Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Where would the Vikings be if Teddy Bridgewater never got hurt?

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

All week Purple Insider will be holding Vikings discussions about the great "What Coulda Been" questions in franchise history. For this episode, Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom talk about the Zimmer Era quarterbacks, starting with Teddy Bridgewater and what might have happened if he hadn't gotten hurt in 2016. Would the Vikings have gone farther in 2017? Where would they be now? Why was everyone so high on Bridgewater and what QB might he have been most compared to if healthy? Plus they discuss Sam Bradford's flash of greatness in 2017 and whether he could have gotten the Vikings more than 14 wins and the 2018 decision that led to Kirk Cousins as the present QB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider and what could have been week is what we are doing this week because there's not a whole lot else going on in the NFL to discuss. So each off season, we have a week where we just create a theme. Last year was mystery theme. And I looked into whether opposing kickers make more kicks against the Vikings. And the answer was yes, actually they do. And the same thing, we looked into Soldier Field and it turned out it is cursed for the Vikings, even statistically speaking. So this year is what could have been week. And we've got a lot on tap for you. And for this episode, Sam Ekstrom and I are going to talk about the what could have been of the Mike Zimmer quarterback era. Now, Sam, just the other day, I told the story of me arriving in

Minnesota to cover the team and discovering that Teddy Bridgewater had gotten hurt at practice. But let's go back even before that, because you have a little better perspective on this than I do. Having been in Minnesota when they drafted Teddy Bridgewater, do you remember how that felt because they traded up for him. Maybe, I don't know if it came as a surprise or not. I think the Vikings were connected to lots of quarterbacks that year, but to land Teddy Bridgewater, did it feel like, wow, they've really taken this step? I think Christian Ponder was still around to move on from Christian Ponder to get the next quarterback. Like how did that feel when they drafted Teddy Bridgewater?

Yeah, you know, like, let's review quickly. Christian Ponder was entering year four, and he had had a miserable year three, and he did not have a fifth-year option. So it was pretty clear that he was on the way out, and the 2014 season ended up reflecting that. Like, that he was on the way out and the 2014 season ended up reflecting that like he was way on the way out. I mean, especially the way he looked in that green, green Bay game, but we'll get to that stuff. Um, when Bridgewater was picked, I think there was maybe a little dose of skepticism, to be honest with you. I mean, they were two years off of being burned by the Christian Ponder pick and you immediately think, well, here we go again. You know, a lot of Vikings fans might have turned off their TVs before pick 32 and didn't even see Bridgewater get picked. That was,

that was me. I wasn't covering the team yet in a professional capacity. I started later that fall. I wasn't watching when the Vikings took Bridgewater. But I think a lot of people heard too, you know, and this was before the, the Uber mobile quarterback was sort of in vogue. A lot of people saying, well, he's, he's fragile. He is he's going to run too much. You know, quarterbacks can't succeed if that's sort of their, their MO. And there was a little bit of skepticism. So I don't know if this was an immediate thinking, like this is going to be a home run when they drafted Bridgewater. But there is certainly a new energy that comes with like new coach, new quarterback, having the two of them Zimmer and Bridgewater together, I think in that first year, people warmed up to that idea and got excited about the new regime.

Before I moved here, I watched back the entire 2014 and 15 seasons to have a kind of a sense for where it was going. And in 2014, Teddy had his moments in In 2015, if you think the offensive line was bad like last year, 2015 was an atrocity at the guard position to some extent, but especially with the tackles. You had talk about a run-first offense. A lot of times it was a run-only offense of just handing it to Adrian Peterson over and over again, and the receivers were not what they have been over the last number of years.

