Vikings Dispute Report Of Bridgewater’s Status

Yesterday, we brought you a story citing a report from Jason Cole of Bleacher Report. That report stated that Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Teddy Bridgewater would miss the entire 2017 season and likely not be cleared to play until March of 2018 at the earliest.

Now, according to a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Vikings are disputing that report and saying that there is no timetable for Bridgewater’s return.

During his season-ending press conference, head coach Mike Zimmer had emphasized that there had been no timetable for Bridgewater to return, and that this sort of injury was not one for which a comeback could be easily predicted.

“I’m worried about Teddy getting better,” Zimmer said when asked of a potential quarterback competition. “He comes in here every single day, busts his rear end and I just want him to get better right now, so we will worry about those things later.”

. . .

“With this injury that he has, it’s different with everyone,” Zimmer added. “They went back and, whoever has had this injury, they’ve studied it and the ones [who] have come back and how long it’s taken to come back, how long it hasn’t come back. But they’re all different, there’s no exact injury where they’re all the same.”

The Vikings will have to make a decision on Bridgewater’s fifth-year option coming up in May (like they’ll have to do for linebacker Anthony Barr). It might be a little tricky given the nature of Bridgewater’s injury, but it would be surprising if they didn’t pick that option up and maintain control over Bridgewater’s status. If they chose not to pick it up, Bridgewater would be a free agent following the 2017 season, according to the Star-Tribune article.

While the article from Bleacher Report appears to have jumped the gun a little bit, it’s also possible that the team does know more about this than they’re letting on. The team doesn’t have any formal football activities on the agenda until April, when they will have a couple of weeks worth of strength and conditioning workouts. It’s quite likely that we will have to wait until that time to see exactly how far along Teddy Bridgewater has come and whether he’s on track to contribute anything to the Vikings in 2017. Obviously, if anything comes out before that, we will have it for you right here.