Teddy Bridgewater To Get First-Team Reps At OTAs

The other day, Arif had some highlights of coach Mike Zimmer's first mini-camp press conference. During that press conference, the new Minnesota Vikings boss reiterated that everyone, regardless of their stature, was going to have to earn their snaps.

It appears that the next Vikings' quarterback of the future is doing just that.

Zimmer has said that when the Vikings start organized team activities on the 28th of this month, Bridgewater would be taking some snaps with the first-team offense. Zimmer did re-emphasize that Bridgewater was still #3 on the depth chart at the present time, but that he wanted his young quarterback to get some work with the top unit.

The coaching staff appears to be pretty impressed with how quickly Bridgewater is picking up the offense as well.

Several Vikings coaches, including Zimmer, also have been impressed with Bridgewater's mental preparation and his ability to quickly learn the team's offensive terminology.

"It's not like, 'Hey, I'm throwing an out now,' " Zimmer said. "He would say the whole formation, the whole play, what it's on and go from there, just repeat it as he goes. That was impressive."

This is something we talked about not only leading up to the draft, but after Bridgewater was drafted by the Vikings with the final pick of the first round. Bridgewater has a very high football IQ, something he displayed in college at Louisville, and the fact that he seems to be picking things up quickly shouldn't be surprising. It will be interesting to see how all three of the Vikings' quarterbacks pick things up going forward, but the focus will obviously be on Bridgewater to see if he can step in and start right away.