{"id":40799,"date":"2017-11-09T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=40799"},"modified":"2017-11-08T16:41:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T21:41:56","slug":"fan-reactions-to-the-vikings-swap-at-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2017\/11\/09\/fan-reactions-to-the-vikings-swap-at-quarterback\/","title":{"rendered":"Fan reactions to the Vikings’ swap at quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Yesterday’s news that the Vikings were activating Teddy Bridgewater and placing Sam Bradford on injured reserve got lots of reaction from the fan bloggers as well as the pro sports writers in the Twin Cities. 1500ESPN<\/em>‘s Matthew Coller provided some background on Bridgewater’s early development with the Vikings<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Last year, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said he never saw himself having another quarterback other than Bridgewater.<\/p>\n

The question comes up often: Why are Zimmer and the Vikings\u2019 players so impressed with a quarterback who only threw 14 touchdowns in 2015?<\/p>\n

The first reason is that they don\u2019t grade players on touchdowns. It\u2019s really a bad measure of QB play. In 2015, Bridgewater only threw 42 passes in the red zone, while Blake Bortles tossed 95 passes and was one of the league leaders in touchdowns. Nobody would say Bortles is better than Bridgewater. The Vikings were third in the league in rushing touchdowns in \u201915 and seventh in Drive Scoring Percentage. Bridgewater was leading his team down the field, but Adrian Peterson was getting the touches when they were in scoring position.<\/p>\n

The second reason: Coaches and teammates focus on the game tape (and winning) rather than the box score.<\/p>\n

Before we look at some of the things that made Bridgewater so popular \u2013 outside of his personality \u2013 it should be noted that we can\u2019t know until he plays whether the former first-round pick will be back to his old self or how long it will take him to trust his repaired knee. For some players, they never make a full recovery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

At Zone Coverage<\/em>, Arif Hasan<\/a> makes a strong case to start Bridgewater sooner rather than later:<\/p>\n

The Vikings genuinely do not know who they have in Bridgewater. At only 24 years old \u2014 25 on Friday \u2014 he is only 50 days older than MVP candidate Carson Wentz.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to say that there\u2019s no inherent lost cause due to age that should restrict Bridgewater from developing with enough time to hit peak performance later in his career. A second contract at this point would be wise from an age perspective and the Louisville alum might have a lot of talented football left in him.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Sam Bradford at 30 years of age likely only has one more contract left in his NFL career \u2014 one put in jeopardy by his knee injury.<\/p>\n

If Bridgewater flashes high-level potential for the Vikings, it would be better to find out now and lock him down before he hits an open market and another team gambles on the young passer. The San Francisco 49ers paid a second-round pick to acquire Jimmy Garoppolo, and he has one year left on his contract. The 49ers haven\u2019t won a game yet and aren\u2019t a threat to make the playoffs, so general manager John Lynch essentially traded a valuable draft asset for an exclusive negotiating window.<\/p>\n

The Vikings have a similar situation \u2014 with a quarterback a year younger than the 49ers\u2019 newest acquisition \u2014 and should see if that situation is worth exploiting. If Bridgewater struggles to show any potential, they can more comfortably move on from the young passer and spend an early pick on a quarterback from this year\u2019s draft \u2014 perhaps giving current Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson an opportunity to recur his role as Bridgewater\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean playing immediately; the Vikings may as well be able to find out who they have in the final few games of the season. But there\u2019s a good chance that it could take a few games to fully understand who Bridgewater is as a quarterback now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At Vikings Territory<\/em>, Austin Belisle<\/a> confesses his past sins, recants his heresy, and is accepted back into the congregation of Bridgewater Believers:<\/p>\n

I was wrong about Teddy Bridgewater. I said, he\u2019d never play another down for the Minnesota Vikings, let alone another down of football. It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t believe in Bridgewater\u2019s purpose or his drive to return to the field; like many, I believed him to be the long-term answer at quarterback the moment he was drafted in 2014.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been one to buy into \u201cfate\u201d or \u201cdestiny,\u201d but it\u2019s getting more and more difficult to deny the impossible and intangible. Just look at the storylines: Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis; a franchise that\u2019s yet to win its first Lombardi trophy; a quarterback drafted to lead them to the proverbial mountain peak; his return.<\/p>\n

Bridgewater\u2019s activation doesn\u2019t guarantee he\u2019ll be the same player circa 2015, but the hope remains he can recreate some of those memories. Anything he\u2019s lost in mobility or escapability is offset by the leadership and raw talent that\u2019s always been there; at this point, we just don\u2019t know what to expect, and that\u2019s somewhat exciting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m done doubting Bridgewater, though. The quarterback situation is playing out\u2026like no one could\u2019ve predicted. His health and the potential he adds to the offense are surprising developments in what\u2019s been a surprise of a season. Rather than rationalize, as I did for months and months this summer, I\u2019m going to enjoy this amazing moment for what it\u2019s worth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s news that the Vikings were activating Teddy Bridgewater and placing Sam Bradford on injured reserve got lots of reaction from the fan bloggers as well as the pro sports writers in the Twin Cities. 1500ESPN‘s Matthew Coller provided some background on Bridgewater’s early development with the Vikings: Last year, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[126,179,962],"class_list":["post-40799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-teddybridgewater"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-aC3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40800,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40799\/revisions\/40800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}