Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur’s comments that Sam Bradford got “the work he needed” after Friday’s practice are pretty encouraging – but could they also be revealing?
It’s been a whirlwind of mystery for Vikings fans regarding their starting quarterback since Sam Bradford showed up on the injury report following Minnesota’s week-one win over New Orleans.
Bradford has not seen the field since that game, and there hasn’t been a date set for his return.
Thursday, it didn’t seem like Bradford had much of a chance to start.
Case Keenum spoke to the media (a task normally relegated to the team’s starting quarterback in a given week), which suggests he’s likely to be under center again.
Also after Thursday’s practice we learned Mike Zimmer indicate that Bradford will simply play when “he is ready.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the Vikings starter.
Today, more grim news came out after color analyst Jon Gruden said he doesn’t expect Bradford to be ready by the time the Vikings meet the Bears for his Monday Night Football call.
However, Pat Shurmur may have just gone against that Gruden notion with his comments out of Winter Park on Friday morning.
"He got the work he needed. He was out there. He's really involved in everything behind the scenes." – Pat Shurmur on Sam Bradford
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 6, 2017
Is Shurmur’s claim that Bradford “got the work he needed” the answer to Zimmer’s premise that he will play “when he’s ready”?
I’m not sure, but if someone gets “all the work they needed,” by definition, aren’t they technically “ready”?
Thus, if Zimmer was telling the truth that he will play when ready, Bradford should be back Monday.
If he does play, it appears it won’t be without discomfort.
Sam Bradford said he feels much better now than two weeks ago but knows that he'll likely have to play through discomfort when he returns.
— Sam Ekstrom (@SamEkstrom) October 6, 2017
And Bradford himself threw this out there, via an interview with Pioneer Press reporter Brian Murphy:
Bradford: "I would like it to be 100% but at this point I don’t even know if that’s possible until the bye week or the end of the year."
— Brian Murphy (@murphmedia_) October 6, 2017
So, will he play? Stay tuned for any official updates.
