Teddy, Teddy, Teddy!

[mosscarter]

To be fair, look up something like passes over 30 yards. I can remember 2 in nearly 2 full seasons. 1 was to Charles Johnson and 1 was to Diggs (there were a handful of td's with yards after the catch) but I'm talking actual deep balls. The truth is he has no deep game and that isn't something you learn. And to also be fair, Peterson ran for 1,500 yards by what someone described as the "worst offensive line ever." How on earth could they be worse than last years? Bradford, if anyone, had far less to work with than Teddy did. The reality is Case isn't playing all that badly. I'm not sure why they continue to give Murray the ball inside the redzone he has been nothing but a waste of 5 million dollars at this point. I feel like Case needs to take some more shots at the endzone.

[mansquatch]

They give Murray the ball because Mckinnon has consistently not been able to finish a season with full work load of carries. Also, McKinnon is not a power back where Murray is.

I doubt Murray survives this offseason unless he reworks his contract. He already has cap casualty written all over him.

[PurpleKoolaid]

They give Murray the ball because Mckinnon has consistently not been able to finish a season with full work load of carries. Also, McKinnon is not a power back where Murray is.

I doubt Murray survives this offseason unless he reworks his contract. He already has cap casualty written all over him.

Murray hasnt been a power anything this year. I think he has one of the worst yards per attempt in the NFL.

[IrishViking]

Murray hasnt been a power anything this year. I think he has one of the worst yards per attempt in the NFL.

I agree though, its about giving Jet rest. I'll take several 2-3 yard gains over 4-5 yard gains a few times a game if It means Jet still has gas in the playoffs.

[dead_poet]

To be fair, look up something like passes over 30 yards. I can remember 2 in nearly 2 full seasons. 1 was to Charles Johnson and 1 was to Diggs (there were a handful of td's with yards after the catch) but I'm talking actual deep balls. The truth is he has no deep game and that isn't something you learn.

That's a misleading talking point and I'm sick of it. Education time!

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-a ... plus-minus

Here's the Cliff Notes version

What many NFL fans—and even a few Vikings fans—seem to believe is that Bridgewater’s league-leading accuracy was driven by an unusual number of low-depth passes. If you check the replies to that tweet, Teddy’s high rate of short passes dominates the conversations.

What if someone accounted for that?

Scott Kacsmar at Football Outsiders did just that, using data collected from their tracking project and creating expected completion rates based off of distance thrown both vertically and horizontally.

After accounting for how far downfield a pass was and whether or not it was to the middle of the field, he started crediting or docking individual passes. So, if a pass was completed 7 yards down the field in between the hashes, it would be credited for 0.25 completions, because those passes are completed 75% of the time.

Add all those individual pass numbers up, and you get Kacsmar’s plus-minus. Teddy had only 395 passes in the sample, after getting rid of throwaways and other irrelevant passes, so he was at a disadvantage in this statistic compared to others, but he still ranked fifth overall in this metric.

When looking at it like a rate statistic (something they also do with C%+), he ranks third.

They also look at it while excluding drops, and he ranks sixth overall (fifth in the rank statistic).

Kacsmar was impressed.

http://zonecoverage.com/2016/vikings/fo ... -distance/

Another article I encourage you to read:

The Vikings offensive line was spectacularly bad at one of its two critical responsibilities last year and marginally good at the other. In sets of data from both Pro Football Focus and STATS, Inc., no quarterback was under pressure more often in the past decade than Teddy Bridgewater was in 2015.

Per Pro Football Focus, Bridgewater’s pressure rate in 2015 led the league by four percentage points above scrambling Russell Wilson’s and an additional percentage point above deep-throwing Carson Palmer’s. The difference between first and second was the same as the difference between second and tenth.

Once adjusted for opponent, it looks even worse—the difference between first and second expands even further to equal the gap between second and 16th.

This is critical, because passer rating will drop between 30 and 36 points for the average quarterback when under pressure than in a clean pocket (depending on one’s definition of pressure). That’s larger than the difference than the top passer in the league and the worst passer.

http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2016/09/409677/

And to also be fair, Peterson ran for 1,500 yards by what someone described as the "worst offensive line ever." How on earth could they be worse than last years?

1. They were arguably the worst line in football BEFORE they lost Sullivan and Loadholt. Kalil and Clemmings were two of the worst offensive tackles in the league (if not THE worst).
2. It's possible for an offensive line to be average run blockers and abysmal pass blockers. Which they were.

Bradford, if anyone, had far less to work with than Teddy did.

Um. No. Aside from the fact that Teddy didn't have Diggs (who was a rookie) for the first several games...

Thielen > Wallace

We were starting Charles Johnson.

Worse pass-blocking offensive line. Worse receivers. Worse game plan given the roster construct (remember Norv?)

Stroll down memory lane with me. This is what Teddy consistently faced in 2015.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/film-r ... dgewater-0

[J. Kapp 11]

I was at Bridgewater's most recent (I hate to say last <gulp!>) NFL game (pre-season against the Chargers at US Bank Stadium). He looked pretty good. His stat line was:

12 completions on 16 attempts (75%) for 161 yards and a TD (No interceptions) - Passer rating 127.3

To me, he seemed decisive and was making crisp accurate throws. I actually remember being excited after the game thinking this (2016) might be the year Bridgewater "puts it all together." He didn't play a full game (obviously in preseason) but he really didn't have to. He looked really good.

Two caveats:

1) It was preseason
2) It was a one game observation (Even Tarvaris Jackson could look pretty awesome for one game)

The fact of the matter, however, is Bridgewater looked like he had taken strides in improving his game. Sadly we have not (as of yet) gotten to see if that was case. Bradford, quite frankly, is a better passer than Bridgewater (and why wouldn't he be, especially considering his level of experience vs Bridgewater), but considering his injury right now, may be done. I'm not convinced that Bridgewater will ever be as good a passer as Bradford, but he might (if we assume he comes back from this injury) be a better quarterback.

