What the Vikings do in this weekend’s NFL Draft could tip their hand on Teddy Bridgewater’s future
Aj Mansour
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I still get depressed whenever I talk about this, because man we thought that we had The Man on roster and in the fold. It was three years ago and the Minnesota Vikings were stuck right in the middle of their aggressive drafting nature and for another year had traded back up into the back end of the first round to get a quarterback. His name, Teddy Bridgewater and for two seasons it appeared as if he was on the verge of righting the ship and taking this team back to the regular relevance we’ve all been longing for.
Then tragedy struck.
One injury, a non-contact knee injury, threw ALL of that for a loop and the Minnesota Vikings were back at square one.
Fast forward to today and the situation is up in the air again. Sam Bradford is in the fold but according to reports as recently as this week, the Vikings aren’t ready yet to jump at Bradford after one year and offer up an extension past the 2017 season. It would appear that they want to see what they have a bit more this year. Pile on top of that and we were just told that there is “no timetable” on a return for Bridgewater to the field. Beyond that, nobody knows how he’ll return when and if he actually does return. That leaves low-level question marks surrounding Case Keenum and Taylor Heinicke where the ceiling is thought to be super high.
On the surface there is a ton of uncertainty surrounding the Minnesota Vikings and the quarterback of the future…again.
This is where our topic today jumps into the fold. If you’re still looking for reasons why you should pay attention to the NFL Draft this year, following what the Minnesota Vikings do this weekend could tip their hand to one side or the other revealing which way they might be leaning towards the future of Teddy Bridgewater.
I saw Teddy at Winter Park the other day, like with my own two eyes. Standing in a line he looked great but that doesn’t do anything to tell me how he’s going to do with an edge rusher who got loose and a small window to hit in between defensive backs on the field. From day one there were question marks surrounding his health, his future and the thought of him EVER playing football again. So we pay attention to the draft.
The logic here is pretty simple. With the jury allegedly still “out” on Sam Bradford, and questions surrounding health having plagued his career already, the Vikings action or inaction in drafting a quarterback could tell us a lot when it comes to working towards finding a solution for the quarterback of the future.
The Vikings have to address the quarterback position at some point but aiming for a backup and aiming for a potential starter brings with it two very different methods of thinking.
Generally speaking, you might be able to read into the situation if the Vikings draft a quarterback in or in front of the fourth round. While diamonds in the rough do exist beyond the 3rd and 4th rounds (see Tom Brady), your odds are going to be much higher to land a starter the earlier in the draft that you go QB. The Vikings have five draft picks (a 2nd, two 3rds and two 4ths) in the earlier half of the draft this year so there is something to be said about them looking at an early to mid-round quarterback this year.
If they wait until after the 4th round, that tells me they are comfortable with something that they have on roster already. In my opinion this would speak more towards the potential they see in Teddy’s future to return than in Sam’s. They’re waiting to see on Sam for the season, they’ve already gotten some info on Teddy through workouts and observations.
So if the draft wasn’t fun enough already to capture your attention for the weekend, there you have it. Just another reason to pay attention to the draft this weekend!