Young Theodore Bridgewater

[losperros]

I"m just glad he didn't regress like Ponder and Jackson did. I agree he didn't have perfect accuracy, but he did get better as the season went on.

And that's why I think he's showing growth, which is what the team needs from him.

[John_Viveiros]

I like what he showed us as a rookie but I think his pro game needs more work than most people think. Fortunately, he seems more than willing to put in the effort and he seems to have the right mentality to succeed so I'm optimistic about what we'll see from him this season.

I particularly liked the way he worked out after practice on some special circumstances - "Wet Ball Wednesday" if I recall was when he dipped the ball in water and threw it, over an over again, to get accustomed to the slight loss of grip with a wet ball. That's being professional!

[PacificNorseWest]

His accuracy seemed to improved greatly towards the end. I most concern myself with short to medium range, which I think he was very good at. His deep ball accuracy, while improved, needs some work. Teddy almost seems like a guy that will never be great at it, but can look very very good with long ball if he has that comfort level and familiarity with one or two receivers. Also, that's saying guys that can adjust and are great at making their Q look good by bringing down a lot of passes that otherwise would be incomplete. It's why I hope Charlie, Wallace and Diggs are here for the long haul and this is at least 5-year thing with this receiving group.

[808vikingsfan]

Breakdown of Bridgewater's 12 Turnovers

Teddy Bridgewater’s 12 Turnovers in 2014

Bridgewater did throw an interception with the game on the line. Besides that, he kept a clean slate in the 4th Quarter in 2014. We definitely see a trend here, however, and it’s with 2nd Quarter interceptions. This indicates that Bridgewater gets more reckless when he’s trying to lead the team down the field before halftime. He threw 5 interceptions with fewer than 5 minutes left in the first half. That’s nearly half of his picks. Scoring before halftime can help change the game, because it definitely helps to be up that much more (or be that much closer to the lead) getting out of halftime. Bridgewater will need to clean that up and stay focused as the half winds down.

[808vikingsfan]

SI has doubts about Bridgewater. Ranked 23 out of 32.

Was tightly managed last season before showing extremely encouraging signs down the stretch. The Vikings think they have their guy. Loosen the leash and let's find out

Ranking NFL Quarterbacks

[HardcoreVikesFan]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... s-we-think

Teddy Bridgewater: Vikings not as good as we think

"Right now, we're not as good as what we think," Bridgewater said, via USA Today's Tom Pelissero. "We know that the ceiling is very high and the expectation level is very high -- not only for the players, but from a coaching staff also. We know what's being asked of us, but we have a long way to go."

How can you not be a fan of this man? Humble and hardworking. This team is finally headed in the correct direction. Skol.

[John_Viveiros]

SI has doubts about Bridgewater. Ranked 23 out of 32.
Ranking NFL Quarterbacks

Read the comment section. It's a good cross-section of fans, no one wearing purple blinders. Most people think that list is pretty suspect. Even the Packers fans seem to have Teddy as the 2nd best QB in the division.

[jackal]

Cutler was ranked way too high ....Rodgers is probably the best QB in the game...If Teddy becomes
close to what Rodgers is, we have a very good chance at a ring or two

[DK Sweets]

Teddy Bridgewater had the fifth-best passer rating for any rookie quarterback with at least eight starts in NFL history.

Interesting observation (for me): Bridgewater leads Ponder in completion percentage by 5 points, QB rating by 10 points, and throws about 50 yards more per start. I understand that offensive philosophies play into this, but it's hard not to be excited about how good this offense can be with Peterson back in the fold.

[TeddyBaller]

SI has doubts about Bridgewater. Ranked 23 out of 32.



Ranking NFL Quarterbacks

the media needs to stop trying to make derek carr happen, the dude was basically blake bortles with 21 td passes... dude is a bum 5.5 ypa wat

[DK Sweets]

SI has doubts about Bridgewater. Ranked 23 out of 32.
Ranking NFL Quarterbacks

I never got around to reading this at the time, but I don't like the rankings pretty much across the board. They weren't terrible, but I was constantly thinking that a player was about 3 spots away from where they really should be.

As much as I hate to say it, Tom Brady over Aaron Rodgers is only legit if we're basing it off their entire careers. Aaron Rodgers is the best QB in the game right now, and he has been for a few years.

[Jordysghost]

I never got around to reading this at the time, but I don't like the rankings pretty much across the board. They weren't terrible, but I was constantly thinking that a player was about 3 spots away from where they really should be.

As much as I hate to say it, Tom Brady over Aaron Rodgers is only legit if we're basing it off their entire careers. Aaron Rodgers is the best QB in the game right now, and he has been for a few years.

Tom Brady over Rodgers is only legit if were basing it solely off of rings.

Statistically speaking Brady is well behind Rodgers and it isnt even close, but I understand ranking him 1 simply because he just won a SB that is very fresh in peoples minds. What I dont understand is how Bridge is only at 22, please.

[John_Viveiros]

SI has doubts about Bridgewater. Ranked 23 out of 32.
Ranking NFL Quarterbacks

I don't know who would trade Teddy for Cutler (higher on the list) straight up, regardless of salary impact.

I know not everyone likes the fancy statistics, but I think the Carr vs. Bridgewater debate needs them. Carr was able to throw 21 TD's, while Bridgewater threw only 14. But so many of Teddy's TD's were eaten up by the goal-line prowess of Asiata. In that case, the Net Expected Points stat captures the fact that Teddy brought them to the brink of scoring (expected points for driving you team to first and goal is pretty good) a lot. According to that stat, Teddy created something like 30 points over expected, while Derek was some 50-60 points under expected points.

The other stats are Bad Decision Rate and Interceptible Passes, which showed Teddy to be way, way better at. Comb back through the thread for all these other statistical slices of QB rating.

[John_Viveiros]

A ton of Teddy love, from the Bleacher Report (complete with stats):
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2521 ... arterbacks
A sampling:

(note-comparing rookie seasons) For what it's worth, the 2014 first-round pick's rookie numbers blew Luck's and Tannehill's out of the water and were also better than those put up by Manning as a rook in 1998 and Brees during his first full season in 2002. He also compared relatively well to Tom Brady during his first full campaign in 2001.

[Mothman]

I don't know who would trade Teddy for Cutler (higher on the list) straight up, regardless of salary impact.

I know not everyone likes the fancy statistics, but I think the Carr vs. Bridgewater debate needs them. Carr was able to throw 21 TD's, while Bridgewater threw only 14. But so many of Teddy's TD's were eaten up by the goal-line prowess of Asiata. In that case, the Net Expected Points stat captures the fact that Teddy brought them to the brink of scoring (expected points for driving you team to first and goal is pretty good) a lot. According to that stat, Teddy created something like 30 points over expected, while Derek was some 50-60 points under expected points.

The other stats are Bad Decision Rate and Interceptible Passes, which showed Teddy to be way, way better at. Comb back through the thread for all these other statistical slices of QB rating.

If we're going to step back and look at often subjective "fancy statistics" we might as well step all the way back and consider the overall quality of the teams surrounding the two QBs too. I think Bridgewater had a pretty clear advantage over Carr there and team play is inevitably going to impact how well an offense achieves "expected points".

I don't believe we can just assume Asiata and the running game ate up TD's Bridgewater would have thrown. There's no guarantee those drives would have ended in TDs at all if they Vikes had passed instead of running. Some of them probably would have but others could have ended in turnovers, field goals, etc. There's absolutely no way to know.