Rams' Jeff Fisher confirms Browns tried to trade for Sam Bradford
St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher acknowledged Wednesday that the Cleveland Browns were among the teams interested in quarterback Sam Bradford.
The Browns were believed to have offered one of their first-round draft picks in exchange for Bradford. Fisher said the Browns did not offer the No. 12 overall pick for Bradford, essentially confirming that they were willing to trade the No. 19 overall pick.
"There were discussions (with the Browns) late in the process,'' Fisher said at the NFC coaches breakfast, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "There were never really any concrete offers per se. The misconception is that it started at the combine. It didn't. I stood up at the combine and said that Sam was our quarterback. This came well after that, several days before we initiated the trade with Nick, but there was a pick involved.
"There were numerous things that were discussed, different options. The compensation looked different over a period of a couple of days. I'm not going to go onto what it was, but it didn't involve a player.''
Fisher said it likely wouldn't have mattered if Cleveland offered the No. 12 overall pick because the Rams were looking for a veteran quarterback in return, which was the reason they made the trade with the Philadelphia Eagles.
"(No. 12 wouldn't have helped) not necessarily,'' Fisher said. "At that point, you still don't have a veteran quarterback. Again, Nick (Foles) for us was the perfect fit for us, and I have talked with Chip (Kelly) and he thinks Sam is the perfect fit, so this was a good deal. But for us, we get a younger quarterback that's won a lot of games in this league, can make all of the throws and is somewhat durable. I know he's had shoulder issues, but almost everybody has.''
Fisher also noted that he wasn't surprised in the amount of interest in Bradford.
"No, because if you look at his body of work when he did play, especially he can really throw the football,'' Fisher said. "He's a good decision-maker, so no, I wasn't surprised. They were obviously betting on the same thing that we were, that he was going to be healthy and successful.''