National Football League

Sam Bradford -- Sam Bradford! -- is the most accurate QB in NFL history

Published Jan. 1, 2017 4:22 p.m. ET

Dan Graf

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t make the playoffs, but don’t place the blame on the quarterback they traded for on the eve of the season with the expectation he’d get them there.

When Sam Bradford left in the fourth quarter of a 38-10 blowout win against the Bears on Sunday, he did so with the highest single-season completion rate in NFL history.

Bradford – criticized along with the rest of Minnesota’s stagnant offense as the Vikings skidded from a 5-0 start to an 8-8 finish -- completed 25 of 33 passes, bringing his season total to 395 of 552 and a rate of 71.6 percent.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees had held the record since 2011, when he completed 71.2 percent of his passes.

Brees led the Saints to a 13-3 record that season and Bradford’s Vikings are .500, but his new record is proof that the lack of weapons around him-- not the quarterback himself – was eventually the Vikings’ undoing.