Teddy Bridgewater Cleared To Play Against Raiders

It took until Saturday night for the Minnesota Vikings to give us the official word, but it has finally come down.

After suffering a concussion last Sunday against the St. Louis Rams, Vikings' quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has officially cleared the NFL's concussion protocol and will start on Sunday afternoon when the team takes on the Oakland Raiders.

Bridgewater was knocked out of Sunday's game on a gutless hit by Rams' cornerback LaMarcus Joyner as he slid down following a scramble. (Joyner was fined $23,152 for the hit. . .shame it wasn't more.) He said he thought he could have returned to last week's game, but the team held him out for the rest of the fourth quarter and the Vikings' lone possession of overtime in the 21-18 victory.

While Bridgewater hasn't put up tremendous numbers in the passing game this season, it was clear after watching Shaun Hill for a couple of quarters that the Vikings' offense functions much, much better with Bridgewater under center. With the opportunity to face the National Football League's worst pass defense (in terms of yardage allowed), this could be as good a week as any for Bridgewater to try to get himself and the rest of the passing game going.

But, the big news is that Teddy Bridgewater has officially been cleared to play tomorrow afternoon against the Raiders. Here's hoping that this can be the start of something big for #5.