While it’s unclear whether Minnesota Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater is a religious man, he has to be thinking ‘God, why me?’ right about now.
After showing marked improvement in accuracy and leadership over the last year, Bridgewater suffered what likely will be a season-ending injury at practice on Tuesday. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer held a press conference and tried to give it as decent a spin considering the circumstances, but he came off looking like the president in an apocalyptic science fiction summer blockbuster movie.
Is it the end of the world as Minny knows it? Well, not exactly the end but any hopes of competing in the NFC North have been muted considerably.
According to reports, Bridgewater’s knee virtually exploded without contact. The preliminary diagnosis is a dislocated knee and a torn ACL. This would have been Teddy’s third year in Minnesota after being drafted out of Louisville. He was putting in major work this preseason and hopes were high, but now backup journeyman QB Shaun Hill will likely step in. Next on the depth chart is undrafted free agent Joel Stave out of Wisconsin.
Bridgewater’s 64.9 completion percentage was the best in NFL history for any player under 25 years old. Luckily, there are plenty of other possible choices at quarterback that the Vikings can call upon should Hill or Stave fail to hold it down.
Though it seems unlikely that either Tarvaris Jackson or Josh Freeman would get another chance in Minnesota, T.J. Yates is out there as is Zack Mettenberger and perhaps eventually Colin Kaepernick as well.
