Teddy Bridgewater No Better Than a Career Backup?

Members of the Hasselbeck family excel at opening cans of worms with their comments. It just seems to be a special skill for those folks.

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Former NFL QB Tim Hasselbeck, husband of TV opinion-giver Elisabeth Hasselbeck, has gotten conversation going about Vikings rookie Teddy Bridgewater with his remarks about Bridgewater’s future in the NFL.

Tim did not offer a glowing assessment of Teddy’s future prospects.

Hasselbeck watched Bridgewater against the Packers and concluded that the rookie is at best a backup QB in the NFL (via 1500ESPN):

"“I don’t believe he’s a starter in the NFL,” Hasselbeck said on ESPN Radio. “I believe that Teddy Bridgewater — and this isn’t meant to be a shot on him, I was a backup quarterback — I think he’s a good backup quarterback. I think he’d have a nice long career as a backup.”"

Hasselbeck pointed to Bridgewater’s deep ball struggles as a serious negative:

"“His inability to drive the ball down the field showed itself big time in that game against Green Bay,” Hasselbeck said. “In fact, the game may be a little bit different if he’s able to make two throws in that game that he just doesn’t have the arm strength to make consistently. It’s the difference.“Over a period of time people understand that about you and you start to get defended that way. Ultimately, I think that that’s what will happen.”"

We’ve seen Bridgewater miss too many open receivers down the field in recent weeks, and we’re definitely concerned about this issue.

However, I think it’s probably too early in the process to declare Bridgewater a career backup.

It’s true that many scouts questioned Bridgewater’s ability to deliver the deep ball even before the draft. In college he showed himself adept at delivering short-to-intermediate passes with accuracy, and he was solid in his overall decision-making.

So far in the pros, Bridgewater has largely confirmed what the scouts said about him: Really solid short-to-intermediate accuracy and good at taking care of the ball. But not so great to the deeper levels.

The question Bridgewater will need to answer is this: Is the deep ball issue a function of mechanics or is it a matter of inadequate arm-strength?

If it’s mechanics, then Bridgewater should be able to improve his long ball accuracy. I think we knew going in that Bridgewater was never going to be a long ball artist like Aaron Rodgers or Brett Favre. But you don’t need a cannon to succeed.

If Bridgewater’s arm-strength is indeed such that he is never able to deliver long balls with accuracy and zip? Then Hasselbeck’s long-term assessment may ultimately prove to be true.

I personally would prefer to give Teddy a full offseason to prepare as the starter and work more on his mechanics before I make up my mind about his being only a backup-level QB.

If his issues persist into next season? Then we will have a situation on our hands.

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