Stefan Diggs was just emerging. Adam Thielen was a total afterthought, a Chris Walsh type, you might say. And you had, let's see, Mike Wallace never really fit here. And Charles Johnson was kind of a thing for a minute there. But there was a sense in winning the division even though the defense had kind of driven it the running game had kind of driven it that you had something there and there were debates over whether teddy bridgewater's second season was good or not because of the touchdown total and i think that we had a discussion the other day about qb stats and i mean touchdown totals are really not a great way to analyze a passing game, but it wasn't this crazy explosive passing game. And I think that they recognize that

and wanted to move a little more toward Teddy being the center of the offense. And in the 2016 preseason, this is where it gets really interesting because I get hired for the job. I haven't yet moved to Minnesota, but I'm watching Minnesota preseason games to get ready to move and cover the team. And I was thinking in the game against the Chargers specifically that Teddy Bridgewater was going to be the next great quarterback in the league. Like he was reminding me of like peak Phillip rivers in that preseason, he was showing increased arm strength. He had even a little more confidence running the football at times and I know it's preseason and we sort of scoff at that but there was something happening there he made a throw to Stefan Diggs a deep crossing throw that was a tight window in between a couple of guys like 25

yards down the field that made you go whoa whoa whoa like this is going in a different direction so when he got hurt I don't think it was just this, oh, like, oh, this kind of younger quarterback who won some games, but didn't put up huge numbers. I really feel like those preseason games that year and, and the training camp leading into 2016 sort of spoke to where everyone thought Teddy was going. I'm looking at the play-by-play of that Vikings-Chargers game at this second. There was a three-play sequence that was the best three-play sequence of Teddy Bridgewater's career to that point. T. Bridgewater passed deep middle to C. Johnson for 19 yards. T. Bridgewater passed

deep right to Stephon Diggs for 22 yards. That's the play you're talking about. And then Kyle Rudolph pass from Teddy Bridgewater for 27 yards. Touchdown. Those three plays, which spanned 68 yards in three plays, three gems of throws. And all kind of like different types of throws requiring some arm strength and accuracy and precision. Those were the type of aggressive tight window throws that he didn't make in 2014-15. And we were seeing the blossoming of Teddy Bridgewater, the individual at that time, because he was so shy, painfully shy in his first year. And even in his second year, he was definitely afraid to step over the company line. He was uncomfortable in front of the media. And then in year three, his body sort of transformed. He got stronger. I remember

there was a mic'd up video from that training camp where Mike Zimmer was sort of standing on the sideline. And I think he was telling Norv, Hey, there seems to be more zip on Teddy's throws this year. And I think there was, I think there was legitimate reason for preseason excitement, even though that's something that we usually try to kibosh. I think it was legit with Teddy that year. And it's undeniable that 2014 to 15, there was progress made. Um, and then 15 to 16, moving inside to getting to play in a more conducive environment to passing like 2015 was freezing for a lot of games at TCF. So to move inside, I think would, maybe Bridgewater's like highest approval rating as a Vikings quarterback, which I think was two days before the traumatic afternoon at Winter Park. And when I reviewed the 2015 season, my thought was this is about the worst supporting cast that you could have.

So surviving that and getting wins and coming through in situations, you know, the two minute Teddy thing, I think there was really something to that, that he was very conservative in the way that he played overall. But when he needed to step up a lot of times, even in 2014, this happened to a lot of times there was something there with him that endeared him to fans. I, I, you know, when I got here, it's like, I have no connection to these things whatsoever. So I'm just sort of getting the lay of the land. Why does everyone love Teddy Bridgewater so much? So I think I did a story called why everyone loves Teddy Bridgewater so much after he had gotten hurt and to a man,

it wasn't just, okay, he's a wounded animal. So everyone's going to say nice things about him. But it was on and off the record. The people that I talked to talked about how he just had a capability of getting everyone on the same page and commanding an offense and leading people and then making a big play when the big play was required. And even when I talked to his quarterback coach at Pittsburgh, that guy got emotional talking about working with Teddy Bridgewater and just how much he appreciated it. And I thought it was incredible how Mike

