There have been exactly eight individual seasons in NFL history in which a quarterback has started eight or more games and completed over 70 percent of his passes. It’s an exceptionally rare feat, accomplished first by Sammy Baugh in 1945, then not again until Ken Anderson in the strike-shortened 1982 season. Entering 2016, every member of the 70 percent club was either a Hall of Famer or multi-year Pro Bowler.

And then Sam Bradford did what he did.

Bradford established a new NFL single-season record for completion percentage in 2016, in an otherwise forgettable season. Check his performance last year relative to every other QB who reached the 70 percent plateau:

Sam Bradford, 2016 – 71.6 comp%, 3.6 TD%, 7.0 Y/A, 7-8 record

Drew Brees, 2011 – 71.2 comp%, 7.0 TD%, 8.3 Y/A, 13-3 record

Drew Brees, 2009 – 70.6 comp%, 6.6 TD%, 8.5 Y/A, 13-2 record

Ken Anderson, 1982 – 70.6 comp%, 3.9 TD%, 8.1 Y/A, 7-2 record

Sammy Baugh, 1945 – 70.3 comp%, 6.0 TD%, 9.2 Y/A, 8-2 record

Steve Young, 1994 – 70.3 comp%, 7.6 TD%, 8.6 Y/A, 13-3 record

Joe Montana, 1989 – 70.2 comp%, 6.7 TD%, 9.1 Y/A, 11-2 record

Alex Smith, 2012 – 70.2 comp%, 6.0 TD%, 8.0 Y/A, 6-2-1 record

Bradford is the only quarterback on that list who, in his historically accurate season, averaged less than 8.0 yards per attempt. He’s also the only guy whose team lost more than it won. He threw just 20 TD passes over 15 games. Basically, he remained a risk-nothing, do-nothing passer, despite the record-breaking performance. He attempted just 3.6 deep passes per game in 2016 according to Player Profiler, and he averaged only 3.6 air yards per throw. (For comparison’s sake, Kirk Cousins averaged 5.9 deep balls per game and 5.2 air yards per attempt. Andy Dalton averaged 4.2 and 4.3.)

When Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer said his quarterback had “done an unbelievable job”, he probably did not mean that Bradford had been unbelievably Bradford-like, but that’s as far as anyone should go.

View photos Sam Bradford just delivered the most boring historic season in memory.

(Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images) More

Of course we should acknowledge the unusual circumstances that brought Bradford to the Vikings in the first place, which could not have been easy for the player or team to navigate. He was dealt to Minnesota last September, following Teddy Bridgewater’s devastating knee injury. Just two weeks after the trade, Bradford found himself starting against the Packers and guiding his team to a 17-14 win. Transitions like that certainly aren’t easy in the NFL. The Vikings gave up quite a bit in terms of future draft assets for Bradford, but he performed capably, if not unbelievably. He finished as the No. 23 fantasy scorer at his position last season, and that’s the neighborhood where you should expect him to land in 2017.

But we kinda/sorta like the Vikings receiving corps, no?

Sure, we like ’em well enough. It’s a group without an elite playmaker, but that’s probably OK, because a player like Julio or OBJ or Megatron would be wasted on Bradford. Minnesota has a clearly defined hierarchy at receiver, with Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen atop the depth chart.

Diggs opened 2016 with a pair of 100-yard performances, but early-season injuries derailed his year. He finished with a team-leading 84 catches for 903 yards on 111 targets, though only 10 of his catches went for 20-plus yards. Diggs was held to less than 60 yards in eight of his 13 games and he found the end-zone just three times. He’s suggested more than once during the offseason that inadequate fitness played a role in his slowdown, an unnecessary and uncommon act of personal accountability; he seems determined not to miss games in 2017. So that’s cool. For a guy with 100-catch, 1100-yard upside, Diggs is well priced in Yahoo drafts (ADP 98.8).

Thielen broke out in a big way in his third NFL season, catching 69 passes for 967 yards and five spikes on just 92 targets. If you started him in a fantasy title matchup in Week 16, then you are no doubt a ride-or-die Thielen loyalist. That week, when you needed him most, he caught a dozen passes for 202 yards and two scores at Green Bay, shaming and face-planting the Packers secondary on this long TD. (Please note Thielen’s post-TD crowd taunting in that clip. He has a saucy side.)

Story continues