Young Theodore Bridgewater

[Pondering Her Percy]

i love the conviction of the quote that their evaluation is the only one that matters. with that said, teddy needs to be able to throw the ball down the field for this team to be taken seriously and/or make the playoffs. his deep ball last year was horrendous to say the least i think he connected on one to johnson. that isn't going to cut it if you are a top 5 qb.

Yeah I'm not sure how it was "horrendous"?? He deep ball at the end of the year when he was hot, was very good

[Mothman]

Thanks for the link to that Prisco article, Dead_Poet. I love hearing that Bridgewater is using his eyes to look off defenders and I especially love hearing Teddy himself say (again) that he knows if he plays the same way he did last year, the Vikes will be sitting at home again in January. I appreciate that he has that kind of perspective at his age and hasn't bought into the offseason hype about him. It doesn't look like he's going to allow his ego to get in the way. That's one of his better qualities.

I know I harp on this a lot but I think far too much has been made of his supposed hot streak to end last season. Prisco sort of refers to it in his column:

The good news for the Vikings was that Bridgewater got better as the season moved along, and by the end he was putting up impressive numbers. He threw 11 of his touchdown passes in the final seven games and in three of those games he had a passer rating over 114. He also had two 300-plus passing games in the final four weeks.

All true but 300 yard passing performances daren't always indicative of winning football. Teddy averaged an INT a game during those final 7 games too and in 3 of those games, the Vikes only managed to score 13 or 14 points. They were 3-4 over that stretch. One of the 300 yard performances was a loss that also featured two very costly interceptions. Bridgewater started his 2014 season with a terrific performance against the Falcons and ended it with a pretty pedestrian performance against the dreadful Bears. I'm not bashing him and I did feel that, overall, he improved over the course of last season but I think it's worth remembering his improvement wasn't a slow, steady continuous rise. He was "up and down" for much of last season. Inconsistent. That's to be expected from a rookie and I think we should expect it again in 2015, as he continues his development. I thought there was more "up" than "down" as last season went on but Teddy's right: he needs to better. Last year, I thought he looked a long way from being the top 10 QB some fans seem to think he'll become soon.

[dead_poet]

I love hearing that Bridgewater is using his eyes to look off defenders

Me too. I think this skill (if done well) helps to separate the bad/average and the average/good/great quarterbacks. Just think about that for a second: a QB has roughly three seconds (usually less) to get the ball off and he has to not only diagnose a defense but go through his progressions during that time, and in doing so look AWAY from his intended target? Cripes. I've never done it but it sounds incredibly challenging. I'm a golfer so I liken it to on a putting green and looking away from your intended putting line before immediately making your stroke towards your intended line. That'd be so crazy hard to do, and that's without a bunch of guys trying to deflect or intercept the ball. It's something to Ponder as he-who-shall-not-be-named was seemingly never able to do this, more telegraphing his intentions as he held onto the ball too long but guys like Manning, Brady, Brees, Rodgers have seemingly mastered over the years.

I know I harp on this a lot but I think far too much has been made of his supposed hot streak to end last season.

You do, but that's OK. Curmudgeons are prone to harping on things. But in all seriousness it's good to try and manage expectations. However I tend to picture Teddy's rookie season like a traditional the stock market graph where there's incremental growth and some days small dips but the overall trend line over the course of his starts finished higher than where it started. Hopefully the Vikings organization (and the fans) have a sound investment on their hands that will pay dividends in the form of Lombardi trophies.

Last year, I thought he looked a long way from being the top 10 QB some fans seem to think he'll become soon.

Well he was just a rookie, so I think that's important to keep in mind, too. Few rookies can look unequivocally poised to be top-10 QBs after just 12 games. Hopefully after another 8 games or so he gets closer to looking (and being) that caliber of signal-caller.

[Mothman]

Me too. I think this skill (if done well) helps to separate the bad/average and the average/good/great quarterbacks. Just think about that for a second: a QB has roughly three seconds (usually less) to get the ball off and he has to not only diagnose a defense but go through his progressions during that time, and in doing so look AWAY from his intended target? Cripes. I've never done it but it sounds incredibly challenging.

I assume that's why so few QBs truly excel at the pro level. It also seems to be why film study, experience and the ability to make good pre-snap reads help separate the best from the rest. If a QB can get a reasonably good handle on the defense before the snap, it must make that crucial 3 second window a lot easier.

I'm a golfer so I liken it to on a putting green and looking away from your intended putting line before immediately making your stroke towards your intended line. That'd be so crazy hard to do, and that's without a bunch of guys trying to deflect or intercept the ball.