Zimmer, even before Teddy's injury talked about Teddy Bridgewater. He was so defensive of him. And even when there was like a shoulder injury or something, he got really mad when the media found out about it. And it was reported. I think Ben Gessling reported it and Mike was upset because he didn't want opponents to go after Bridgewater, things like that. What, what did you make having been here for 2015? What did you make of that relationship between Teddy and Mike Zimmer, which even carries on to this day. I mean, we saw it last year that, you know, Zimmer just gushes every time he talks about Teddy. And then it was sort of funny. Teddy didn't play well against the Vikings, but almost won the game at the end. Kind of like he did

a number of times in 2015. I, I thought my impression of it was that Teddy was good soldier guy and Zimmer wants that in his quarterback. He didn't turn the ball over and that was big for him. But I also think that there was a competitive nature about Teddy Bridgewater that you saw when he was even like in the locker room or talking to other players and things like that. And the way that he played that, I think Mike Zimmer really connected very well too but I wonder what you make of that relationship and how it still kind of carries on to today that I think Mike Zimmer has in his mind of the type of quarterback I want is what Teddy was yeah well number one I think Zimmer feels extreme loyalty to his first draft picks um we've seen it with Anthony Barr and we've seen Mike

Zimmer bring it up multiple times when he kind of defines who Barr is. He always starts off with, well, he's my first draft pick here. And Teddy Bridgewater is number two. Those two, I think, are sort of lumped into Zimmer's mind as like the originals. So there's a bond that's immediately created. They built this thing together, like Zimmer and Bridgewater sort of endured a really, really hard 2014 together. And then they were rewarded in 2015. And I come back to the week nine game against St. Louis, where, you know, Jeff Fisher's team had a little bit of a reputation for some extracurriculars I'm talking slowly because I'm trying to think of the name of the individual who cheap-shotted

Lamarcus Joyner cheap-shotted Bridgewater on a scramble up the middle and Mike Zimmer jumps off the bench and this was an incredible moment for Zimmer to be miked up because he was miked up for the one game that season. And then you piece that together with what we saw from the Fox broadcast. And there were like six expletives in 10 seconds. And Zimmer was ready to fight LaMarcus Joyner like with his fists. And then after the game, asked mike zimmer and they said um something along the lines of you know what what were what were you thinking in that moment

and he said if we were on the street we probably would have gotten into a fight which is amazing like that reaction that was just pure like honest you know no holds barred mike Mike Zimmer. And Teddy really turned it on toward the end of that year where he was legitimately winning games for the Vikings. I think a lot of their victories early on were defense-driven. There was the Chad Greenway pick six game. There was kind of an ugly one against Kansas City where they only scored 16 points. But against Chicago in week 15, they scored 38 points.

And I think Bridgewater threw four touchdowns. And against New York the next week, they scored 49 points. And again, Bridgewater was really, really good. Even in that Arizona loss, Bridgewater led them on a late drive. They were down 10, let them do a touchdown, then let them on a late drive to, to put, you know, they were down 10, let them do a touchdown and let them do a field goal. They tied it and they almost sent it to overtime late. So he was actually playing his best football towards the end of the year. Um, and unfortunately, you know, the, the year ended abruptly with the Blair Walsh game. We

didn't see what, what Bridgewater could do in sort of like a normal temperature environment in those playoffs and see if he could really rise to that moment, which would have been, you know, his best chance yet to stamp himself as the real franchise guy around here. And you even think about the other part of it being that, you know, the final impression of him in games that mattered was him throwing an underneath pass to Kyleyle rudolph but nonetheless leading the game-winning drive and then in the preseason the final impression is this incredible throw to digs where it's like whoa he's he's taking this next step so true to the name of the you know with theme week what could have been that's the next part of this conversation is

what could have been now teddy, Teddy played his own role. And I wrote about this in my book, Making of a Miracle. He played his own role in the 2017 team in being behind the scenes. He and Case Keenum worked together. There were certain times where Teddy would spot something on the sideline. He would help Case Keenum. His return was a galvanizing moment for the team. Our friend Jeremiah Searles called it

the best moment of his career or one of the best moments. I think he called it the best moment in his career when Teddy came back and the whole crowd was doing the, you know, Teddy chant. But going into 2016, the offensive line was bad. The running game was bad. The defense was still good. They start out five-0 with Sam Bradford. I think they probably would have started out 5-0 with Teddy Bridgewater. I mean, Bradford played really well in that game against Green Bay. But aside from that, sort of was handed a couple of victories there. Sean Hill was handed a victory by Marcus Mariota throwing the ball right to Eric Hendricks.

