When Teddy Bridgewater was traded to the Saints yesterday, some pundits wondered whether the 26-year-old would take over as the starter once Drew Brees decided to call it a career. However, general manager Mickey Loomis cautioned that the team isn’t in any hurry to extend the quarterback, who is currently playing on a one-year deal.
“Well, I think it’s one step at a time,” Loomis said (via Josh Katzenstein of The Times-Picayune on Twitter). “The first step is getting him here and getting to know him as a player and as a person and vice versa.”
The general manager also said it was “premature” to assume Bridgewater would be the heir apparent to Brees.
Of course, Loomis presumably doesn’t want to count his chickens before they hatch, but we can probably assume that the Saints traded for Bridgewater thinking he’d one day take over the starting gig. After all, New Orleans sent the Jets a third-rounder, which seems to be the going rate for a lower-end starting quarterback (the Browns sent the Bills a third for Tyrod Taylor). While the Saints also received a sixth-rounder in the trade, they presumably wouldn’t have given up valuable draft capital if they didn’t envision a future with Bridgewater.
Secondly, the team’s other backup quarterbacks haven’t shown a whole lot of promise during their NFL careers. With Drew Brees approaching his 40th birthday, the organization probably didn’t feel good about a potential future with Tom Savage, J.T. Barrett, or Taysom Hill under center.
At the very least, Bridgewater has already shown that he can be a competent NFL quarterback, and he seems to be recovered from a knee injury that forced him to miss the 2016 season and most of the 2017 campaign. In three preseason games, Bridgewater has completed 73.7-percent of his passes for 316 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Teddy is in a great situation. I was a big Bridgewater fan when he was in Minnesota. The guy can play. What a steal for the Saints.
I wish the best for Teddy. Would love to see him succeed.
There is approximately 25 picks between the browns 3rd round pick and the saints 3rd round pick… I would take Tyrod over Teddy all day long. There are only so many starter spots in the NFL, Teddy will have to beat another QB on a bottom tier team in order to start in the future…. or wait until Brees retires?
Different roles. Tyrod was brought in to start and groom a QB, Bridgewater is being asked to backup Brees.
The teams with veteran QBs like Brady, Rodgers, Rivers, Brees, Roethlisberger, Flacco, Manning, have to have a decent backup because as good as some of those guys are, they can’t rebound from an injury as quickly as they could when they were younger. At least half of those guys will wind down their career in the next 2-3 years so there will be some starter jobs opening up. Both Tyrod and Teddy are young and may still develop into solid QBs.
Tyrod only got the Bills to the playoffs for the first time in decades smh
Dalton and the Ravens D got them to the playoffs lol
Hahahaha Tyrod wasn’t the reason
Tyrod is seriously underrated. He won’t create what isn’t there but he’s very careful with the ball. By not turning over the ball, his defence won’t have to work nearly so hard. With the right mentor, Taylor could be taught to open up his game more. He has the physical skills and the good judgement.
I was sorry when Washington didn’t pick up Taylor to replace Cousins. Smith is more of a Gruden-style gunslinger though, probably a better fit.