Report: Teddy Bridgewater to sign with New York Jets

It’s finally official, ladies and gentlemen. Of the three primary quarterbacks that were on the Minnesota Vikings’ 2017 roster, none of them will be back in the fold in 2018.

Teddy Bridgewater, who battled back from a serious leg injury to get back onto the field in purple this past season, will be signing a one-year deal with the New York Jets when free agency opens on Wednesday, according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN (and numerous other sources). The deal is believed to be somewhere in the $5-6 million range.

Bridgewater had been connected to the J-E-T-S fairly early in the day today, but during the afternoon word had come down that they had signed their starter from last year, Josh McCown, to a one-year, $10 million deal and told him that he would be the starter. That meant there weren’t a lot of other starting jobs out there with everything that has gone down so far today, but Bridgewater decided to stick with the Jets anyway.

Of the three quarterbacks the Vikings will lose this offseason, Bridgewater will always be the biggest potential “What if” of them all. How would things have been different in Minnesota if he hadn’t suffered that awful non-contact injury just before the start of the 2016 season (when he appeared poised to take a big step forward)? There wouldn’t have been a Sam Bradford trade, likely no Case Keenum, the 2016 season might not have gone off the rails the way it did. . .unfortunately, we’ll never know.

I wish the Vikings could have found a way to bring back Teddy Bridgewater, particularly if he was going to be fine with a backup role anyhow. But, it wasn’t to be, and now he’s taken his talents elsewhere. Here’s hoping that he has fully recovered and has a fine rest of his NFL career.