On the first full day of college football, Minnesota Vikings stole some of the thunder by trading two draft picks for Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Sam Bradford. They played a high price for the former overall number one draft pick by dealing next year’s first rounder and a fourth-round pick in 2018. Minnesota made it very clear that they are going for the Super Bowl, and they didn’t want to open their brand new stadium on NBC with Shaun Hill at quarterback. But this doesn’t change the fact that Green Bay is the favorite to win this division.

At the beginning of the month, you could make the case Minnesota and Green Bay were neck-and-neck for the division. Teddy Bridgewater’s injury made Green Bay the clear favorite, and even with Bradford coming to Minnesota, that hasn’t changed. Bradford is a better quarterback than Hill, but he’s never put all together. There are major concerns with him from his injury history to his inability to, you know, be a good quarterback.

Bradford’s injury problems started in college when he hurt his throwing shoulder versus BYU then it continued in the NFL with an ACL injury which cost him one and a half years in St. Louis. He played 14 games last year missing two games with a concussion and separated shoulder. It’s been four years since Bradford played a full season. Why does Minnesota think this year will be different for him? Their offensive line looked better due Adrian Peterson’s running the football and Bridgewater’s ability to avoid sacks. Bridgewater was one of the best at avoiding sacks last season despite getting pressured the second-most in football behind Aaron Rodgers. How on earth is Bradford going to be able to replicate that?

Quarterback wins are overrated and should never been used, but Bradford is a career loser. He’s only won 25 games in his entire career and does not have a win against the NFC North albeit a small sample size. Should we hold that against him or is it the teams he’s been on? This season will say a lot about Bradford’s past career. This is easily the best team he’s ever been on, and yes, it’s possible that Bradford might be better with better tools around him. But there’s a great deal of evidence saying otherwise for Minnesota.

Green Bay and Minnesota meet in the second week of the season under the bright lights of U.S. Bank Stadium. The game has a chance to set the tone for the season. That mean seem like hyperbole, but it could either justify Green Bay as the heavy favorite or if this division race will be close all season like people imagined it to be in early August.

Charlie.