Teddy Bridgewater is the QB the Vikings need

Even though he isn’t Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, Teddy Bridgewater has the intelligence and skill set to take the Vikings passing game to an elite level.

We all see the highlight reels, Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and you could list many more names, the 25+ yard explosive passing plays, highlighted by the play of dynamic game breaking receivers, Julio Jones, Victor Cruz, Odell Beckham Jr., and Antonio Brown. Our Viking highlights consist of A.P., our defense, and our special teams. Stefon Diggs did wind up with his fair share by seasons end.

Every great quarterback has had a trusted receiver, take the great Jerry Rice for example. Every quarterback who played a full season with this legendary receiver earned a trip to the Pro Bowl.

Another example is Randy Moss, he helped Randall Cunningham and the Vikings to break the NFL scoring record as a rookie, and 9 years later helped Tom Brady and the Patriots take the record. He even made Daunte Culpepper look good for a few years.

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I’m not saying the Vikings have not given Teddy Bridgewater any help. He has Kyle Rudolph, last year he made a connection with last years diamond in the rough Stefon Diggs, and of course we drafted “Flash” Cordarrelle Patterson… The man can sure return a kick, I just wish he could pick up our playbook, and all the routes.

Not every player can start a career like Dan Marino did his first 2 seasons, throwing 68 touchdowns to only 23 interceptions (2.956 ratio), that’s amazing. Peyton Manning threw 52 touchdowns ,but a more realistic 43 interceptions (1.21 ratio). Even Superman himself, Cam Newton, threw 43 touchdowns to 25 interceptions his first 2 campaigns (1.72 ratio). Teddy with 28 touchdowns to 21 interceptions (1.33 ratio) isn’t the most beautiful statistic, but right in line with the G.O.A.T.

All 3 of those quarterbacks have made hall of fame credentials starting with those statistics. Teddy is a very smart quarterback, and to this point we have not really asked him to win any games with his arm, we have asked him to not lose any games with poor decisions and allow our defense to control games while we run down the clock. This year that changes, we ditched Mike Wallace, and added Laquon Treadwell, in my opinion, the best receiver in the draft.

Stefon Diggs burst on to the Vikings seen last season during our Week 4 loss to the Broncos and from that moment on was our top wide receiver. Defenses soon caught on to the fact he was our only real receiving threat and really minimized his impact in the latter weeks of the season. Now we have Laquon Treadwell. You can’t double cover both, you can’t forget about Rudolph, Peterson, or McKinnon.

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We do not need a risk taking, strong armed quarterback. We need Teddy, we have trusted him this far because he is a leader and our field general. If he worked his magic without a full arsenal at his disposal, his potential should be exponentially higher. With higher potential comes higher expectations as well.

The NFL is not an easy place to win games, teams need to be led and built by the right management and coaching. Adrian Peterson will not be around forever, defenses lose key personnel all the time, we are built to win now. Not making the playoffs, or even backing in as the Wild Card is not acceptable this season. This year it is on Bridgewater to make sure we are in the hunt for a first round bye and home field advantage, not with his head, but with his arm.

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