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Teddy Bridgewater Injury: Minnesota Vikings’ Season Could Be Over Before It Officially Begins

By Jason Fletcher
Published on: 07:50 PST, Aug 30, 2016

According to Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Teddy Bridgewater sustained a non-contact knee injury during Tuesday’s practice and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance for further examination. Hopefully, the injury isn’t as bad as it sounds, but if Bridgewater is out for an extended period, the Vikings’ defense of the NFC North title just became nearly impossible.

Minnesota drafted Teddy Bridgewater with the No. 32 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft out of Louisville. During his rookie season, Bridgewater started 12 games for the Vikings as he went 6-6 and helped lead the team to a surprising 7-9 record. Teddy completed 64.4 percent of his passes for 2,919 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions while adding 209 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Last season, Bridgewater played even better as he went 11-5 as the starter and led the Minnesota Vikings to their first NFC North division crown since 2009. Teddy completed 65 percent of his passes for 3,231 yards, 14 touchdowns, and nine interceptions while adding 192 yards rushing and three touchdowns on the ground.

The Vikings were hoping for an even larger jump from Teddy Bridgewater heading into 2016 as the team drafted Laquon Treadwell in the first-round of the 2016 NFL Draft. With Stefon Diggs, Adrian Peterson, Kyle Rudolph and Treadwell, Bridgewater was finally going to have some serious weapons around him in the offense.

After missing the team’s second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks with a bit of a shoulder injury, Bridgewater returned to face the San Diego Chargers on Sunday and looked ready for the regular season. He completed 12-of-16 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown and added two rushes for 21 yards despite only playing the first half.

If the Minnesota Vikings’ worst fears come true, and Teddy Bridgewater is diagnosed with a serious knee injury that forces him to miss the entire season, the team would likely turn to veteran journeyman Shaun Hill as its starting quarterback for the 2016 season.

The 36-year-old Hill is entering his second season with the Vikings and hasn’t started an NFL game since 2014 when he was with the St. Louis Rams. Hill made eight starts that year for the Rams as he completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 1,657 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions en route to a 3-5 record as a starter.

Hill has shown the ability to be a starting quarterback in the NFL at times, but there’s a reason that he’s never been able to stick with one team, and that reason is turnovers. In 46 career games played, Hill has thrown 30 interceptions and fumbled another 15 times. That’s an average of one turnover per appearance, not just starts. If that continues, the Vikings could be in a lot of trouble in 2016.

The only other two quarterbacks listed on the Minnesota Vikings’ roster behind Teddy Bridgewater and Shaun Hill are rookie Joel Stave and second-year man, Taylor Heinicke. Heinicke, however, will be out for a couple of months after he severed a tendon in his foot while trying to kick in a friend’s window back in July, according to Business Insider.

With Hill and Stave presumably the only healthy quarterbacks on the roster, expect the general manager to scour the trade market for another signal-caller or sign one in free agency. A guy to keep an eye on would be the New York Jets’ Geno Smith. Smith has fallen out of favor in New York, but he would likely come cheap and could provide tremendous upside.

Hopefully, this article was just a colossal waste of time, and Teddy Bridgewater will be ready to go for the regular season. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to be the case.

[Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images]

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