Lastly, the Vikings shouldn’t have to rely on Bradford playing Pro Bowl-type football for the first half of the season. They play a blue-collar game and are set up to win 17-13 on Sundays. I don’t imagine they expect to outscore teams 42-35 all season, as their plan for success.

So this gives the Vikings some time. Time for Bradford to learn and get acclimated to what the Vikings do and how they win. If he can stay healthy, and if they stay in the NFC North hunt come Thanksgiving, I believe the Vikings will end the regular season in the playoffs, as a team that others won’t want to play.

This is Rick Spielman's hope. Most believe he is buying gold way too high and is going to regret this investment. But in the end, did he really have a choice? I’d rather have an organization be aggressive than sit on their hands and hope for wins to happen. This is a “win-now” league. Worrying about players you may not have in the future isn’t going to help you win this year. Adrian Peterson is 31 years old - I promise you, he could care less about next year’s first-round draft pick.