I couldn't have said it better myself. And trust me, I've tried a few times with this crowd lol. I'm obviously not a Vikings fan, nor am I a Louisville fan. What I am is a huge fan of Teddy Bridgwater. My fanboy take on him is well documented in this forum. I'm really glad you came along and gave that insight, when a current member and Jets fan tries to deliver that same take it's just not recieved as well and my only goal is to get that message out there. Lately the take by "experts" is that Teddy or McCown will be a bridge for one of these upcoming rookie QBs and that not only should the Jets draft one with their 1st pick, but should trade up even further to ensure we get one of them. It's not that I just want the Jets to stay put at 6 and draft a different position, it's that I KNOW if Teddy is healthy it will be a complete wasted pick and only achieve to further muddy the waters. Health is the only obstacle here. If Teddy has made a full recovery he will have Jets fans weeping tears of unexpected joy from the moment he starts (honest take, not hyperbole). And as mentioned previously by our purple OP, he is as high character of a guy as you could ever ask for. The fact that he is finally on this roster makes me giddy with anticipation. The only downside is we're going to have to pay through the nose come end of the season.
Kirk is a fantasy stats guy and a regular season guy, whose performance in the playoffs will be no different than with Case. When u make it to a conference championship, you need someone to get you to the SB. someone with intangibles of strong playoff play. Kirk laid an egg in his playoff appearance. And there was a Vikings reporter who watched hours of tape on Kirk and on Teddy and in those stretches, Teddy excelled in 4th quarter and 3rd downs, and Kirk did the opposite. The Vikings will look great in the regular season and Kirk will be a FF monster. But they're also a prime candidate to be one and done by a hot defensive opp come Jan. I wouldn't trust Kirk in the playoffs. But the surrounding cast is going to be even stronger for them this year, so even if Kirk sucks in January, they could still get into the SB. Drew Brees? different story. I couldn't imagine a stronger favorite to win the SB had the Vikings secured Drew Brees. And I agree the Jets are better off without Cousins. There are a lot better uses for that $15-$25m being saved by passing on him. Jets have some work to do and i'm a bit disappointed they weren't able to snag Norwell, Solder, or those types.
Yep, and like they say, we really won't know until we know. everything up until then will be complete guesswork. although we'll start to get signs in training camp, but preseason games will give us the best indicator before Sept.
So the question that begs to be asked: If he had played so well leading up to the injury and he healed so quickly, WHY did the Vikings CS opt to go with Case Keenum? There was obviously a QB competition, was there not? If there was then why did Ted lose to an NFL journeyman?
If your team is kicking ass, are YOU gonna bench the QB? It's not like you have Brady or Rodgers coming back from injury
And i'm sure you won't be the last Teddy fanboy created this year! (I hope) . But the biggest point i was trying to make was the media narrative is hoping Teddy can be what he was in 2015, when we should actually want him to be what he was in 2016 which was significantly better. And if he is, he could blow up in New York. I'm not getting my hopes up, and certainly understand if the Jets do, but I really hope they don't use #6 on a QB. and i'm hoping the Teddy/McCown combo deal is a sign they're willing to roll with this for a year. and to me that's the smarter play anyway. To me, you need to get your team to a certain point BEFORE you bring in the QB, you can't truly build a team around a QB. Do you want Alex Smith in 2004 trying to resuscitate the ailing 49ers, or do you want Aaron Rodgers taking over a 13-3 Packers with Pro Bowl receivers and a Top 10 defense? Do they want DeShone Kizer trying to carry the 1-15 Browns, or do they want DeShaun Watson being plugged into the ready-to-go Texans? Trade down from #6 and grab those primo OT's and some other guys. Worst case scenario Teddy can't go anymore and McCown keeps the team respectable in 2018 and then Jets get the QB with a Top 10 draft pick in 2019, but the team is more ready to go. But using #6 on a QB or worse yet a 2nd round pick could end up being a waste.
You've got your timelines a little jumbled. He didn't heal quickly, it was around 14 months when he was taken off PUP, which was mid-season. there was no competition. Zimmer chose the standard conventional 'hot hand' method which is why Case remained in the spot since he was playing just well enough to not lose the games and the defense was able to compensate as well. it was their low-risk option.