So some things went their way. Marcus Sherrill's had a punt return for touchdown. Brock Osler was garbage. So there was, so some things went their way. Marcus Sherrill's had a punt return for touchdown. Brock Osler was garbage, you know? So like there was a few things that went their way, but I do think when things went completely sideways in 2016, if we kind of think about it in a year by year, that's where I think Teddy would have kept the train on the track. Sam Bradford was new to the franchise. He was kind of out there doing a job. It was really the next year where he galvanized himself as part of the team. And then as he went forward, so we've gotten to see the other side of Teddy coming back. It's never really been the same Teddy that we were starting to see going into 2016. He's still been effective. It was good in New Orleans, won five games last year plays with a

pretty poor team but had a good year until he got hurt at the end uh or was you know okay he was okay i think with this circumstance with these receivers where we've seen every quarterback succeed with them with adam thielen stefan diggs that teddy bridgewater would have in 2017 with that peaking roster and number one defense taken them as far. I don't know if he goes farther, but as far. And after that, they would have said, this is our franchise guy. And maybe if we're going to make a comp, I think he's like an Alex Smith where you're never blown away by the things that he does, but he wins a lot of games. And I don't know if he ever could have won a Superbowl. That was always the thing with Alex Smith, Derek Carr, you could say the

same thing for, I think that's the career that he would have had in Minnesota where he would have had good numbers, would have won a lot of games. I'm not sure he would have ever been able to take them quite over the top. It is a little bit harder of a a what if when it's not like the Vikings were cast into the the depths of the quarterback cellar out of out of uh Bridgewater Sam Bradford had one of his best years ever Case Keenum undoubtedly had his best year ever and Kirk Cousins has been Kirk Cousins but it's not like they've had a carousel of atrocious quarterbacks post Bridgewater. And then when you stack up the Vikings quarterback play over the last five years against Bridgewater's stats, and I know it's not five full years, it's like, you know,

one and a half, but I think a lot of people would say, oh, well, they may have actually had better quarterback play than Bridgewater. And we will never, ever be able to guess, you know, what that injury did to set Bridgewater back. He still has sort of that conservative gene where he, you know, he takes care of the ball, but he wins games. And unfortunately, and I know that you'll jump right on this, he was stuck with kind of an inept organization last year, which certainly hurt his value.

You know, he got traded, obviously, to the Denver Broncos. He went 4-11, didn't win a lot of games with that Panthers team after going 5-0 with the Saints the year before. And I guess that does kind of tell you that, all right, when he's got a supporting cast, he is the perfect guy to be your quarterback. And when he doesn't have a supporting cast, like in Carolina or a good coach, that might not be a recipe for victory. So the 2017 question, does he get you as far as Keenum? It's a bold proclamation. I mean, that was such a magical season, and Keenum's probably doing a few things that Bridgewater wouldn't dare to do.

But he probably gets you to the playoffs, for sure. And does he win you one playoff game like Keenum did? Maybe not in the same fashion? Yeah, I think that's totally possible with that defense. Bridgewater could have taken that team a long way. Most quarterbacks could have. Sam Bradford could have, you know, finished that year out and also, you know, taken them a ways too. And interestingly enough, you know, kind of are what could have been quarterbacks. Bridgewater and Bradford were both the ones watching on the sideline as Keenum kind of carried out that 2017 season. And, and, and collar, would you say, you know, if that, if that Vikings team with bridge, let's say Bridgewater quarterbacks, the 2016 Vikings, but the result is the same. Let's say they go, you know, the eight and eight does Bridgewater get the fifth year option. Does he get, you know, extension talks? What do you think that would have led to? Yeah, I don't think, uh, well just to, to circle back, I, I can't take what Teddy

does now and try to project it to what he was going to do because other people who've had this injury, this is why they didn't keep them is because other people who've had this injury, don't return to play at all, which sort of speaks teddy bridgewater right and it's one of the reasons that people have so much appreciation for him but i mean zimmer told us this straight out they studied the other people who have had the same injury as him and basically none of them came back or one of them came back uh to play and that was the reason that they moved on after 2017. So anything he does now, he's kind of going to be like a Ryan Fitzpatrick now,

