The Minnesota Vikings reportedly will not be extending the quarterback’s current contract that would keep him on the team through the 2018 season.
This should not come as a great surprise, but the Minnesota Vikings are not going to pick up the fifth-year contract option for quarterback Teddy Bridgewater according to USA TODAY’s Tom Peliserro on Monday.
Bridgewater is making progress, doing conditioning w/ team. Most likely scenario hasn’t changed: start season on PUP, reevaluate in October.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 1, 2017
Last week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Vikings were not expected to pick up Bridgewater’s option and Peliserro’s report all but confirms it. If Minnesota did in fact decide to pick up the quarterback’s option, his salary would have been a little over $12 million in 2018.
If Peliserro’s report in fact turns out to be true, Bridgewater could become a free-agent following the conclusion of the 2017 season. But that would also only happen if he gets added to the Vikings’ active roster at any point during the upcoming season.
Before anyone gets all sad about Minnesota kicking Bridgewater to the curb, if the quarterback begins 2017 on the PUP list, as he is expected to, and remains on there for the entirety of the season, his contract would toll and he would be a member of the Vikings for 2018 and become a free-agent in 2019.
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This would actually be the smartest route Minnesota could take with their young quarterback since $12 million seems like a little too much to offer a player who is coming off of a very serious knee injury. Just know that this decision by the Vikings would not mean that the team is giving up on their former first-round draft pick.