A bunch of guys trying to deflect or intercept the ball in that situation would make golf more exciting!

You do, but that's OK. Curmudgeons are prone to harping on things. But in all seriousness it's good to try and manage expectations. However I tend to picture Teddy's rookie season like a traditional the stock market graph where there's incremental growth and some days small dips but the overall trend line over the course of his starts finished higher than where it started. Hopefully the Vikings organization (and the fans) have a sound investment on their hands that will pay dividends in the form of Lombardi trophies.

That "stock market graph" analogy is probably a good way to look at it. I definitely felt Bridgewater was a better overall QB by the end of the season. However, like any responsible curmudgeon, I refuse to let frustrating performances like those against the Bears and Lion go just because TB's numbers look pretty good over a particular stretch of games.

Last year, I thought he looked a long way from being the top 10 QB some fans seem to think he'll become soon.

Well he was just a rookie, so I think that's important to keep in mind, too.[/quote]

I agree. That's why I mentioned it in the line before the one you quoted above.

Anyway, you're right, he was just a rookie and he wasn't expected to start so much last year. My guess is he's a few seasons away from joining the NFL's upper ranks at his position, assuming that's going to happen at all. I just hope we continue to see good progress and the same great attitude from him. Personally, what I want to see most is winning football so I don't care if he has a single 300 yard passing performance this year as long as he moves the team, minimizes mistakes and the Vikes score. They played 9 games last year in which they didn't score 20 points as a team (the last time they did that was 2010). That's not on Bridgewater (he didn't even play in 2 of those games) but it was a big source of frustration for me!

[dead_poet]

A bunch of guys trying to deflect or intercept the ball in that situation would make golf more exciting!

Like a Mike Zimmer double-A-gap blitz on third-and-15 I knew that was coming but I couldn't do anything to stop it.

like any responsible curmudgeon, I refuse to let frustrating performances like those against the Bears and Lion go just because TB's numbers look pretty good over a particular stretch of games.

Anyway, you're right, he was just a rookie and he wasn't expected to start so much last year. My guess is he's a few seasons away from joining the NFL's upper ranks at his position, assuming that's going to happen at all.

You must believe, boy. You must...believe.

I just hope we continue to see good progress and the same great attitude from him. Personally, what I want to see most is winning football so I don't care if he has a single 300 yard passing performance this year as long as he moves the team, minimizes mistakes and the Vikes score. They played 9 games last year in which they didn't score 20 points as a team (the last time they did that was 2010). That's not on Bridgewater (he didn't even play in 2 of those games) but it was a big source of frustration for me!

So you don't care if he has a single 300-yard passing performance but you seem to care a lot about scoring more than 18 points/game? What if they score 16 points/game and win those games? This is fun.

[Mothman]

Like a Mike Zimmer double-A-gap blitz on third-and-15 I knew that was coming but I couldn't do anything to stop it.

Gotcha!

You must believe, boy. You must...believe.

I just can't take that first step on faith alone.

So you don't care if he has a single 300-yard passing performance but you seem to care a lot about scoring more than 18 points/game? What if they score 16 points/game and win those games? This is fun.

If they score 16 points/game and win those games I'll say they still need to score points. I promise!

[jackal]

I think we will know a lot about Teddy in the first quarter of season ...

With A.P. drawing a lot defenders; Ponder could never exploit, this fact.

If Teddy can't push the ball with the wide outs we have and Peterson, I will not have a lot of confidence,
in him.

[Mothman]

I think we will know a lot about Teddy in the first quarter of season ...

With A.P. drawing a lot defenders; Ponder could never exploit, this fact.

Ponder gets blamed for it but I think the problem was much deeper than that. The Vikes didn't really have the receivers OR the QB to adequately exploit the kind of attention Peterson was getting from 2011-2013. In 2011-2012 they had Harvin and got quite a bit of production out of him but downfield route-running wasn't exactly his strength and he missed almost half of the 2012 season, when Peterson was at his absolute best. After Harvin went down, they had Jenkins, Simpson, Wright, Aromashodu and Burton, not exactly a wrecking crew, especially at that point. Substitute Berrian for Wright and they had the same group in 2011.

In 2013, they had jennings, Simpson, Wright, Paterson and Webb.

I'm not making excuses for Ponder. His limitations were part of the problem but in passing terms, the main benefit of Peterson drawing defenders toward the line is single coverage on the oustide and most of those receivers weren't particularly good at beating single coverage on the outside (at least not during those seasons).

Jennings was pretty good at it but Ponder seemed to have an inexplicable "Jennings blind spot".