Saturday evening, the St. Louis Rams had their preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings. Sam Bradford, the number 1 2010 NFL Draft pick and quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, took quite the beating in his debut, which wasn’t a victory for the Rams and was a 28-7 victory for the Vikings.

He threw precisely and could run the offensive line proficiently. Out of 13 attempts, he made 6 passes for a total of 57 yards. He was calm and comfortable in his debut; however, as a rookie, he still made his mistakes.

Many were wondering whether or not the quarterback’s shoulder would be able to hold up to the pressure that he’ll be under and feel in the game and it appears that he’ll be all right. Bradford showed that his he and his shoulder could take hits – multiple ones at that. In Saturday’s game, Bradford was sacked by the Vikings four times and hit a multitude of other times. These were all hard hits, too, not just simple taps. Where in the hell was his protection?

Bradford, drafted out of Oklahoma, definitely needs some protection when on the field and this showed dramatically during Saturday’s game. While “protection” isn’t a big thing in these preseason games, the quarterback shouldn’t be hit that many times. There’s no reason that the quarterback should get so roughed up during the first preseason game.

After the game, Bradford said that his shoulder was just fine. While today may be another story, his shoulder wasn’t sore and felt fine after his preseason debut. Hopefully, he’ll have more protection in his next game; otherwise, things could take a turn for the worse if the hits keep coming as strongly as they did in Saturday’s game.

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