Putting Bridgewater’s Rookie Year Into Historical Perspective
Dec 28, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback
Teddy Bridgewater(5) throws in the first quarter against the Chicago Bears at TCF Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Teddy Bridgewater’s rookie season is now in the books. According to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Bridgewater finished the season with the third-highest completion percentage for a rookie in NFL history, as well as the seventh-highest quarterback rating.
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Anytime you find yourself ranked in the top ten of anything historically, you are doing something right. Last week, I compared Teddy to some of his NFL contemporaries. That got me to thinking about how his first year as Vikings signal caller compared to other first year quarterbacks in Minnesota. We have seen some very good and very bad play at the position in this great state, so I was curious as to how Teddy stacked up. I know what my eyes told me; now I want to know if the stats back it up. Take a look:
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One important thing to note is that these are not necessarily rookie seasons, just the first year these quarterbacks started the majority of the team’s games. I also only included quarterbacks drafted by the Vikings to be the “Franchise Quarterback”. So, what does the data tell us?
Mostly what we already know. It is not really fair to compare quarterbacks of different eras, so you have to take Fran Tarkenton and Tommy Kramer‘s numbers with a grain of salt. Also, the quality of the various Vikings teams vary wildly as well. Tarkenton was a rookie playing on an expansion team, whereas Culpepper got tossed the keys to a Ferrari. The rest of the squads fell somewhere in between.
Back to Teddy. He had the highest completion percentage of the group, and was second best in both quarterback rating and yards per attempt, finding himself behind only Culpepper’s fantastic season in the year 2000. He also had the second-best touchdown to interception ratio, also behind Culpepper.
Put simply, Bridgewater had the best rookie season by any Vikings quarterback, and the second best debut season in franchise history, only falling behind Culpepper. Again, guys like Brett Favre and Warren Moon had played elsewhere for many years before coming to Minnesota, so they are not included for our purposes.
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The most important question is what it will mean going forward. Even before his knee injury ruined his career, Culpepper was prone to inconsistency. After starting his career with a 98.0 rating, he plummeted to 83.3 and 75.3 the next couple seasons. He improved in 2003, then had one of the greatest statistical seasons a quarterback had ever played in 2004. Tarkenton became one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time, but it did not happen overnight. In fact, he played his best football after being traded to the New York Giants, then traded back after spending five years in Gotham. I certainly hope Teddy never gets traded, but Fran certainly had an interesting career path.
Bridgewater improved as his rookie season progressed. The biggest improvement he made was on his deep ball. Yesterday was a great example of that. He made a tremendous throw to Greg Jennings in the end zone from about 45 yards out in the first half. It hit Jennings in the hands, and while it would have been a difficult catch, the throw was right where it needed to be. Teddy followed that up with a 44 yard touchdown strike to Adam Thielen in the second half. It was the type of throw Bridgewater struggled with in his first several starts, and is a great sign going forward.
The key for Bridgewater and the Vikings will be to not only obtain high levels of success, but then also maintain that success throughout his career. The truly elite quarterbacks do it year in and year out, with rotating teammates around him. Is Teddy going to be that type of guy? I, for one, believe that he will be. I’m excited to watch the next several seasons to find out.