Mike Wallace actually ripped himself when you think about it

Mike Wallace took a shot at Teddy Bridgewater and the Vikings offense after joining the Ravens, but he also accidentally confessed to his own short-comings.

Yesterday in his first press conference after signing a two-year $11.5 million deal with the Ravens, Mike Wallace said some things that were interpreted as a shot at Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater.

Wallace was trying to praise Joe Flacco but his choice of words made it sound like he was equally putting down Bridgewater (via @Ravens):

"I need a good quarterback. I need a quarterback who I know is proven and can get things done. Flacco has always been that guy, I’ve always loved his deep ball."

But in a way, Wallace was actually putting himself down as much as Bridgewater. “I need a good/proven quarterback” implies that Bridgewater is bad and unproven, but it equally implies that Wallace himself is not the kind of receiver who makes an average/still-learning quarterback look better.

Wallace didn’t mean to offer a starkly honest self-assessment, but he actually did. And he’s correct. He needs a good (i.e. fully-developed) quarterback in order to perform. He’s not the kind of receiver who runs crisp routes, makes tough catches over the middle or does any of the other little things that could help a still-developing player like Bridgewater succeed.

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Wallace wants to do one thing: run fast down the field and have some QB with a big arm heave the ball to him. That’s the whole key to his success. Going across the middle, making catches underneath, coming back to the QB when he’s scrambling. These are not in Wallace’s toolkit.

So yes Mike Wallace, I absolutely agree with you. Without a “good” quarterback, you are pretty much worthless. The Vikings brought you in hoping your skills would help Teddy Bridgewater grow but they misfired badly.