The Teddy Bridgewater Thread

[John_Viveiros]

how can any of you blame mike wallace? our deep passing game is pathetic on every level. in fact, in all reality our deep passing game doesn't even exist. wallace was missed at least THREE times wide open the past 2 weeks. last week, he was standing in the middle of the field and teddy threw it into the dirt. that pass looked worse than ponder. if teddy doesn't get it together soon this team will implode. last week's defensive performance was the best i've seen out of a vikings team as far as i remember, but to beat these teams in the second half of the season we need some semblance of an offense. our line has actually been playing better (at least better than they were) so what will be next week's excuse if he throws for another 175 yds, 1 td, and 1 int? that isn't going to cut it against winning caliber teams, of which we haven't played in a very long time.

I give partial blame to Wallace (or more accurately, assign the chances of the misfires being on Wallace rather than Bridgewater to a number at least at 50%). The connections with Wallace on deep balls are particularly brutal, much more so than with other receivers. I can remember bad deep throws to the other guys, but I can remember really nice throws to them too. I don't remember a single nice fly pattern that worked with Wallace.

So for me, if Teddy is having some success with Thielen, Diggs, Wright, Johnson (and Jennings last year), and can't connect with Wallace, it may not be Teddy's fault. I realize some of you feel differently.

Something else about Teddy - he plays better from behind, IMO. I wonder if the run/run/pass playcalling is really getting in the way here. When Teddy is slinging the ball around the field late in the half or the game, he tends to be dead on, again, IMO (leading to the large number of late scores/comeback wins. In essence, this is the inconsistency stated in the thread title.

I have to mention a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Adrian Peterson has been in the league for a long time to stink this badly at pass blocking. He can't possibly be working on it to get better, because he'd BE better. This costs the Vikings many drives, when AP misses a block, or he can't be in the lineup to make way for a better blocking back so we lose the possibility of getting him the ball on 3rd and long and seeing what he can do against a defense running away from the LOS with their backs towards him.

[J. Kapp 11]

Thanks. That was an awesome explaination. (And, by the way, I was a huge Joe Kapp fan when I was 9 years old. Talk about a floppy ball... but he was successful. I was crushed when he signed with the Patriots).

You're welcome. I'm glad you found it informative.

Joe Kapp was a different breed. He was a leader and a tough guy. The stories say he would come to the line of scrimmage and curse at the D-linemen, telling them he was going to run them over. Joe Kapp would rather eat glass than slide to avoid a hit. He practically threw the ball end-over-end, yet he threw 7 TD passes in a game. He was amazing.

For those who love a tough guy quarterback, watch this. Pay particular attention to the play 2:09 into the video, when he knocks a Cleveland linebacker out cold. That's football, mates.

[Lars]

You're welcome. I'm glad you found it informative.

Joe Kapp was a different breed. He was a leader and a tough guy. The stories say he would come to the line of scrimmage and curse at the D-linemen, telling them he was going to run them over. Joe Kapp would rather eat glass than slide to avoid a hit. He practically threw the ball end-over-end, yet he threw 7 TD passes in a game. He was amazing.

For those who love a tough guy quarterback, watch this. Pay particular attention to the play 2:09 into the video, when he knocks a Cleveland linebacker out cold. That's football, mates.

I loved it when they played in the snow!

[Mothman]

For those who love a tough guy quarterback, watch this. Pay particular attention to the play 2:09 into the video, when he knocks a Cleveland linebacker out cold. That's football, mates.

Man, that was fun to watch! Thanks for the link, Kapp.

[PurpleMustReign]

Man, that was fun to watch! Thanks for the link, Kapp.

His name is Bub.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Mothman]

His name is Bub.

He's "Kapp" to me.

[J. Kapp 11]

Man, that was fun to watch! Thanks for the link, Kapp.

That is one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time. The snow, the mud, the rough-and-tumble nature of the game, the single-bar facemask ... it's a beautiful thing.

[dead_poet]

I thought this was interesting.

Bridgewater finished last season with the third-highest completion percentage by a rookie in NFL history (64.4 percent), and has connected on 64.2 percent of his passes this season.

I think the problem many people have is that we were expecting growth, but Teddy has already started out pretty darn accurate (for an NFL rookie). I don't think it's a stretch to believe if he can get better protection that his accuracy numbers will improve. Some might say it's fairly impressive that he can maintain a decent completion percentage despite even worse protection this year from a patched-up offensive line.

This is from an article comparing Teddy and Carr, which can be found here: http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... -more-wins

[fiestavike]

I thought this was interesting.
I think the problem many people have is that we were expecting growth, but Teddy has already started out pretty darn accurate (for an NFL rookie). I don't think it's a stretch to believe if he can get better protection that his accuracy numbers will improve. Some might say it's fairly impressive that he can maintain a decent completion percentage despite even worse protection this year from a patched-up offensive line.

This is from an article comparing Teddy and Carr, which can be found here: http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... -more-wins

In his last presser Zimmer pretty explicitly said that Teddy is being a little too careful and needs to be more of a playmaker. It didn't come across as a criticism so much as encouragement for Teddy that its time to go out there are make big plays. Interesting to hear at this point in the season, but I think encouraging to know that Teddy is not being held back by his coaches in order to squeak out another win or two. This team is aiming high!

[Mothman]

I thought this was interesting.
I think the problem many people have is that we were expecting growth, but Teddy has already started out pretty darn accurate (for an NFL rookie). I don't think it's a stretch to believe if he can get better protection that his accuracy numbers will improve. Some might say it's fairly impressive that he can maintain a decent completion percentage despite even worse protection this year from a patched-up offensive line.

This is from an article comparing Teddy and Carr, which can be found here: http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... -more-wins

I apologize for but completion percentage is simply a measure of passes completed, not a measure of accuracy.

