Teddy Bridgewater: What could have been?

After agreeing to terms with the New York Jets on Tuesday, Teddy Bridgewater leaves Minnesota after a very eventful few seasons with the Vikings. 

After a whirlwind of a free agent legal tampering period, the dust has settled and Teddy Bridgewater has landed in New York with the Jets. A one year deal worth a possible $15 million if incentives are met and a base salary of $5 million is about the best deal that Teddy could hope for, there are just too many questions yet to be answered after….you know.

As Teddy leaves, its difficult not to wonder what could have been with the Vikings and Bridgewater had his catastrophic knee injury not taken place. They were coming off of a division championship, had a young, unquestioned starter at QB that the team seemed to believe in and it was all taken away. A matter of days later, Sam Bradford was in town.

The Louisville product managed to endear himself to Minnesota fans in a way most other athletes can only dream about. There was a nearly Tebow-like fanaticism from the majority of Vikings nation for a stretch of time but as Tebow himself found out, things are different in New York.

The Jets also agreed to terms with Josh McCown during the legal tampering period and having been in New York last season, McCown will most certainly have an advantage over Teddy given his familiarity with the coaches and offense. A training camp battle for starter is about the only way Bridgewater will get into the starting lineup but has he given himself the best chance to succeed here? Was this actually his best option?

There will be more cameras and eyes on Teddy next season, lets just hope that they are watching him throw passes in games and not hold clipboards on the sideline.