Stop Trying to Speak/Tweet Teddy Bridgewater Back Into MN Existence

Photo: CBS Sports

Teddy Bridgewater is a great human being. Rick Spielman made a great decision back in the 2014 NFL Draft, when he moved back up into the first round and drafted Teddy with the 31st pick overall.

He was better and more skilled back then, than I expected when he was drafted, and his leadership and human being qualities are absolutely off the charts. All of that has led to Teddy becoming a full-blown folk-hero in the state of Minnesota.

Yesterday was actually a perfect example of what makes Teddy such a beloved person here, and everywhere else he’s touched.



I mean….. fuck, how can you not like Teddy B.?

I get it. I saw it. I thought Teddy Bridgewater was going to be the QB for the Vikings for my kids’ entire childhood, at one point. The preseason games he played in 2016, before a catastrophic knee injury blitzed his future on August 30th of that year, were beyond impressive.

I remember watching a preseason game against the Chargers, from a Buffalo Wild Wings with my slow-pitch softball team, and telling buddies that we were about to see a completely different Teddy in 2016. Of course, we didn’t get to see a fully-healthy Teddy B. in Minnesota at all after that.

I still hadn’t jumped off the Teddy train though. While Case Keenum was leading the Vikings to their last NFC Championship game birth, I was asking the Vikings to switch to Teddy Bridgewater mid-season. I knew Case Keenum wasn’t it…. and I was proven right in Philly.



I pull all of these Teddy Bridgewater skeletons out of my closet so you can see how much I was on his bandwagon (and his jock, questionably) back when he was a Vikings quarterback.

But… he isn’t our quarterback anymore and probably never will be. An ESPN story came out yesterday, however, that made up a scenario in which we trade Cousins to LA, and sign Teddy out of free agency, so Vikings Twitter is going bananas and Teddy Stans everywhere are screaming in my ears.




Stop trying to speak this into existence, Vikings fans. You don’t want Teddy back, with where the Vikings are right now, relative to his career. How does Teddy Bridgewater make us more of a Super Bowl team?

He doesn’t. The Vikings are beyond Teddy Bridgewater.

Even while we navigate some salary cap growing pains, the Vikings are trying to win a super bowl. They have a roster stacked with some of the best NFL talent around the league, in the prime of their career.

Teddy Bridgewater isn’t yet ready to make a team like that better or take them on a deep playoff run, and onto a Super Bowl. The guy just hasn’t done shit, since his injury. Those are just the facts in this case.

Ted B has played in 6 games over the last two seasons, while backing up Drew Brees in New Orleans. He’s posted an impressive 5-1 record with a 10:3 TD:INT ratio…. averaging 154 yards/game.

Maybe he will make a large jump in those numbers when he takes over somewhere as a starter. But, it’s also just as likely that his W/L and TD:INT ratios take bigger turns than his YPG. That’s just the reality of the NFL. I hope he proves me wrong.

If we were going into rebuild mode or at least knew the Vikings were hitting the brakes on competing for a championship over the next year or two, I’d be ALL ABOUT bringing Bridgewater back. He’d be the perfect QB to help flip a roster and come out of the mini-rebuild, as the franchise QB.

But, that’s not where we are and that’s something Vikings fans should be happy about.

Meanwhile, we know exactly who Kirk Cousins and what he is good at. He certainly has his flaws, and those have been discussed to an ear-bleeding degree, but he has a better arm, is more accurate and also has experience in this league, that Bridgewater only dreams of.

He just doesn’t have the charisma…. or an offensive line.

We still don’t know how good Kirk Cousins can be with an offensive line that can protect him in a respectable fashion. I want to see that Kirk Cousins. That should be the number one priority for the Vikings’ front office… not figuring out how to get Teddy Bridgewater back on the roster.

I believe a protected Kirk can win a Super Bowl. I’m not convinced that an injury-riddled and unproven Teddy Bridgewater can even be a long-term starter in the NFL…. so let’s stop with the hyperbole.

Kirk Cousins is our starter for 2020 and likely gets an extension before then. So face facts and stop living in fairytale land.


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Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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