Anyway, Bridgewater's completion percentage is solid, certainly not bad for a player his age. He throws a lot of short passes so he should have a good completion percentage.

I agree that the problem many people are having is we're looking for growth from Bridgewater and we're not seeing it. I can't speak for anybody else but I'm looking primarily for growth and improvement in production: first downs, sustained scoring drives, touchdowns, effective downfield passing when teams load up to stop Peterson, etc. I want to see him take fewer unnecessary sacks, improve his TD/INT ratio and consistently make the routine throws look routine. I want to see his accuracy improve too but in terms of completion percentage, if he stayed right where he is but the production improved, that would be just fine at this stage of his career.

[dead_poet]

completion percentage is simply a measure of passes completed, not a measure of accuracy.

I think it's certainly a component measurement of accuracy. How else are you going to measure accuracy?

Anyway, Bridgewater's completion percentage is solid, certainly not bad for a player his age. He throws a lot of short passes so he should have a good completion percentage.

Exactly what I'm saying: it's not bad for a player his age/experience level. Does he throw a lot of short passes? Per the article, Teddy has thrown passes of 10 yards or more 9.6 times/game, which is slightly under Carr's 12.2 per game. Teddy's yards per attempt this year is 7.2, which ranks him 20th this year (ahead of guys like Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Matthew Stafford and Andrew Luck). Carr is 12th at 7.6, or just 0.4 yards (1.2 feet) more per attempt. Last year Teddy was 14th in that particular category (7.26, which was higher than guys like Carson Palmer, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady, Cam Newton and Jay Cutler).

I agree that the problem many people are having is we're looking for growth from Bridgewater and we're not seeing it. I can't speak for anybody else but I'm looking primarily for growth and improvement in production: first downs, sustained scoring drives, touchdowns, effective downfield passing when teams load up to stop Peterson, etc. I want to see him take fewer unnecessary sacks, improve his TD/INT ratio and consistently make the routine throws look routine. I want to see his accuracy improve too but in terms of completion percentage, if he stayed right where he is but the production improved, that would be just fine at this stage of his career.

I'd agree with that. I think that's something we'd all like to see. I also think if Teddy's completion percentage increased near the 70% mark as was his goal, you'd also see some of that improvement. I'd add he's got to get rid of the ball quicker. The line will have its hands full with Mack and Smith this week but I would hope that if they can give Teddy time he will have a better day than last week vs. weaker defensive backs.

[Mothman]

I think it's certainly a component measurement of accuracy. How else are you going to measure accuracy?

By looking at where the ball is actually placed. Isn't that what accuracy is about, placement of the ball on a pass? Some inaccurate passes get completed and some accurate passes are dropped. Completion percentage simply tells us which percentage of passes were caught, not how accurately they were thrown.

Exactly what I'm saying: it's not bad for a player his age/experience level. Does he throw a lot of short passes? Per the article, Teddy has thrown passes of 10 yards or more 9.6 times/game, which is slightly under Carr's 12.2 per game. Teddy's yards per attempt this year is 7.2, which ranks him 20th this year (ahead of guys like Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Matthew Stafford and Andrew Luck). Carr is 12th at 7.6, or just 0.4 yards (1.2 feet) more per attempt. Last year Teddy was 14th in that particular category (7.26, which was higher than guys like Carson Palmer, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady, Cam Newton and Jay Cutler).

Perhaps I'm mistaken. I couldn't find a pass distribution chart of his throws but it sure seems to me that he's thrown a lot of short passes (especially in 2014). I also really hate to point this out in light of what I just posted about accuracy and completion percentage but yards per attempt doesn't measure the distance of passes thrown so YPA on its own doesn't tell us how often Bridgewater throws short. A short oascan sometimes provide a huge boost to a QB's YPA. For example, Wright's 87 yard catch and run against the Jets last season alone raised Bridgewater's YPA for the 2014 season from 7.1 to 7.3. That pass was completed behind the line of scrimmage but it had the statistical impact of a long, 87 yard bomb.

A less dramatic example would be the 9 yard throw to Diggs against the Bears that he turned into an approximately 40 yard TD (I forget the exact yardage). I'm not saying a 9 yard pass is a short pass, just illustrating that YPA doesn't really tell us about the distance of the throw.

I'd agree with that. I think that's something we'd all like to see. I also think if Teddy's completion percentage increased near the 70% mark as was his goal, you'd also see some of that improvement. I'd add he's got to get rid of the ball quicker. The line will have its hands full with Mack and Smith this week but I would hope that if they can give Teddy time he will have a better day than last week vs. weaker defensive backs.

I hope so. I'm sure if his completion percentage was better we'd see some other improvement along with that. he definitely needs to get rid of the ball more quickly.

In my opinion, he's playing QB at a backup-caliber level this season. That has to change.

[DK Sweets]

Fantastic post DP! Thanks for doing the research on that one.

[Mothman]

Exactly what I'm saying: it's not bad for a player his age/experience level. Does he throw a lot of short passes? Per the article, Teddy has thrown passes of 10 yards or more 9.6 times/game, which is slightly under Carr's 12.2 per game.

I have to point out one more thing:

Bridgewater is averaging 29 pass attempts per game this season so if he's throwing passes of 10 yards or more an average of 9.6 times/game, that means he's throwing passes under 10 yards 19.4 times per game, correct? Basically, 2-3 of his throws are short passes.

[dead_poet]

I have to point out one more thing:

Bridgewater is averaging 29 pass attempts per game this season so if he's throwing passes of 10 yards or more an average of 9.6 times/game, that means he's throwing passes under 10 yards 19.4 times per game, correct? Basically, 2-3 of his throws are short passes.

That sounds right. I'm not sure what you're getting at here, though?