Good news, Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Tennessee Titans/St. Louis Rams fans! Sam Bradford’s shoulder surgery was deemed a success and he’s ready to tackle the pro game:

In a release sent out by the school, Bradford’s father says Dr. James Andrews informed him that the procedure went “just as we expected.”

Kent Bradford said his son was experiencing some soreness, but was otherwise resting comfortably in Alabama after a 35-minute surgery. The quarterback, who had sprained the AC joint in his shoulder, was expected to return to Oklahoma within the next day or two.

Bradford has said he plans to enter the NFL Draft if his recovery goes as planned. That process is expected to take four to six months.

Yahoo!‘s always-excellent Dr. Saturday has a post mulling over Bradford’s pro prospects and college legacy, and the verdict is extremely favorable.

But we should leave the dissection of his future to the gurus paid to cut campus heroes down to size. As an amateur, Bradford’s place in the pantheon is secure. He led the nation with absurd pass efficiency totals in consecutive seasons, and the up-tempo blitzkrieg he captained in ‘08 rewrote the book on relentless offensive assault from ground and air — it may be decades before we see that team’s five-game run with at least 60 points matched by anyone, much less its mark for points in a season. Ad Bradford was the loping, shaggy, slightly goofy engine that made the doomsday machine run on every significant snap. “Pawn” or not, his towering production on the stat sheet and in the win column places him easily among the greatest college quarterbacks of this decade or any other.

From The Oklahoman:

“I dreamed about coming to Oklahoma my whole life,” Bradford said in a release. “That’s the reason I came back for this season. And I came back to play, not sit on the bench. That’s the reason I tried to play after the injury. I’m very disappointed that it didn’t work out differently.”

Mel Kiper moved him down to five on his draft board, and suddenly everything changes overnight about Sam Bradford’s status in the draft. Kiper’s power knows few bounds, but what it cannot compete with are a few incontrovertible truths of draft history...which surprisingly back up a downgrade in Bradford's status, injury or not.

1. Oklahoma QBs under Bob Stoops don’t start in the NFL. Or at least not yet, since Josh Heupel, Paul Thompson, Jason White, and Rhett Bomar have all enjoyed the polite camp invitation before being shuffled off to football purgatory without tasting NFL success. It’s not much of a trend, but it’s a trend nonetheless, and if there’s one thing NFL draftniks not named “Al Davis” love, it’s a trend of any sort whatsoever.

2. Bradford is not a senior and has not graduated. Thus, he does not pass rules 1 and 2 of the Bill Parcells’ rules of drafting quarterbacks. Given the reverence paid Bill Parcells by the bulk of the NFL intelligentsia, it is notable that Bradford only fell to fifth in Kiper’s draft, and not into the second round.

I was happy to bid him adieu in the name of preserving breakable parts for future financial gain, but there’s a fair case to be made to the contrary, as well: if Bradford wants to be successful, there’s also considerable potential gain to be made by returning for his senior season, too. You've one this one, Kiper. /shakesfistangrily

More from Joe Schad, who is now reporting that Sam Bradford’s press conference has been postponed because the QB needs “more time.”

As the Oklahoman points out, this seems to indicate that he’s still uncertain about undergoing season-ending surgery.

Joe Schad tweets thusly as we await Sam Bradford’s press conference in a couple hours:

I strongly expect Sooners QB Sam Bradford will announce season ending surgery but will wait on NFL decision

I’m going to assume that is based on some sort of insider info and not pure speculation, but we shall find out soon enough.

If Bradford does opt for surgery, it would seem likely that he’ll come back for his final season of eligibility in order to raise his draft stock, which will be at an all-time low this offseason. Especially considering he’d be unable to participate in this year’s NFL combine.

The twice-injured Heisman QB is expected to address the media in Norman Wednesday afternoon. What will he be discussing? Bob Stoops fills us in, via Tulsa World:

Stoops said Bradford would “answer a couple of questions and address that for a few minutes after practice tomorrow,” and talk about “what the plan will be” regarding his availability for the rest of the season, whether or not he’ll have surgery, and, if he does take the rest of the season off, his concerns about returning in time for next April’s NFL Draft, where he’s projected as the potential No. 1 overall pick.