I think, where he goes and he's a bridge quarterback. If he wins the job in Denver, he could win some games probably. But you're right about last year. That was a bad situation that never really made sense. A team that should have been tanking, that got more of a bridge quarterback. But I still can't take it and say,

oh yeah, well, that's just how it would have turned out because the injury was so profound or had such a profound impact on his career that you can't really say that. How it would have gone for 2016, I think he gets him to the playoffs that year because even though Sam Bradford put up good numbers, he certainly did. There were a lot of games that were there to be one that weren't one. And that was kind of Teddy's deal was not, I don't want to say a clutchness exactly,

but like finding a way at the end of a game to get that one last drive, to get that one last field goal, that kind of thing. Remember Sam Bradford against the lions throws an interception to, to give Matt Prater a game when he feel go on Thanksgiving, he throws an interception against Washington to lose a game. Doesn't close out another game against Detroit at home. There were, there were opportunities all over the place to, to get that one extra win. And I think Teddy probably does it. And I also remember talking to Rick Spielman and him saying, we were set up to sign Bridgewater to that fifth year option. So I even think like a dip back from 11 and five to eight and eight, even if that's what they had done, would not have been enough for them to say, Oh no, no, no, no, we're moving on. I think they

would have doubled down and said, we're going to just continue to build this roster around him. And then in 2017, they would have had the golden ticket, which would have been him still not making a lot of money, build up the roster. In fact, Sam Bradford was kind of expensive that year, but they kind of lucked into having Hunter and Diggs and Kendricks all on those rookie contracts. I don't know about 2017. There were certainly some times where Case Keenum made plays that I don't know Teddy Bridgewater would make. But there were also a lot of lulls in the quarterback play in 2017 as well.

But a number one defense health. I guess what could have been is could he have gotten them any farther with the team that was truly fantastic? And you mentioned what's really interesting about this team is that during the Zimmer era, or let's say 2016 on since Teddy, they are one of the top ranked teams in team quarterback rating. And all the teams ahead of them are like Mahomes, Rogers, Breeze. And I think that really speaks to what, um, Adam Thielen and Stefan digs meant post 2016 to all these quarterbacks and even, um, Kirk cousins setting career highs Bridgewater

would have benefited from that. We never saw him with that. We saw him with rookie Stefan digs for, you know, kind of two thirds of a season. And so that that's the, what could have been is, would you have been able to take it to another level in 2017 from where you were with a more talented quarterback? I don't think there's any question Bridgewater is more talented than Case Keenum. And then you still had really good rosters after that 2018, if you have Bridgewater's leadership, the certain guys stay, uh's the contract like? Is it much more favorable in 2018? And I think that the window would have been extended a little longer with Bridgewater. And then in 2019, they have a very favorable schedule.

You know, maybe, maybe there's a play to be made there. I don't know. Like how different is their record? I'm not sure, but I think we're, we're sitting here at this point probably saying, you know, can Teddy get them a Super Bowl? Can he get them farther? We're maybe having some similar conversations to what Kansas City did with Alex Smith when they eventually moved on to Patrick Mahomes.

I think that's probably where we would be realistically with Teddy Bridgewater. See, I take a little more cynical approach to it when I think about Bridgewater, like in a second contract situation, because like you've said, I don't know if his his records are better, but those rosters, but not exceptional. I think the fan base not having curried all of like the sympathy, like, like Teddy Bridgewater gained so much favor in his rehabilitation. If he doesn't go through that, like courageous year and a half of his life, I'm not sure that he has the universal support that he does. Um, and I think he probably, you know, gains a little bit of equity just because he is naturally a good guy and he smiles a lot and he's kind of fun. But if,

unless he were performing at, you know, a top 10 quarterback level, I think there'd be some consternation. So the question is, would he have been that? And the level of quarterback play is getting so good in this league. And if the Vikings were locked into that second contract with him, I could see there being a little bit of angst. Maybe he keeps ascending kind of on a linear track and maybe peaks kind of around that 17, 18, 19 stretch, but we just can't play that out. And I do know that organizations that don't, you know, win multiple playoff games with, with a quarterback get impatient. And I think there's a chance that might've happened.

