Young Theodore Bridgewater

[mansquatch]

Jim you forgot the key difference. Ponder does this crap in year 4. Teddy isn’t even done with year 1.

Ben Leber was on the radio here the other day talking about Bridgewater. He went into some of the monumental challenge of the situation Teddy is in. Just some examples:

Mechanically, he sidearms passes. This will need to get fixed for Teddy to last in the NFL. Several of his duck and off target throws were a result of this. Keep in mind that early in the season the coaches said that of the three QB in camp, Bridgewater possessed the best arm and it wasn’t even close . Cassel doesn’t put up ducks like that. Mechanics…

Teddy is small for the NFL. His body is that of a 21 year old, thus he is still maturing a bit. He needs to bulk up some. This will help with arm stuff above.

Coming into this situation he had not seen the game before and only had about 2 months of NFL camp under his belt.

Bottom Line: This is going to be a huge offseason for Bridgewater. He has a lot of work in front of him. The good news is he’s tasted the league. He knows what will cut it and what won’t. We just have to hope he has the fire to not just do the work, but do it to a point where he is competitive.

The big takeaway for me is the work and Teddy’s competitive Fire. Does he have the fire? Will he hit it hard this offseason and significantly up his game? I hope so, but there is no way to know. This is the same question that faces CP84 this offseason. Frankly, I’m much more worried about his desire to improve than I am Bridgewater.

[PacificNorseWest]

"They still suck" ...

Eli Manning has two super bowl rings,,,, one more than his 5 time mvp brother.

Matthew Stafford has thrown over 5000 yards in a season, and finally has a defense that is helping him out and are leading the Lions to the playoffs.

If teddy threw for over 5000 yards in a season or has two super bowl rings,,, I wouldn't say he sucks.

My point being, give the kid the tools to success, then watch, wait, and believe.

I'm not touching this in order to keep the thread on track, but what you're referring to is numbers based and less to do with the effectiveness of the quarterbacks respectively. Lots of peole do this and it drives me crazy.

[Pondering Her Percy]

As for anyone saying that they want nothing to do with Mariota as a Viking QB I think most experts would take him in a heartbeat over TB.

I don't want to go overboard here and make this thread about Mariota but he has very similar flaws coming out as Teddy did.....Arm strength and downfield accuracy.

Two reasons why I wouldn't draft him.....the type of offense he plays in and if you watch him enough, his pocket presence and ability to go through his progressions is not very good at all. He's drawing comparisons to Kaepernick....not somebody I would want on this team. Dual thread QBs very rarely get it done in this league anymore (or ever for that matter).

[Mothman]

Is it so hard to believe that a rational mind would disagree, without having some sort underlying denial about the comparison?

Frankly, yes, I do find it hard to believe a rational mind could fail to see any similarities at all and the obvious disdain expressed for Ponder makes denial seem all the more likely to me. Admittedly, there could be some semantic interference going on here, a misunderstanding that suggesting there are similarities between the two is somehow an implication that they're extremely similar, but a comment like "They are literally nothing alike. ZERO. ZILCH. NADA." sure sounds like an expression of denial to me.

My apologies if that offends anyone. It's not my intent to offend. I just find it very hard to believe, for example, that anyone could criticize Ponder's various low-yardage total performances and then fail to see the obvious similarity between those games and Bridgewater's performance against Chicago two weeks ago. If I recall correctly, at one point in the 4th quarter, he had only had about 50 yards passing! Then the Bears went into two deep coverage and Bridgewater did a nice job of moving the team against that, which netted him a total of about 155 yards on the day, which is still very Ponder-esque, especially without a big rushing day from the offense to complement it.

I posted a link to a "snapshot" from ESPN which pointed out that Bridgewater's 22-yard touchdown pass to Johnson on Sunday was his longest of the season. It was also the first complete pass he'd thrown at least 20 yards in the air since the Vikings' Week 9 win over the Washington Redskins. That kind of stat must sound hauntingly familiar to fans who have followed the Vikings in recent years.

I posted a list of similarities between the two QBs above and I haven't seen anybody denying that both of them have/had issues with accuracy, completing passes downfield, becoming too reliant on check downs at times and making crucial mistakes, sometimes due to a breakdown in throwing mechanics. They both had some pretty slow, low-yardage games too. As I said, I expect such issues from a rookie so none of this is meant to slam Bridgewater. However, the similarities to Ponder as a rookie seem obvious. I don't see how anyone can miss them.

There are some obvious differences too. There's no denying that either.

[Mothman]

Jim you forgot the key difference. Ponder does this crap in year 4. Teddy isn’t even done with year 1

I didn't forget it. It just wasn't part of my point, which was that there are similarities between the two QBs.

[PurpleKoolaid]

I didn't forget it. It just wasn't part of my point, which was that there are similarities between the two QBs.

There's similarities between the rookie Teddy and probably 3/4 of rookie QBs who started their first year on the team. Why always bring up #7 when there's no need to? His rookie season was probably equally similar to 3/4 of other rookie QBs starting their first year. And you just jump right over the fact #7 had AD in the backfield.

[losperros]

Ben Leber was on the radio here the other day talking about Bridgewater. He went into some of the monumental challenge of the situation Teddy is in. Just some examples:

Mechanically, he sidearms passes. This will need to get fixed for Teddy to last in the NFL. Several of his duck and off target throws were a result of this. Keep in mind that early in the season the coaches said that of the three QB in camp, Bridgewater possessed the best arm and it wasn’t even close . Cassel doesn’t put up ducks like that. Mechanics…

Teddy is small for the NFL. His body is that of a 21 year old, thus he is still maturing a bit. He needs to bulk up some. This will help with arm stuff above.

