It’s Teddy Time on the bayou, and the Saints are ready

With Drew Brees sidelined for the next six weeks, Teddy Bridgewater gets the opportunity to start again three years after a knee injury nearly ended his career

Teddy Bridgewater is all too familiar with what Saints teammate Drew Brees is going through right now.

In 2015, Bridgewater was one of the emerging stars at the quarterback position. The Minnesota Vikings took him with the 32nd pick of the 2014 Draft, and by the end of the following season, he was leading the Vikings into the postseason. They only lost to Seattle that January after kicker Blair Walsh missed a 27-yard field goal at the end of regulation.

Bridgewater had a bright future ahead of him in Minnesota, but as it turned out that would be the last game he ever started in a Vikings uniform. While dropping back to pass during training camp in 2016, Bridgewater took an awkward step and crumpled to the ground. He dislocated a knee and tore his ACL, his season and career as the Vikings starter coming to a premature end.

It wasn’t until December of 2017 that Bridgewater returned to the field, and only then in a short stint off the bench. He finally started a game again in Week 17 of last season with New Orleans, when Brees rested for the postseason.

More than three years after suffering that horrific injury, Bridgewater is getting a chance to start again. The Saints announced on Monday that Brees will miss the next six weeks with a torn ligament in his thumb. That leaves Bridgewater, still just 26 years old, as the starter for the foreseeable future.

Bridgewater isn’t Brees. He won’t stretch the field like his future Hall of Fame teammate. In Minnesota, he averaged only 7.2 yards per attempt. Brees, meanwhile, has averaged 8.1 yards per attempt the last three seasons. Even in Sunday’s game against the Rams in Los Angeles, when Brees left in the first quarter, Bridgewater only threw for 5.5 yards per attempt.

Bridgewater finished the game 17-30 for 165 yards in a 27-9 Saints loss. After the game, he said he wasn’t thinking about the possibility of replacing Brees in the long-term and only relishes every opportunity he can get to play, something he knows better than anyone.

“It was just great to get the opportunity to just go back out there and play football again,” he said. “It sucks that it had to happen the way it did. But I appreciate every opportunity that I get to play this game. Everyone in that locker room, we cherish the game and never take it for granted. I’m just grateful that I had the opportunity that I had today.”

Bridgewater made a bet this offseason that’s now paying off. He had the chance to sign with the Miami Dolphins and compete for a starting job. Instead, he decided to resign with the Saints for $7.25 million, knowing that the time he would replace Brees was still a long way off. But that opportunity is now presenting itself much sooner than either he or the Saints expected.

It was four years ago, but Bridgewater showed he can be a franchise quarterback in Minnesota. He has the next six weeks to show that he’s still the same player, or if the knee injury took it away forever.