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with it is what would be the most likely outcome is 2017, 18, 19. They've got a window. And my guess is they would win a lot of games, but probably not go to a Superbowl. And then you get to that Alex Smith point where you're saying is a quarterback. Who's a little on the conservative side, who isn't Patrick Mahomes in terms of his physical ability. My guess is that he would have had better statistics because of the receivers, but he never would have been like 120 quarterback rating Aaron Rogers guy. And there would have been impatience. And that's where you would have kind of had this thing where, you know, with Mike Zimmer being locked with Teddy Bridgewater, assuming their relationship stayed tight, that like, how, how would that have worked? Right.

So I think ultimately because of the way contracts works out, we're on the same page that eventually as we reached last year and this year, we would have been saying, okay, maybe this is going to turn into a Derek Carr situation where the quarterback is pretty good, but you can never really quite build up enough around him. Or even, you know, you could say the same thing about where we're at with Kirk Cousins. So it's an interesting thing to kind of play out because that is the most likely scenario. But with Bridgewater's injury, what will always exist in the back of people's minds is what if it could have gone to the next level? And I think that that's what makes him such a fascinating

character to talk about. Now let's talk about Bradford and then the 2018 decision, because that's a big part of what could have been Zimmer quarterbacks, Bradford, 2017. He told me himself. And once again, it's in the book. He told me himself that he still thinks about what could have been for 2017 after that first game against new Orleans. And I remember that there was this whole kind of debate of if Sam comes back, they should keep case Keenum starting because Keenum is hot and he's playing well. And he was like a playmaker that Bradford wasn't. I, Sam was never on board with that. I thought if Bradford is 100% healthy, he's the better quarterback. You play the better quarterback.

He never got 100% healthy ever again. So we'll never know how that played out. But did they go like 15 and one with Sam Bradford or 14 and two? I think that it's not crazy to talk about that they probably end up with the number one seed. If Bradford plays that entire season, which would have meant one more win. Um, let me just think back on the losses. So first week of Keenum was at Pittsburgh. Yep. That's hard to win

no matter the team. Then week four, Dalvin cook gets hurt at home against Detroit. I think it was 14-7. They win now. They win that game at Bradford. I agree with that. But I also don't know how things go in that Washington game where Keenum just went off in the second and third quarters and they actually got in a shootout with Kirk Cousins. That could have gone a different way.

Other than that, I can't think of too many games where you can say Keenum won it for them. He was pretty good in that Rams game. That was a big win, but that was also very defense-driven. The Rams only scored seven points. So it's hard to disagree with you on that front, even though I think the way Keenum played was so, he did offer more than what Bradford will give you from a mobility standpoint. And, you know, like Mike Zimmer's famous quote, that big uh fortitude yeah yeah um yeah so that's a tough one for me because sam bradford

didn't ordinarily elevate a lot of his teams in the past to great heights but he also had bad supporting casts you can put any quarterback behind that 2017 defense and they're going to be pretty good but the one thing that holds me up is that offensive line was maybe not as good as we like to remember like Pat Elfline's grades as a rookie were not all that good Mike Remmers um was made to look much better than he was because of Keenum's mobility Riley Reif was okay uh I believe that was a Joe Berger year I think Joe Berger was great yeah he was the strong piece of that line and Nick Easton wasn't that good either like it still wasn't a great line and if Sam Bradford was back there I think he gets sacked a lot more yeah I think so um that might be true there there was the playmaking of Keenum that made it fun but also made everyone realize this isn't going to continue but that

but there's also in terms of like how we remember it if you look at the keenum game log there's a lot of games mixed in where you kind of like had to win with defense i mean even even games like you mentioned washington got them ahead and then tried to lose it for him also and that was the one where Mike Zimmer kind of lost it. The talent difference, though, was so immense between those two with actual, I think, more time to throw, even if it wasn't perfect on the offensive line, it would have been more time to throw than TJ Clemmings and Matt Khalil. I think that Sam Bradford probably does squeak out one more win at some point throughout that season. Maybe there is like a no show or something like he had in Chicago the year before.

