Bradford’s arrival with Cardinals seems awfully similar to Palmer’s

While some Arizona Cardinals fans may be pessimistic about the team signing quarterback Sam Bradford to replace the retired Carson Palmer, their football careers have a lot in common.

With similar careers throughout college, the NFL seasons before coming to Arizona and their troubling injury histories, fans have to wonder if the Cardinals could jumpstart Bradford’s career just as they did Palmer’s.

Here is a look at major comparisons in the two quarterbacks’ careers.

College, the best years of your life

The resemblances start all the way back in college.

In Palmer’s final season at USC, the quarterback threw for 33 touchdowns, 3,942 yards and only conceded 10 interceptions. This season-long performance gave him a 149.1 quarterback rating.

In his sophomore season for Oklahoma, Bradford threw an astonishing 50 touchdowns, racked up 4,720 yards and had a quarterback rating that was off the charts at 180.8. The Sooner never had a single season in college where he threw more than eight interceptions.

Both players won the Heisman trophy for their incredible collegiate performances but failed to lead their team to a national championship.

They were eventually selected as the No. 1 overall pick in their respective NFL Drafts. Palmer was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003 and Bradford was selected by the St. Louis Rams in 2010.

Early NFL seasons

While Bradford struggled terribly right out of college, Palmer was selected to the Pro Bowl in his second and third seasons in the NFL.

Not only was Palmer’s individual performance strong, but he also led the Bengals to the playoffs in his second season where the team ended with an 11-5 record.

Bradford, on the other hand, has never led his team to the playoffs and only had one season where he finished with a .500 record.

Despite this drastic difference, Bradford and Palmer have nearly identical win percentages in the years before coming to Arizona. In Palmer’s first nine seasons he had a poor record of 54-67, winning only 44 percent of his games. Bradford is 34-45-1 in his eight-season career, which is slightly worse at 42.5 percent.

Injury bug bites

Both players struggled with injuries throughout their careers. Bradford already has torn the ACL in his left knee twice. The former Sooner has sprained his ankle multiple times, forcing him to miss several games. In college he also sprained his non-throwing shoulder and another time sprained his throwing shoulder, which forced him to miss the rest of the season to undergo surgery.

Palmer had the same injury bug before joining the Cardinals. The quarterback tore his MCL, tore a ligament in his elbow, fractured his ribs and bruised a nerve in his shoulder.

Unfortunately it didn’t stop there. In Arizona, the quarterback bruised his shoulder, tore his ACL and in his last season fractured his forearm, forcing him to miss the remainder of the year.

Productive when healthy

While Palmer and Bradford have strikingly similar careers, there are some key differences in the quarterbacks’ respective games.

	Carson Palmer	Sam Bradford
Seasons before coming to Arizona	9	8
Quarterback rating	86.2	85.1
Record	54-67	34-45-1
Passing yards	29,465	19,049
Passing touchdowns	189	101
Interceptions	130	57
Games played	122	80
Age in first season with Arizona	34	31

In the NFL, Palmer averaged 1.02 interceptions a game and had three seasons with 20 or more interceptions. Bradford, however, averages 0.71 interceptions a game and only threw a career high 15 interceptions in his rookie year.

Despite this, both quarterbacks had nearly identical quarterback ratings before coming to Arizona. Palmer had an 86.2 rating in his nine seasons in Cincinnati and Oakland. Bradford is only a point behind that mark with an 85.1 rating so far in his career.

In 2016 Bradford played 15 games for the Minnesota Vikings, threw the second-most touchdowns in his career (20), and led the NFL in pass completion percentage (71.6 percent). Last year, Bradford only played in two games before bruising his knee and missing the rest of the season, but he completed 74.4 percent of his passes, threw for 382 yards and three touchdowns. He went 2-0 and didn’t throw a single interception.

Had Bradford not gotten injured, there’s a possibility he could have had a really nice season, much different from the season before Palmer came to Arizona.

Palmer after coming to Arizona

Following one of Palmer’s worst seasons of his career in Oakland in which the Raiders went 4-11, he then led Arizona to a 10-6 record.

Then in 2015, Palmer upped his game again as he led the Cardinals to 13-3, threw for 35 touchdowns and 4,671 yards. Palmer also cut down on his interceptions, only turning it over 11 times, the lowest in his career when playing an entire season. Palmer even had a career high 104.6 quarterback rating over the entire season.

Those career-high numbers turned the dwindling quarterback into an NFL MVP candidate for the 2015 season.

Bradford is hoping that the desert will be a chance for him to turn around his NFL career.

Bradford coming into Arizona

The biggest question mark hanging over Bradford is his health. Whether or not he can stay healthy is largely on the offensive line.

Last season, Arizona was tied for the third-most sacks allowed as it gave up 52 throughout the season, only four less than the NFL-leading Indianapolis Colts. If fans want to see Bradford play the entire season, this will probably have to change under a refurbished offensive line.

While Larry Fitzgerald is returning for his 15th NFL season, the options in the receiving core are dwindling. The good news: dual threat running back David Johnson is returning from injury.

Last season, Johnson only played in one game as he dislocated his wrist in the first week. In 2016, though, Johnson led the league in rushing/receiving touchdowns (20), all-purpose yards (2,118) and touches (373).

As for the rest of the concerns around the offense, the Cardinals may address the holes in the NFL Draft this weekend.

Follow @Kynan_Marlin