What the Vikings do Without Teddy Bridgewater

So it is 20 minutes before the end of practice at the Minnesota Vikings training facility and all of a sudden, your third year franchise Quarterback that you picked in the first round goes down with a significant knee injury without contact. At the time that I am writing this, Teddy Bridgewater is at the hospital partaking in tests to see what is wrong with him. Now lets just say in the extreme case that it is a season ending injury and the Vikings have to move on without Teddy. What does Mike Zimmer do? What are his options? And can he and the Minnesota Vikings still salvage the season?

First and foremost, it is still possible for the Vikings to get up to an 8-8 record with their defense and Adrian Peterson, but it is going to be very difficult for them to go any further. Currently they have Shaun Hill as their backup Quarterback. Shaun Hill has started for various teams between 2005 and now when he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. He has started for the 49ers, Lions, and Rams and has either put up decent statistics or have put up an average amount of wins. However, those offenses did not have the weapons that Minnesota has with Adrian Peterson and some useful and underrated receivers. While Minnesota can be average, I really don't see them getting over the hump against Green Bay this year because the Packers are loaded and look stacked.

Now if the Vikings choose to add a Quarterback as a starter, what are their options? They can always pick up Michael Vick, who is always bragging about how great he can still be even though he was replaced by Landry Jones last year in Pittsburgh. They can try to trade for Sanchez or Kaepernick, which won't be that difficult because they are basically relegated as career backups. Or they can make the gutsy decision of trading for Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Sam Bradford. I think the Sanchez and Kaepernick options seem more realistic as both teams are thinking about moving on from them and it wouldn't make sense for the Vikings to trade a 2nd or 3rd round pick to basically rent Sam Bradford when they expect to move on from him and play Bridgewater next season.

At the end of the day, the loss of your starting Quarterback before the season starts is an awful problem to have, but since Mike Zimmer likely has nothing to lose this season he will probably stick with Shaun Hill as Bridgewater only threw for 3,200 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. In that case, I don't see any change in statistics, but I do see a possible difference in decision making as Shaun Hill has shown that he is a career backup and Teddy Bridgewater has shown himself to be hailed as a started in the National Football League. If Teddy's injury is in fact season ending, I wish him a quick recovery.

Teddy Bridgewater doing a passing drill in practice.