Kansas City Chiefs trade idea: Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater
By Matt Conner
Why the Vikings would trade Bridgewater?
At this point, Teddy Bridgewater is nothing more than a question mark. He’s akin to one of those dozen San Antonio Spurs assets who is taken in the second round every year of the NBA Draft who lingers overseas playing for some Greek team that you’ve never heard of. Then one year, he may or may not come over and put up impressive numbers and you realize Gregg Poppovich traded his rights in 2009.
It’s possible Bridgewater returns and becomes a starting NFL quarterback again. It’s also possible he never returns or suits up for any team ever again. It’s also possible, and even likely, that the answer is somewhere in the middle of all of this—that Bridgewater gets a green light to come back but is never quite the same. It was a devastating injury. It forced a complete knee reconstruction. The mental and physical toll will be quite a hurdle to overcome.
It’s important to also note that Bridgewater’s production wasn’t over the moon. It’s not as if everyone pointed to Teddy Bridgewater as the reason the Vikings went 11-5 just two seasons ago. The defense was playoff caliber and Adrian Peterson led the NFL in rushing. Bridgewater’s numbers looked worse than Alex Smith this last year with only 14 touchdowns and 9 interceptions—compared to the 14 and 12 he posted the season before. In short, Bridgewater has never shown off a cannon arm that can devastate a defense. At least, not yet.
The best teams are the ones who are able to admit their mistakes and simply move on. There’s a level of bravery in the Houston Texans shuttling Brock Osweiler out of town after a single season so they could officially turn the page and not deal with the distraction. The Steelers, Chiefs, Packers, Patriots all have no problems cutting veterans who are no longer worth keeping or dumping a draft pick when it doesn’t seem to be working out.
At this point, with this deal, Vikings GM Rick Spielman would be able to spin a late former first round pick into something useful and maybe even two useful things. They wouldn’t be a high pick by any stretch, but it would provide the chance to acquire a real thing and replace the question mark hanging over everyone’s head.