I'm a fan of the entire NFL, but there are a few teams and players i follow specifically and now I'll start following the Jets. I wouldn't presume to call myself a Jets "fan" just yet, but i'm sure it'll happen at some point. And if Teddy is starting in Sept i'll probably get the Sunday Ticket to watch all the Jets games. Otherwise my previous opinion of the Jets ranged somewhere between indifference and pity. But going after Teddy certainly won points in my book, because it is a smart play in my opinion, and I love Teddy! Hope this begins/continues the turnaround for the Jets!
I find it hilarious how these lazy people look at box score stats only without ever reviewing any film or looking back at college tape before passing judgement on Teddy. "Teddy's a checkdown artist" lol, NO. Teddy did exactly what he was told. Teddy is a product of what coach Zimm made him. Zimm wanted run the ball, play defense, not make turnovers, and win the game 13 -10. That formula even kinda worked but it only got them so far. You can see how with the change in personnel and the the willingness to drive the ball down the field the team has prospered. Teddy isn't Alex Smith 2.0, Zimm's early philosophy for success is.
I'm a Jets fan and I'm going to root for Teddy as hard as anybody. That said, I'm not sure I understand why the Vikings gave up on him. He's still young and the injury was a lower body injury. It's possible that they weren't willing to commit new money to him until he was clearly fit to play. They did apparently make an attempt to have his contract toll over so that it would have extended to cover 2018. The difference on the cap between what they could have signed Teddy for and what they signed Cousins for is huge, probably something like $50M over the next 3 years given Teddy's uncertain prospects. This all suggests to me that the Vikings did not believe that Teddy had a high probability of returning to the field as a productive starter. Hopefully they were wrong and if so and Teddy does get off on a roll the Jets will be willing to try to sign him early in the process before things get out of hand.
Sorry, but have to disagree with you on this point. Mac can't NOT get a FQB prospect for the Jets this year or he won't get another chance. He can't just roll the dice on Teddy. We know that McCown, Petty and Hack aren't the answers. Teddy only signed a one-year deal anyway, so even if he is healthy, starts and plays great, there are no guarantees that the Jets could keep him. Conversely, if the Jets draft say Mayfield or Rosen, let them learn from Teddy this year (and if Teddy isn't healthy and McCown goes down with injury again, that rookie may have to play.) and Teddy plays great, the Jets will definitely be in a great situation. If they want to re-sign Teddy, then hopefully they could, and they'd still have the rookie under contract for 4 more years and they'd potentially have two very good QBs. They could also let Teddy walk and get a 3rd round compensatory pick or trade the rookie. I'm not sure I'd want Teddy playing behind the Jets' OL this season. I like him and don't want to see him get injured again. Mac hasn't done enough to upgrade the OL in FA, and he doesn't believe in drafting OL high except LTs.
Thanks for the insight. Looks like you are proving the stereotype that people from Minnesota are nice and friendly. After the way the Philly fans treated the Vikings fans in the NFCCG, you guys should have not been so hospitable for the Super Bowl! I was rooting for the Vikings throughout the playoffs. It would have been cool to see a home team in the Super Bowl, and I liked the Keenum story. (Not being close to the team, I didn’t realize there was a big fan push for Bridgewater) I liked Thielen and I liked how Diggs reacted after the miracle catch. I agree Bradford appears soft, and not that like able. I can’t beleive he got another payday. Good luck with Cousins. He was my first choice for the Jets. I think he is what you need to get to the SB
Jets trading up to 3 pretty much but the kibosh on any high hopes for Bridgewater or Lamar Jackson. Jets are getting a real QB in 2018. Not some limited or gimmick/garbage/WR QB
I know it’s not the foremost authority on pro sport, but Wikipedia says Bridgewater tore his acl and dislocated his knee. Not good but not the catastrophic leg-separated-from-body gruesomeness stated at the top. To make the situation more clear, can anyone give a similar injury/player situation to Bridgewater’s knee? Was it worse than, say, Paul George’s injury?
