Quarterbacks Case Keenum, Sam Bradford, and Teddy Bridgewater were all members of the 2017 Minnesota Vikings, and they will all share something in common again.
Not one of them will be on the Vikings roster Week 1.
With Minnesota landing their big free agent target in quarterback Kirk Cousins on a fully-guaranteed deal, there is no longer a need to keep Keenum, Bradford, and Bridgewater around when you can sign a cheap veteran quarterback for cheap, or draft one cheaply. Those three guys realized that, so they all decided to go elsewhere.
First, Keenum decided to sign with the Denver Broncos, and then Bradford decided to sign with the Arizona Cardinals, leaving Bridgewater as the finally ex-Viking quarterback to make his decision. Ultimately, Bridgewater chose to sign with the New York Jets, and it’ll be for a one-year deal, reports Chris Mortensen of ESPN:
Teddy Bridgewater plans to sign a one year deal with the Jets Wednesday, per source
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) March 14, 2018
As noted in the Tweet, the intention is for Bridgewater to sign his deal tomorrow, when the start of the NFL’s new league year happens at 4 pm eastern standard time. Bridgewater was reportedly part of the Jets ‘Plan B’ which included the re-signing of veteran quarterback Josh McCown. Plan A was to sign Cousins, but they ultimately were beat out by the Vikings having the advantage from a winning standpoint. So, the Jets quickly turned to their second plan, and were able to execute it 100% perfectly.
With Bridgewater now off the market, the best remaining quarterback is A.J. McCarron, who spent the first chapter of his career backing up Andy Dalton with the Cincinnati Bengals. There hasn’t been much reported interest in McCarron up until this point, and the Buffalo Bills are looking at all avenues to acquire a quarterback right now.
Since being named to the Pro Bowl in 2015, Bridgewater has only thrown two total NFL passes. A non-contact injury during an August 2016 practice sidelined Bridgewater for 19 months. Reports indicate that Bridgewater had both torn his ACL, and dislocated his knee joint. Doctors considered the injury to be career-threatening, but Bridgewater was able to fight his way back and preserve to defy the odds.
New York still holds the sixth pick in the upcoming 2018 NFL Draft, and there are no clear indications as to what they will do with their pick. If they do elect to pick a quarterback, it’ll make for quite the crowded quarterback depth chart for Gang Green. In-addition to already having McCown and Bridgewater on the roster, the Jets currently also have Christian Hackenburg, Bryce Petty, and Joel Stave on their active roster. Obviously, they will trim down their QB situation to at least three at some point, but drafting a quarterback on draft night would mean they would have double the quarterbacks that they actually need.
Some reports indicate that the Jets have already guaranteed McCown the starting job, but it might be best too wait and see how things play out before we invest to much stock into that.
The 25-year-old Bridgewater was ranked as The Game Day Report’s 20th best free agent out of 50 this off-season. For his NFL career, Bridgewater has a 86.3 passer rating, a 64.7% completion percentage, 6,150 yards, and 28 touchdowns to go with 22 interceptions.
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