With the recent signing of Mike Wallace in addition to the slim potential of an Adrian Peterson return, it temporarily appears as if things are beginning to come together in Minnesota. Looking back on 2014 the Vikings offense really seemed a mess for a majority of the year — for good reason. Early on in the season the Vikes’ lost Kyle Rudolph and Adrian Peterson, all the while being forced to watch Cordarrelle Patterson implode into himself like the creation of a neutron star. Obviously things were not well in Minnesota — the organization knew it, the fans knew it, and fantasy owners alike did as well. So if things were so bad in Viking country then why would we want any part of Teddy Bridgewater at all?
Problem Solving
Is it over for Coradarrelle Patterson? I do not think anyone can say with certainty but that has not stopped the Minnesota Vikings from making off-season moves at the wide receiver position. Most recently the Vikings added deep burner Mike Wallace to the depth chart. This immediately did two things: 1) began hypothetical scenarios of the future Bridgewater/Wallace connection and 2) shifted Cordarrelle Patterson one more slot down the wide receiver depth chart. Clearly if C-Patt is not going to figure out how to function on an NFL football field than the Minnesota Vikings will find people who can. Regardless this is all good news for second year quarterback Bridgewater as Minnesota attempts to surround him with as many formidable pieces as humanly possible. Here is a look at the current Minnesota Vikings wide receiver depth chart.
- Mike Wallace
- Charles Johnson
- Cordarrelle Patterson
- Jarius Wright
- Adam Thielen
Honestly this is one of the more impressive NFL wide receiver cores when we consider the “potential” upside of it. If the top 3 wide receivers here can put up solid years — along with stud tight end Kyle Rudolph the sky would seem to be the limit for Teddy’s numbers entering 2015. Even before the trade for Wallace I had Bridgewater pegged to make a leap forward with just his in-house weapons, so the addition of Mike Wallace is just a giant a bonus.
Numbers Talk The Loudest
Like any rookie quarterback Teddy’s first season in the NFL did not come without its issues. All that can be forgotten though if we isolate his last 5 NFL games of 2014 and just “assume” this was Bridgewater making real progress. Over his last 5 weeks here are the teams he faced: Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, and the Chicago Bears. Not all “push over” defenses or gimme match ups for any quarterback let alone a rookie in the NFL. There were a couple major numbers over this period that really stood out to me, so lets break a couple of them down now.
Completion Percentage
- WEEK13 vs Panthers: 71.4%
- WEEK 14 vs New York Jets: 70.4%
- WEEK 15 vs Detroit Lions: 75.6%
- WEEK 16 vs Miami Dolphins: 73.1%
- WEEK 17 vs Chicago Bears: 68.0%
This is an incredibly staggering statistic from any quarterback let alone a first year quarterback. He was above 70% completion 4 of his last 5 games, and even the fifth at 68% is very stellar. Teddy was always a good decision maker and relatively accurate passer in college — what these numbers show though is that he is beginning to show it on the NFL level as well.
Per Game Touchdowns Over Final 5 Weeks
- WEEK13 vs Panthers: 2
- WEEK 14 vs New York Jets: 2
- WEEK 15 vs Detroit Lions: 1
- WEEK 16 vs Miami Dolphins: 2
- WEEK 17 vs Chicago Bears: 1
That is a total of 8 touchdowns over the course of his last 5 games. Teddy threw just 14 touchdowns in all of 2014 to put that quantity into perspective. For added impact it’s also worth noting that Bridgewater actually threw 2 more touchdowns just one week prior to the Carolina game in week 13 (week 12 vs Chicago), that raised his total touchdowns over the last 6 weeks to 10 or 71.4% of his entire season total. Based on that average he would have finished a fresh season just under 27 touchdowns, not too shabby.
Per Game Passing Yards Over Final 5 Weeks
- WEEK13 vs Panthers: 138
- WEEK 14 vs New York Jets: 309
- WEEK 15 vs Detroit Lions: 315
- WEEK 16 vs Miami Dolphins: 259
- WEEK 17 vs Chicago Bears: 209
Those last 5 weeks consisted of 4 games where he was over 200+ passing yards — 2 of which were for over 300! His emergence as a passer is even more obvious as we began to dissect these individual digits. Perhaps not overwhelming when we note the 138 & 209 yard games but the fact that he found the end zone a total of 3 times between the two is still a positive sign.
remember this time. the time before all anyone talked about was who’s better: bridgewater or luck? the marino vs montana of our generation.
— LateRoundEverything (@Fantasy_Mansion) April 20, 2015
The Conclusion
Essentially Teddy Bridgewater was playing with players he had zero or very little chemistry with in his rookie season. He lost his core assets early (Peterson, Rudolph) and was forced to work from behind with what Minnesota could provide him. To be fair over those last 5 weeks Teddy did also throw a total of 5 interceptions. These I cannot apologize for but I will say that I can understand the ease of a rookie in his situation throwing a handful of picks. I am more impressed by what he did from a positive fantasy football stand point over the last 5 weeks (Completion %, Touchdowns, Yards Per Game) than I am displeased with the few INT’s that came along with them. He has a nose for the end zone and the true belief by many is that once he gets all his weapons back, and his chemistry flowing, the sky will be his limit.
Of course as the speculation of Minnesota addressing wide receiver with their first pick (#11) continues to build so does the potential of jump starting this offense. We earlier spotlighted the current wide receiver depth chart in Minnesota, now factor in the degree of upside that a: DeVante Parker, Dorial Green-Beckham or Breshad Perriman could inject into this pass game. Where do you rank Bridgewater now? I can almost guarantee you it’s significantly higher than you did before you read this article, and even higher than it was before you answered that previous question. The idea of buying NOW is the right idea because any attempt after the draft or even after Teddy begins hurling the pigskin in 2015 could be too late — the choice is yours.
Go get your future.
