With Hendon Hooker looking at a potential injury redshirt of sorts, the Lions are considering a short-term upgrade behind Jared Goff. One of Dan Campbell‘s former Saints coworkers remains on the team’s radar.
The third-year Lions HC confirmed the team’s interest in Teddy Bridgewater, indicating the staff has kept tabs on the veteran quarterback this offseason. The Lions brought in Bridgewater for a workout recently, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
This comes after the Lions previously expressed confidence in their QB room as a whole. Nate Sudfeld is currently positioned as Goff’s top backup. But the Lions made Bridgewater a “strong offer” in April. Even after the recent praise of the signal-caller group, the Lions are still eyeing help here as they grapple with rising expectations.
“We’ve kept in touch with Teddy and we’ve kept Nate abreast of that, too,” Campbell said, via the Detroit News’ Justin Rogers. “We haven’t hidden anything (from him). So it went good. Gave us a chance to sit down with him face-to-face, particularly Ben (Johnson), Bru (QBs coach Mark Brunell) and Brad (Holmes). It gets me face-to-face with him again. Then just the medical (evaluation). So it was good. It was a good visit. We’ll see where it goes.”
Campbell was with the Saints during Bridgewater’s two-season tenure, which ran from 2018-19. The 30-year-old quarterback has since moved to Charlotte, Denver and Miami. He and Carson Wentz have long hovered as the top two QB2 options available, with each having extensive starting experience. Bridgewater has made 65 career starts and would certainly provide the Lions with a 2023 upgrade behind Goff.
“It doesn’t mean that Nate is out of anything if we go this route and it works out,” Campbell said of the Bridgewater visit. “You’ll feel good about whoever comes out of the fire will be the right guy to help you along the way. But yeah, you don’t want the wheels to fall off.”
This marks Bridgewater’s first known visit this year. He is coming off a forgettable season with the Dolphins. Bridgewater made two starts but suffered injuries in each game. He was unavailable to close Miami’s season, with a dislocated pinkie sidelining him for the Dolphins’ regular-season finale and their wild-card game against the Bills. Bridgewater, however, had the Broncos at 7-7 as their primary starter in 2021. One of those games involved a one-sided win over Campbell’s Lions. Bridgewater’s second concussion that season ended up sidelining him for the rest of the year, leading to three Drew Lock-led starts and the Broncos firing Vic Fangio. In 2020 with the Panthers, Bridgewater completed 69% of his passes and started 15 games.
Goff did not miss any games last season but missed three during the 2021 campaign. A seventh-year veteran, Sudfeld has never started an NFL game and has only appeared in six.
A precipitous fall from grace for this once promising qb. League should ban injuries
Teddy tries hard and I’ve always liked him despite his limitations. When was the last time a third string QB had a 158.3 passer rating in OT?
If anything happens to Goff this season is over. I would rather have Teddy or Wentz over Nate Sudfeld as the QB2,
As much as I like Teddy, you still need a backup QB behind him even though he’s a backup QB…
he’s good for 1 quarter of relief
The crazy part is that from what the Lions beat writers say, Sudfeld has looked fantastic. His timing with the WRs has been spot on. Not quite sure why he doesn’t have the confidence of this staff, even though he has yet to start an NFL game. If he plays great in the preseason, why not keep him as your backup QB? You’d rather have a QB that will, without question, end up on IR? Don’t get it…..
Probably because they’re poised for a playoff run and don’t want a QB who’s never played in an NFL game guiding the offense. Pre-season and training camp aren’t 4 quarters of an NFL game. Experience matters.
You’re better off signing Carson Wentz