Report: Teddy Expected to be Activated Wednesday
Joe Johnson
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Y’all ready for some parenthesis?
The official deadline to take players off of the PUP-list (and to activate them) is Wednesday of this week and because the Vikings don’t practice until then (and because Zimmer likes drama) the report from NFL Insider Ian Rapoport says that the Vikings will announce Teddy’s return to the active roster then. Now, there hasn’t been a bigger Vikings topic in the news or fan zeitgeist than the whole Teddy vs. Case Keenum (who has performed… Just okay as the replacement for Sam Bradford, who still could also return (according to NFL Outsider… Me) for the playoffs and bring this team it’s first Championship since before the merger) situation and this should only intensify the back and forth on Vikings social media (which is why I’m posting about it now) that is tearing Vikings fandom apart.
Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit for effect… The reality is that the people who love Keenum really should/need to take a deep breath as Teddy most likely won’t immediately start at the QB position as while he has reportedly played well in practice, he still has a ways to go to recover from the devastating injury he suffered last pre-season. So, you can (and will) debate how Teddy shouldn’t replace the 4-2 Keenum, but we probably won’t see Teddy return until the Vikings start losing (which is actually a strong possibility with their upcoming schedule (I know I sound negative but the reality is that this Vikings team has been beating really bad teams (that are also devastated by injury) and Keenum has been taking entire halves to get going, something the team won’t be able to overcome forever)) and when the Vikings are absolutely certain that he can handle it (you know how much Zimmer loves Teddy, also, I mean he tried to carve out his own eye when he saw what happened to Teddy’s leg. IIRC). Now, I’ve always been a strong believer in Sam Bradford and I don’t actually think he has arthritis, at least career ending arthritis. If he did, they would’ve scoped his knee in the hopes that he could return next year (with another team, most likely) and, so, the fact that he’s still healing naturally on the sidelines/”nowhere to be found” is actually a good (yet weird) thing. And by “they” I mean Sam and his agent, who would’ve performed the procedure themselves if they had to. I think he did bruise something (or hyper-extend it, or both) and that he exacerbated the original injury in the Bears game and so I still believe he can return and that he is the best option for this team as he is the only QB on the roster who can take advantage of the fact that the Vikes have the two best side-by-side deep ball catching wide receivers in the NFL.
There’s also the issue(s) of rust, when it comes to Teddy, as he hasn’t played a game since the Vikings lost to the Seahawks (thanks to now Seahawks kicker (and is missing kicks left and right (pun))))))))). Sure, Sam will probably be rusty as well but he’s only been gone for a few weeks and he’s also actually played under Pat Shurmer’s scheme. That’s a huge x-factor and while Keenum has been slow to get going, he does have good stats (completion percentage, touchdown to interception ratio) and an apparently fervent fan-base all of a sudden, even if he misses wide open receivers (either by over-throwing them or by checking down and missing an easy TD). So, while I expect some of those people to use this article as digital toilet paper, keep in mind that just because a quarterback isn’t mobile doesn’t mean that he can’t get rid of the ball should he have to and also that this Vikings offense made the Saints defense look like the Vikings defense in the late 90’s/early 00’s week one. They made the Saints look so bad, in fact, that people wrote the Saints off completely (Week 2 didn’t help their cause but one could argue, for the sake of hyperbole, that Sam broke their spirits so bad Week 1 that it carried over into Week 2). Look at them now and imagine a Vikings offense that could open up the run game by using the best WR combo (and the best combo of WR’s at all three levels, period) the way they should be used. Not to mention that the Eagle’s are our biggest threat/competition/probably NFC Championship competitor and that Sam knows that team inside and out…
… Oh yeah, but this was an article about Teddy coming back this week. So, yeah, look out for that Wednesday and I will say that I’d take Teddy over Keenum (If Sam can’t come back). Now, Teddy has been a slow starter, as well, but he has also shown the poise and clutch ability of a great quarterback and he was still really, really young (and still improving). So, this all depends on his health, of course, and I really don’t think that the Vikes should bring him back unless he’s as close to the “old Teddy” as he’s really ever going to be (physically) because he could be one hit away from losing an actual leg (which would be a new low for the Vikings and the source of so many Packers jokes that outside of the tragedy that that would be, for Teddy, it’d be almost worse for those of us who have to endure Packers fans and their three (or now four, in this theoretical (and selfish), take) jokes). I like Teddy as a person, though, and did think that he looked like the great QB we hoped he’d be last pre-season before he got hurt, so maybe he can hit the deep ball now that he’s had time to work on his upper body form. I guess we’ll see this week (in practice at the very least)!
Stay tuned (and thanks for putting up with all of these!)!