Teddy Bridgewater has been working on his deep ball this offseason and he seems to be making improvement.
Teddy Bridgewater did a lot of things well last year, but if there was one area of his game that warranted criticism, it was his deep ball.
Bridgewater’s accuracy in the deep range – beyond 20 yards – was just 37.5% according to Pro Football Focus. That ranked 23rd in the league.
Knowing Teddy had to become better at delivering deep, the Vikings took steps to help the QB improve his mechanics. Norv Turner and the offensive coaching staff specifically wanted him to work on coming more over-the-top. Bridgewater last year had a tendency to drop his arm slot and that caused his deeper passes to sail.
Teddy also has been urged by his coaches to take more chances deep. “Teddy needs to cut it loose more” is a phrase that has been heard a lot this year.
To help speed his improvement, Bridgewater put in a lot of time working with his fellow receivers, and even receivers from other teams including Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr, at his vaunted Teddy Two-Gloves Passing Academy.
Early reviews suggested Bridgewater had taken strides toward becoming a better downfield passer. Mike Zimmer told the St. Paul Pioneer-Press in June:
"“There was a play last week that kind of showed me the progression. … (Bridgewater) saw the safety bite a little bit and just hung it right down the middle of the field about 55 yards and a perfect strike. So those are the kind of things I see (that) two years ago or even early last year, I don’t think he would have done. … He just looks more comfortable and confident.”"
Teddy didn’t have any 55-yarders against the Bengals during joint practices this week but he did show some nice touch. One play in particular impressed Peter King of MMQB (via Vikings.com):
"“What was so cool that I saw out here is probably one of the best plays I’ve seen on my camp tour,” King told Vikings.com on Wednesday. “Teddy Bridgewater throws a ball … and it very sweetly just flies over the outstretched hands of Adam Jones right into Diggs’ hands.”"
Another important part of the deep ball equation is chemistry between Bridgewater and his big-play receivers, Stefon Diggs and Laquon Treadwell in particular.
Bridgewater struggled last year in part because his alleged deep target Mike Wallace was not very good.
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Offensive line improvement also is needed if Bridgewater is going to have time to get off deeper throws. Last year Bridgewater was under pressure far too much. This year the Vikings have shuffled their line, added personnel and perhaps most importantly replaced Jeff Davidson with Tony Sparano.
The deep-ball puzzle has a lot of pieces that must be fit together. Hopefully the picture that results is one that includes more big plays. Trying to win by the running game and dink-and-dunk passing game is difficult.