Sam Bradford Named Rookie of the Year

Bradford won the AP's Offensive Rookie of the Year Award after leading the Rams to a 7-9 record.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:11 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Feb 3, 2011 12:20 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Associated Press announced Friday that former Oklahoma Sooner and current St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford won the 2011 Offensive Rookie of the Year Award.

The Rams selected Bradford with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft despite health concerns. He suffered two injuries to his throwing shoulder in his final year at OU, the second of which ended his season.

-More on Oklahoma Sports: Sam Bradford Discusses Rookie Year

But Bradford played every snap for the Rams this season, threw for more than 3,500 yards and completed 60 percent of his passes. He led the team to a 7-9 record, more wins than the Rams achieved over the three previous years combined.

St. Louis had a chance to make the playoffs in the final week of the season in what essentially amounted to a play-in game against the Seattle Seahawks, but the Seahawks won and moved on to beat the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the playoffs.

The AP also announced that Detroit Lion and former Nebraska Cornhusker Ndamukong Suh won the Defensive Rookie of the Year honor. Suh finished the season with 66 tackles, 10 sacks, an interception and a defensive touchdown.

Bradford and Suh both were also in the running for the separate Pepsi Rookie of the Year Award, which is given based on fan voting. The NFL announced Thursday that Suh won, becoming the only defensive player in the nine-year history of the award to take home the honor.