I'm not trying to make a case for Bridgewater. I still have some serious concerns that he can come back and play at the level he'll need to. I'm just not ready to "write him off" until I can see if Bridgewater can prove himself on the field. In my opinion, he was stepping up to do so in 2016 before his injury. I'd like to see him get a chance to finish what he started in 2016. Fate might have dealt Bridgewater a "raw deal" in 2016, but it might also have dealt him the hand that will allow him to finish what (IMHO) he started last year.

If it plays out that way, I'm wishing Bridgewater all the luck in the world.

I remember watching that game on TV and thinking, "This doesn't even look like the same guy." His throwing motion was so much more solid.

I'm not an expert on throwing, but I'm kind of a geek from my baseball days. When you throw with a low elbow, as Teddy had been doing, you can do fine from close range. That's why infielders can release from below shoulder level or even below waist level and still put the ball right on target. But the farther you have to throw the ball, the more the ball floats. That's what Teddy was doing his first two years ... getting underneath the ball and floating it on longer passes. But in the preseason game against the Chargers, he was firing from over the top. He was driving the ball. His passes had zip, and with 10 YPA, we're not just talking check-downs. I wish I could find video of that game, but I'm guessing it's not out there because it was preseason.

As far as his return, I'm cautiously optimistic. The Vikings won't put him on the field if he can't protect himself, so I'm happy to wait and see what happens. Really looking forward to a report from practice tomorrow ... you KNOW the media is going to be all over this, so we should have solid reports.

If we throw caution to the wind for a moment, think about this from an inspirational standpoint. Think of the fire the Vikings would have if he can return. That locker room LOVES Teddy Bridgewater. They'd run through fire for him.

[mansquatch]

I remember 2015 well. How many plays did we see where a guy runs free from Clemmings side and Teddy scrambles to the sideline to throw the ball away. What was it ever other set of downs? It was atrocious.

It looks like they finally have figured out their tackle issues, at least at LT. Remmers could be better, but he is still head and shoulders better than Clemmings. I would rate Guard a higher priority in the offseason than Tackle at this juncture. Age is finally catching up to Joe Berger and Easton has been the weakest link on the interior. Still it wouldn't be too hard for Remmers to become a cap casualty if they can find some youth.

I know not everyone feels the way I do about the management, but it is nice to see how much they have improved over the past 4 years. They've gotten much better at Defense via the Zimmer hire. It looks like on offense they are finally gaining traction showing competitiveness at just about every position. We just need the stupid QB to give us a healthy year so we can take our shot at a Superbowl.

CURSED!

[S197]

I still say Bridgewater is the starter after the bye. To be honest, both guys healthy, I think Bradford is the better QB. But I don't think Zimmer agrees. I didn't buy the whole "Zimm loves Teddy" theories that were floating around. Until the Saints game.

I watch Sam put on a spectacular performance. Flip on the radio after the game and Zimmer really downplays his performance. Credits a lot of guys around him. And I didn't get the "there's no I in team" vibe, it really felt more dismissive to me. I could be wrong, and I don't think Zimmer dislikes Bradford, but I think he REALLY likes Teddy.

If both are healthy, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Teddy get the start. Just a gut feeling.

[ChicagoViking]

I mean right now Detroit beat us

Disagreed. We beat ourselves. Even with that exact same talent on the field (i.e., no Bridgewater, Bradford, or Cook), I think we beat Detroit 8 out of 10 times without all of those silly mistakes and turnovers.

[mosscarter]

Bridgewater has always been horrible as an NFL quarterback. If he does end up starting at some point, all of you can and should look me up because I called it a year ago. This guy is in no way, shape, or form EVER A FRANCHISE QB. He's not even close. A 1,500 yard rusher in the backfield and the worst 3 passing teams in the league? This dude is a total bum, end of story and we'll find out again soon simply because we are Viking fans. We have to find out the hard way because we haven't had a legit quarterback in 15 years other than Favre. I've watched local high school quarterbacks play better than Teddy Bridgewater.

[J. Kapp 11]

Bridgewater has always been horrible as an NFL quarterback.

This guy is in no way, shape, or form EVER A FRANCHISE QB. He's not even close.

The truth is he has no deep game and that isn't something you learn.

This dude is a total bum, end of story and we'll find out again soon simply because we are Viking fans.

Wow. This is deep.

Any other expert opinions or astute, fact-based analysis you'd like to share?

[dead_poet]

Bridgewater has always been horrible as an NFL quarterback. If he does end up starting at some point, all of you can and should look me up because I called it a year ago. This guy is in no way, shape, or form EVER A FRANCHISE QB. He's not even close. A 1,500 yard rusher in the backfield and the worst 3 passing teams in the league? This dude is a total bum, end of story and we'll find out again soon simply because we are Viking fans. We have to find out the hard way because we haven't had a legit quarterback in 15 years other than Favre. I've watched local high school quarterbacks play better than Teddy Bridgewater.

Thank you for ignoring my post refuting and providing context. You're obviously entitled to your own opinion but...wow dude.

[PurpleMustReign]

I wouldn't call him terrible or a bum, but I don't have confidence yet that he will be the long term answer, even before the injury.

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

[Cliff]

Thank you for ignoring my post refuting and providing context. You're obviously entitled to your own opinion but...wow dude.

For what it's worth I got value of your post

[dead_poet]

For what it's worth I got value of your post

*sniff*

Thanks Cliff.