They went after Kirk (and possibly Brees) because they felt they were upgrades over Teddy, or more accurately less of a risk than Teddy (who had 2 years off). If the Case Keenum Vikings finished 8-8, all indicators are they would've gone with Teddy and might not have seen Kirk as worth the $. But because of the success they had and the closeness to the SB, the Vikings wanted to go all in. And all word from Vikings media also says if Kirk ended up with the Jets, they would've offered a contract to Teddy. They felt Kirk had a greater chance of getting them to the SB than Teddy, that's all. As for tolling that would've been one of the dick moves of the century, and was one of the dramas of 2017 on whether or not they pushed for that. Teddy was already having issues with being benched after being cleared to play, and also felt he was ready to play in Sept yet was put on PUP. By doing that, some interpretations of the rules would've meant that Teddy's 2017 wouldn't count at all, which would've kept Teddy trapped on the team for another year for only $1.4m. This would've guaranteed severing relations with Teddy and he would've played his year and walked, players wouldn't like the move, the union wouldn't, and it would've been bad PR too. This is why the Vikings dropped their pursuit of tolling and announced they considered TB a free agent. This in case Kirk fell through, then Teddy would be more amicable.
If you do more research in Vikings files on reports of it, you'll find out it was more gruesome as I described. There were 280 pound grown men, throwing up on the field from seeing it, and everyone involved was traumatized. His leg below the thigh was connected to his body by skin alone. Had Head trainer Eric Sugarman and his staff not acted quickly and appropriately, his leg would have been amputated. That is a fact.
So they had to do a complete reconstruction of the knee. If the leg was dangling like that then the ACL, MCL and PCL were all torn and the knee cap was dislocated and likely there were bone chips from other parts of the knee floating around as well. The only QB that I can remember having an injury that severe was Daunte Culpepper, who tore ACL/MCL and PCL although avoiding the more gruesome aspects of a complete dislocation. Culpepper came back to play for several teams after that however he never played more than 7 games in a season. He had recurring complications from the reconstruction that sidelined him a couple of times for arthroscopic procedures to remove floating bone chips and he suffered a right quadriceps injury while allegedly running in a sprint race against Stanford Routt. Obviously he was still straight line fast after the reconstruction but his maneuverability was substantially reduced and he had the recurring knee issues. Hopefully Teddy got a much better result out of his surgery, given the decade between his injury and Culpepper's. I seem to recall that part of Culpepper's issue after the surgery was not enough cartilage in the knee which is what cause the recurring bone chips. I'm guessing they have solved or are close to solving the artificial cartilage problem and if things fell right Teddy might already have gotten the benefit of that.
Yeeesh. Sounds awful. Thanks for clarifying. No thanks for the bad news tho . Was hoping to hear it wasn’t that bad. I hope Teddy can get back to normal. Not only is it a physical challenge, but also a mental one.
I hear everything you're saying and I don't disagree with you but here's the thing. If I told you one-year ago today that Case Keenum from the Rams was going to lead a team to the NFC championship and put up MVP numbers in 2017, you'd think i was nuts. Any time you put someone else in to keep the QB spot warm, you are taking a risk. And it's one thing if Teddy was an old guy who's having some miracle renaissance season, because the old guy, you can say goodbye to after a hot year. Heck even Drew Brees didn't get a new contract until a minute before midnight. But if 25-year old Teddy starts and plays well this year, or worse yet gets the Jets to the playoffs, it's going to be awfully tough to let him walk away as the Jets would be risking sending their franchise candidate to an enemy AFC team, to hedge their bets on an unproven rookie. And then you're faced with sticking with your hot hand but you're sacrificing multiple 1st and 2nd round picks. Technically you could keep both but its going to be expensive and sticky with another QB. especially if its a guy with a personality like Baker Mayfield. I'm just saying, it is a risky proposition if you go for another 1st round QB after signing Teddy too. Everything seems hunky dory now, but there is major potential down the road for a QB conflict. they always say those are good problems to have but what if u pick the wrong guy? and like i said originally its all about the knee. If the knee can't handle game speed anymore, it's all moot and that's the likely end of Bridgewater. But if his knee is good to go, then i'm telling you now, Teddy is going to bring it in 2018. So draft Saquon Barkley!