I think that was more of Norv Turner, Pat Shermer, Mike Zimmer headbutting than anything. But, you know, there were a lot of times where I even remember some like Teddy chants during a first half where Case Keenum struggled. And I remember Everson Griffin telling us that they even had a conversation. Like, should we go to Teddy Bridgewater? Because we're not really sure that Case Keenum is going to be able to continue this. So I don't know. I do think, though, that a 100% healthy week one style Sam Bradford has a far better chance

against the Philadelphia Eagles than Case Keenum. The thing that Case Keenum was allowed to do that year was play from ahead the whole season. He had a running game the whole season. They pounded the ball a ton. He had the wide receivers who got him ahead, the defense who kept them ahead. Bradford with just pure skill, I think would have given them a better shot.

And the other thing too, Bradford did have the occasional interception that didn't go his way, but we knew that at some point there was a horrible interception that was coming from case Keenum. I remember this feeling. And when it happened, it was like, we knew it was going to happen. Zimmer knew it was going to happen. Everybody did. I don't know that that happens with Bradford. I don't know if he gets him to the Super Bowl. I do think, though, that if he goes to Philly and he plays well, even if they lose and he's 100 percent, I think they sign Bradford to a long term contract extension. Had he not gotten hurt at all during that season? Wow,, that's a really intriguing. What if, because so at that point you, you still have the same conundrum, like, let's say you, you had half the season of Keenum

and he was pretty good. And then you had like half a season of Bradford, like maybe you made the switch and you saw half of Bradford. Um, and you still had Teddy Bridgewater waiting in the wings, you know, which direction do you go? And I tend to think you're right. I think that Sam Bradford might have been the preferred option there. You know, Mike Zimmer had his qualms with Case Keenum. We knew about that. And he, you know, clearly didn't trust bad knees, which is why they didn't retain Teddy Bridgewater so if Sam Bradford didn't have this chronic thing kind of hanging over his head they might have gone with that and Mike Zimmer

was like very complimentary of Sam Bradford's toughness his ability to stand in the pocket and make throws and I think that gained him a lot of brownie points with with Zim and his arm talent was incredible like I think it was better than cousins. I think better than Teddy, better than case. I mean, there were some throws he made and I'm thinking of one in that, in that new Orleans game where he was throwing it like to a wide receiver who was crossing deep and he threw it like in between three converging Saints. It was a one in a thousand throw and he made it look effortless. And unfortunately, that was kind of the last impression we got. What was his box score in that game?

It was absurd. And they only scored 29 points, but I think he threw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns, if I'm not mistaken. I'm looking it up right now. It was, yeah, 346 and three touchdowns if I'm not mistaken I'm looking it up right now it was yeah 346 and three I mean think about that on the 2017 team for a whole year it was about as flawless of a quarterback performance as you'll see and when they got up they ran Delvin Cook a ton and he

got over 100 yards if they had tried to run up the box score I mean he could have thrown for 500 they could have just kept flying up and down the field. And once again, leaving with that lasting impression of that is the last time we really saw Sam Bradford, that game in Chicago does not really count. That's the last we saw of him. And wow, you compare it to 2016 where his numbers were good. They were his career highs and you sort of add those two together and you've got like his time in Minnesota was pretty good and seemed like it was going to get better if he had even a semblance of a running game and offensive line, which he did not have in 2016 when they were the worst running game in the league. So with now let's just finish up here on the 2018

decision because Mike Zimmer knew at the time that it would be the decision that defined maybe the rest of his time there. He said it at the NFL Combine. I remember how anxious he was at the Combine where he was talking about, if we bring back Teddy and his knee falls apart, I get fired. If we overpay for Cousins and he's not good, I get fired. If we bring back Sam and he's got the problem, I get fired. Like, you know, and if Keenum was a fluke, then I get fired.

