All Things Teddy-Freaking-Bridgewater

His stats are bad enough no matter how you want to spin it or excuse you want to give. If he was so great then why were we running it so much? Don't the coaches trust him to make plays? I've never head of a QB being held back if he were actually any good. Were they telling Carson Wents to play it safe this past year? Were they holding him back? Did Philly opt to run 90% of the time in the RZ?

But I don't even care about his stats. I have 2 eyes, and they didn't see anything impressive. They saw a timid kid with no confidence in his arm. And why does everyone seem to forget how inaccurate he actually was? Did we forget all the deep balls that were woefully off target and in most cases overthrown? I mean he wasn't just missing, he was missing by miles. Even when he does get a pass in the vicinity of a receiver, they have to jump, dive, reach, stretch, and contort themselves just to make a catch. Which is why I'm convinced we drafted Treadwell to begin with. I'm almost certain the plan was to find receivers with greater wingspan to help poor Teddy with his accuracy problems.

He had a high completion percentage because he throws a lot of checkdowns, or did we all forget about that too? All the dump passes 5 yards behind the LOS because whenever Teddy tries to escape pressure it's always backward. That's what happens when you're a timid QB and know you can't throw the ball downfield. How often did Keenum escape backward this year? Rarely ever, it was always laterally or forward so he could still make a play. I'd much rather keep Keenum over Teddy. Keenum is a big upgrade over Teddy in every category. Teddy had the mobility and escapability advantage over Bradford, but he doesn't have that over Keenum. And Keenum for as inaccurate as he is, he completed a higher percentage of passes than Teddy without relying on a ton of checkdowns. He took a ton of deep shots, trust his receivers, and gave them a chance. He didn't air mail them over their heads by 10 yards.

And lastly we can't forget the knee injury. That's ALWAYS going to be a concern going forward. We're ALWAYS going to need a start caliber backup behind Teddy. Not to mention how Teddy relied too much on his legs in the past and how that's going to affect him going forward mentally. It's got disaster written all over it. Self sack Teddy is his future, and he's going to be a higher turnover risk as a result.

It's just not worth it. It would be one thing if he showed signs of progress, but you could argue his 2nd year was a regression. His last few starts looked no better than his first few. And all of that was before the injury. It's just mind boggling how anyone can think he's suddenly going to be good enough to lead this team deep into the playoffs every year. Based on what? Do yall want this defense going to waste? Are we content with being an 8-8 6th seed contender? Seems to be our specialty, top of the league in one category while another important category is at the bottom so we linger in mediocrity. Just stop! Lets find a real QB and fill the friggin trophy case already. Teddy apologists remind me of a family member who has taken an interest in scientology or amway. It's cute at first, and you tolerate it, but after awhile you seriously start questioning their mental health. Some of you are licensed to operate a motor vehicle for crying out loud, and that's terrifying.

Context:

You don't think it matters that of the whole six times he got to throw on first down in 1st-and-goal situations that five of them resulted in TDs? This stat is exploring running on first down so much, putting the offense in tougher, more predictable situations on 2nd and 3rd down. The red zone is tough as it is; being so predictable, especially with a poor offensive line, average guys at WR, and a young QB is brutal. Again, context, especially when you consider AP was 26th in success rate in 2015. 
 

The deep ball is overrated. Sorry, but it is. Teddy is a very accurate QB who, overall, makes good decisions. Again, he led the NFL in accuracy percentage in 2015, and ranked third as a rookie in 2014. His best throws were from 11-20 yards. You can win with that.

But his deep ball?

Bridgewater's 2015 deep ball accuracy percentage was 52.6% (ranking 12th of 33 overall), per The Deep Ball Project. Per Pro Football Focus, he had an above-average grade on deep passes. So, what is the big deal here? People like to pretend he was awful. Must be the "eye test" again ... ?  


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You know how people suggest the TD-INT ratio and whatnot all of the time? Teddy didn't have the same opportunities in the red zone as these other two, but ... look how similar they all are when it comes to percentage? Not that different, right?  But Teddy is trash? lol That's why context matters. 17 passes inside the opponent's 10 yard line for all of 2015. 17 TOTAL PASSES! Again, considering the play-calling and AP ... it's no surprise he didn't end up with 25+ passing TDs. This is why context matters.

And, as a reminder:

Context matters.

Considering what Bridgewater had to work with regarding the play-calling, nearly worthless o-line, a struggling AP, lack of talent at the WR position, etc. ... dude wasn't half bad.

I was there. What exactly is your point ... about this one game ... ? 

Of course Sam looked better than ever with an improved o-line, better weapons, and a game plan that aligned with his strengths. That is to be expected. 

Same thing happened for Keenum.

Same could happen for Bridgewater, because he's already proven himself with far less. 

Well ok why did Teddy only have 6 chances to throw on 1st and goal in the RZ? Again if a guy is good what kind of stupid coach is not going to let him throw on 1st and goal in the RZ? The fact that he had limited opportunities is probably why he was successful. Because the opposing team was cued in on the run which the saw 90% of the time in film study. PA TD!!! Makes sense. Same with only having 17 passes inside the 10. That's 1 per game. Why so few? I know why, and it has nothing to do with him being good.

That's the funny thing about stats. If a guy is good, he's going to get plenty of opportunities, he's not going to be held back. Not only are Teddy's overall stats awful, he wasn't getting very many opportunities for some odd reason. Ohhh but people can sure twist the numbers and find some obscure data to sell their apologetics. Wow Teddy had 35% TD's on a whopping 17 pass attempts inside the 10. That's about as impressive as a RB who averages 10 YPC on 2 carries.

Love how everyone keeps glossing over the fact that he put up these amazing mediocre numbers BEFORE he destroyed his knee. Yep he's suddenly going to be so much better now. Who knew you only needed major knee reconstruction, 2 years off, and a dose of PTSD to finally show some progress?

It's like we're arguing about which QB has the best chance to get us to 8-8. Are we the Browns now? Screw that noise. If we want to fill the trophy case we need to go 12-4 or 13-3 every year and we sure the heck aren't going to be doing that with 14 TD passes and balls sailing 10 yards over open receivers.