Teddy Bridgewater might be the odd man out in New York
By Adam Patrick
The former Minnesota Vikings quarterback is possibly in danger of not making the New York Jets’ roster for the 2018 season.
It did not take long for former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to find a new team once free agency began last March. After losing out on landing Kirk Cousins, the New York Jets ended up signing Bridgewater to a one-year deal worth up to $6 million.
Now, about two months after signing with the Jets, the former Vikings quarterback may actually be in danger of not making his new team’s regular season roster.
During the most recent NFL Draft, New York was able to select USC signal caller Sam Darnold with their very first pick. Darnold now joins a Jets quarterback group that currently includes Bridgewater, Josh McCown, and Christian Hackenberg.
McCown started 13 games for New York last season and will likely open 2018 as either the starter or the backup. It would cost the Jets $10 million in cap space to release the veteran quarterback this year, so there’s really no reason to think that he won’t be on the team’s final 2018 roster.
Minnesota Vikings
With Darnold also pretty much guaranteed a roster spot for next season, that leaves New York with a decision to make on Bridgewater. It really just depends on if the Jets want to keep three quarterbacks on their roster for 2018 or not.
New York’s upcoming training camp and preseason are very vital to Bridgewater’s future in the NFL. If he impresses the Jets this summer, the team will likely find a way to keep him on their 2018 roster or possibly even use him as trade bait for another quarterback-needy team.
Even if Bridgewater doesn’t blow New York out of the water with his play in camp and the preseason, keeping him around is a low-risk option for the team given his current cost. The Jets would only endure a cap hit of $500,000 if they were to release the former Minnesota quarterback before the start of the season.
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Despite the low cap hit, New York may decide that the concerns surrounding Bridgewater’s surgically repaired knee are still too high to keep a roster spot for him in 2018. If this ends up being the case, the quarterback may unfortunately struggle to find a team at all for next season.