Coming into this situation he had not seen the game before and only had about 2 months of NFL camp under his belt.

Bottom Line: This is going to be a huge offseason for Bridgewater. He has a lot of work in front of him. The good news is he’s tasted the league. He knows what will cut it and what won’t. We just have to hope he has the fire to not just do the work, but do it to a point where he is competitive.

The big takeaway for me is the work and Teddy’s competitive Fire. Does he have the fire? Will he hit it hard this offseason and significantly up his game? I hope so, but there is no way to know. This is the same question that faces CP84 this offseason. Frankly, I’m much more worried about his desire to improve than I am Bridgewater.

Leber brings up some solid points, including some things I didn't really think about before reading this.

Kapp has also noted that Bridgewater sidearms passes, which oftentimes turn into ugly throws. If it's a technique problem that Teddy can overcome, that will be great.

I'm really pulling for Bridgewater to develop into a franchise QB. The Vikings really need that to happen.

[Mothman]

There's similarities between the rookie Teddy and probably 3/4 of rookie QBs who started their first year on the team. Why always bring up #7 when there's no need to?

Fair question... but I'm not the one who brought him up.

His rookie season was probably equally similar to 3/4 of other rookie QBs starting their first year. And you just jump right over the fact #7 had AD in the backfield.

It didn't seem relevant to the point.

I agree with your point about rookies. That's why I posted the following earlier today: "Bridgewater looks a lot like Ponder did his rookie season but I think that's due in no small part to the fact that he is a rookie and more often than not, this is how rookie QBs tend to play."

Look, folks, I'm just trying to be logical here but I realize I sometimes have all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop so if I rubbed anybody in this thread the wrong way earlier, I apologize.

[Pondering Her Percy]

You're good Jim!! No worries. Granted, I've made my own points that I stand behind but others have made some good points as well. It's been a pretty good discussion

[Mothman]

You're good Jim!! No worries. Granted, I've made my own points that I stand behind but others have made some good points as well. It's been a pretty good discussion

Thanks. I'm glad I didn't offend you!

I'm in a weird, grouchy mood today. I think it's because I started my day reading bad, depressing news stories. Tomorrow, I think I'll just start the day by reading about kittens and bunnies.

[Pondering Her Percy]

Thanks. I'm glad I didn't offend you!

I'm in a weird, grouchy mood today. I think it's because I started my day reading bad, depressing news stories. Tomorrow, I think I'll just start the day by reading about kittens and bunnies.

[J. Kapp 11]

I'll just keep beating the mechanics drum. But first, the positives as I see them.

Teddy is calm, he's poised, he has a good feel for stepping up in the pocket, and he's mobile while keeping his eyes downfield. He's also gaining valuable experience, which is helping him develop that "clock in his head" quarterbacks need to avoid unnecessary sacks.

Mechanically, there are definitely issues. Teddy sidearms the ball and often has a short release. That really hurts his accuracy at times on short and intermediate throws, and it makes his deep throws float. I hate to say it, but his deep throws remind me a little of Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite.

He's got to learn to throw more over the top and use good footwork to drive the ball on outs, digs, posts and nines. Franchise quarterbacks make those throws -- right now, he can't with any consistency.

The mechanical issues can be worked out. I mean, his mechanics aren't Tim Tebow-bad. And plenty of quarterbacks have corrected things. Aaron Rodgers had mechanical issues coming out of college, and he certainly fixed them. Same with Tom Brady. I don't know if Drew Brees had mechanical issues, but he's had to hone his mechanics more than most guys because of his small size -- he can't get away with back-foot throws and sidearm flips, and you never see him do it. He's one of the most mechanically sound quarterbacks in the league at barely 6 feet tall.

It's all a matter of how hard Teddy is willing to work and listen to his coaches this coming offseason. By all indications, he's got those things going for him.

[PurpleKoolaid]

Thanks. I'm glad I didn't offend you!

I'm in a weird, grouchy mood today. I think it's because I started my day reading bad, depressing news stories. Tomorrow, I think I'll just start the day by reading about kittens and bunnies.

LOL, I wish that were true. I would have an entire library in my house devoted to kittens and bunnies.

[DK Sweets]

I don't think comparing Teddy and Ponder is innately offensive. As a rookie, Ponder showed promise.

I think the big issue is Teddy is going to have to want to be a franchise QB as much as we want him to be franchise QB.

Ponder started dating Samantha Steele, got married, and had a kid. I feel like he never gave the position the same focus we expected because he found something more important to him. To clarify, he never showed the same focus that allowed him to obtain 2 degrees in college (one of the big reasons we drafted him was because he was intelligent and focused) as a NFL QB. To be fair, I don't blame him - it's his life to live. It sucks for us, but we have no right to tell him how to live his life.

Teddy has to have a JJ Watt mindset that he can do whatever he wants when he's 35, but for now, football is his life. If he can do that, he'll have success.

[mosscarter]

what teddy is doing with this joke of an offense is fantastic if you ask me. ponder had the luxury of one of the top 5 running backs to ever play the game STOP mentioning these two in the same reference it is irrelevant.