LaCanfora: Teddy Bridgewater To Be Activated From PUP List After Packers Game

The quarterback situation for the Minnesota Vikings has been in flux since the knee injury suffered by Teddy Bridgewater last year. Bridgewater missed all of 2016 with the non-contact injury, and has been on the Physically Unable to Perform List since Training Camp started this season. However, it appears that #5 is going to be back in the mix as soon as he possibly can be.

Jason LaCanfora of CBS Sports reported this morning that the Vikings plan to activate Bridgewater after their Week 6 contest with the Green Bay Packers. By NFL rules, that’s the earliest that Bridgewater could be activated, as it is mandated that a player that starts the season on the PUP List must miss the first six weeks of regular season action.

We’ve gone over the PUP List procedures before, but if LaCanfora’s report is accurate and the Vikings do activate Bridgewater after Week 6, they will have three weeks to decide whether or not they will be moving him to the active roster. They could activate him earlier than that, but given how the Vikings’ schedule lays out, and given that Bridgewater is likely going to have significant rust, it might be prudent for them to take the full three weeks.

That means that Bridgewater would be practicing with the team in Week 7 (when the Vikings host the Baltimore Ravens) and Week 8 (when the Vikings take on the Cleveland Browns in London), with the Vikings having their bye following the London game in Week 9. After that point, the Vikings would be forced to make a decision on whether or not to bring Bridgewater up to the 53-man roster. If they chose not to. . .which, given the tone of LaCanfora’s report, sounds unlikely. . .then he would revert back to the PUP List and remain there for the rest of the season. If they brought him up, the team would have to make a roster move to accommodate him.

Following that timeline, that means that the Vikings would have both Bridgewater and Sam Bradford (who is dealing with injury issues of his own) both on the active roster following the bye week. Given that, at this point, neither of those two players is under contract to the Vikings next season (although, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Bridgewater’s contract should roll over to 2018), the real battle is going to begin, it would appear.

It looks like Teddy Bridgewater is about to return to the Vikings, folks. I know that I, for one, absolutely can’t wait.