“He understands the process,” Stoops said. “It’s not like Sam doesn’t have guidance or doesn’t understand the whole thing. In the end, he’ll have an idea and a plan, along with his family, on what he feels is the right track to take. He’ll be able to answer that when he has an idea of what he wants to do.”

Asked if he would be surprised if Bradford announced he intended to move forward with his NFL future, Stoops declined comment.

“I’m not gonna speculate on
that,” Stoops said. “I think in the end, he can address those issues.”

We’ll be back with an update later to let you know what Bradford had to say.

With Sam Bradford injuring his shoulder early in the game against Texas, Oklahoma is not going to further chance any injury with Bradford by holding him out against Kansas:

“I think the fair thing to say is right now, he’s not going to play this week,” Stoops said Monday night after the Sooners’ practice. “I just assumed everyone understood that. From there, the path hasn’t been determined yet.”

The safest thing for Bradford to do is to sit out the rest of the season. Rest the shoulder and heal for the combine and draft.

Sam Bradford underwent an MRI and X-ray on his right shoulder Sunday and, according to ESPN’s Joe Schad, it revealed “no new injury,” only an “aggravation” of the previous shoulder sprain.

Still no word on what that means for Bradford playing again this season and head coach Bob Stoops said it is unlikely there will be any official announcement before Thursday.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen spoke to a group of NFL GM’s on Bradford’s prospects for this year’s draft:

7 GMs weighed in on Bradford: Split on whether he can still be a top 10 pick; depends on damage & surgery, whether he can work out by April.

One thing to remember, however: Bradford’s just a redshirt junior. There’s nothing that says he must leave Oklahoma this year, particularly if the skepticism continues to loom large after the season. Bradford, when he’s played, has been fantastic this year—if he sits out the rest of this season, rehab his injury, and come back next year, he could very well end up the number one overall pick in 2011. A footnote, for now, but worth keeping in mind as scouts panic.

“It was the same shoulder,” Bradford said afterwards. “And it hurt pretty much like it did at BYU. I really don’t know the outlook from here. I’m going to talk to the doctors and find out exactly what’s wrong with it.”

[…] “It’s hard to put into words the frustration I feel right now,” Bradford said.

“Frustrated” is a predictable emotion from the Heisman Trophy winner. He still has one year of college eligibility remaining, and it will be interesting to see whether he decides to stick around for another year in an effort to rebuild his draft value.

There’s still no early prognosis as to the extent of Sooners quarterback Sam Bradford’s injury, but SB Nation blog Mocking the Draft warns that if Bradford has to miss more time, he could fall down the draft chart:

Bradford’s durability was being questioned by evaluators entering the game and re-injuring his shoulder in the first quarter certainly won’t quell those concerns. In a recent press conference, the Oklahoma junior quarterback sounded like he was ready for the NFL. But if he’s out for another extended amount of time, it’s hard to peg him as a top five pick.

In the quick interview running into the locker room before half time, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops said that he thinks Bradford's injury was the same one he suffered in Week 1 and that he doesn’t expect Bradford to return. Maybe Bradford will end the confusion and take off his pads at halftime.

All that we’re hearing out of Dallas is that Bradford has been “knocked out of the game.” We’ll assume that means he’s not coming back but with halftime a little over three minutes of football time away, we hope to know the full extent of the injury soon.  Oddly enough, Bradford is still on the sidelines with all of his pads on.

The shoulder Bradford injured is his right one, which of course was also injured in Week 1 of this season. Details as to the extent of his injury are still not known. Adam Schefter tweets, though, that even if this is a serious injury, he’s still a first-round pick in the upcoming draft.

Doubt it. RT @TanzWatson: sam bradford just got his shoulder hurt again and now with the late surgery will he drop out first round?

No one is really sure right now as to the extent of Bradford’s re-injured shoulder. He threw no more than five balls on the sideline to test the shoulder but during the last drive took his helmet off and looks to be in a considerable amount of pain. His replacement, Landry Jones, just led a field goal drive as Oklahoma leads Texas 6-0. Bradford’s line on the day right now is 2 of 6 for 77 yards.

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford was just sacked by Texas for a huge loss and landed on his shoulder. He has now left the game. He was down on the field for over a minute. We'll update with details as soon as they come about.