Like all these things, you know, how Zimmer thinks he's always like thinking about what's going to keep my job. So he knew all the potential pitfalls there of each guy. And they went with Kirk cousins. They said it was a unanimous decision. I don't know if I'll ever fully believe that. But what's interesting that year is there were so many options. Ryan Tannehill was rumored to be on the trade block. I remember writing an article about Ryan Tannehill and I got so many people who told me to go die. And, you know, he turns out to be pretty

good quarterback after that. But Tyrod Taylor was leaving Buffalo. You had Alex Smith because of the Mahomes draft pick was on his way out. Everybody was talking about him. You had five first round quarterbacks. One thing I think that they would do differently here if they could do it again is consider the draft a little stronger, just like Chicago this year, where Chicago just trades up and gets Justin Fields, because there's so many quarterbacks and only so many teams that need them. That was the first year where you thought, wow, there's going to be good quarterbacks in every single draft from here on. And there were five of them and what, you know, two have turned out to

be really good. Another one has turned out to be pretty good of those five and two have been complete truck fires. So we wouldn't have known at the time, but I think if they were to do it again, it's just my thought that they would have more strongly considered the quarterback draft class and said, if we keep Teddy in case we have them battle it out and draft the guy, then we've got a pretty good shot of somebody working out here, either case continuing it, Teddy coming back to the old guy or the rookie that we draft becoming our franchise quarterback i don't know that they would have dove all into it knowing what they know now but there was so much desperation to get back

to the nfc championship game after they had failed so hard that's why I think that they went all in on cousins. So just to clarify, you're saying they should have paid case and Teddy, what they ended up getting. I mean, if we go full hindsight of what they should have done, it's obvious they should have drafted Lamar Jackson, but I mean, that's very, very clear. But even if you sort of go back in time and say, well, one of the things we might not have realized is when a draft class has five first round quarterbacks, you can get one. And maybe it's better with these quarterback contracts to throw darts and have bridge quarterbacks and try to get a rookie on that rookie contract than it is to bring in a veteran, even though he was being

brought onto a good team. it wasn't quite as good as it was before in part, because one player was taking up so much money. I think that that is, even since it happened more of a widely broadly accepted issue that we see now, uh, even as evidenced in like the Matt Safford and Jared golf trade andff trade and how Jimmy Garoppolo is being handled. I think that's even changed since then. So if you're weighing dollars versus talent versus age and factoring it all in, I think the worst decision you could have made in the offseason of 2017-2018 was to give Bradford a big deal because of his age and his chronic knees. That was the worst decision you could have made. And Arizona learned that the hard way.

Second worst decision you could have made was Keenum because you would have had to pay him whatever. I mean, what did Denver pay him? Like eight figures, eight figures per year. And you would be paying someone that came off an outlier season so you are literally buying at a rate that is so high it's like you're buying game stop stock the day that it spiked um you're not getting any value there and denver learned it the hard way the best of the three decisions would have been bridgewater cheap because he's first round caliber. You know, he can be good. And I mean, he had already, you know, rehabbed and practiced with the team. So they knew that he had some semblance of health and you were going to get him at a bargain.

Compliment that with a draft pick, I think would have been the smartest play, but you're coming off an NFC championship game appearance. And this team was so infatuated with like how close they got that they had to go, you know, get, get the new offensive coordinator and get a quarterback who never gets hurt in Kirk cousins. And that turned out to be true, but their vision also flopped because the coordinator wasn't very good and the quarterback wasn't very good. And that turned out to be true, but their vision also flopped because the coordinator wasn't very good and the quarterback wasn't very good. And they paid the quarterback a tremendous amount of money. I think on paper, Cousins made the most sense for what they envisioned the 2018 season to be. If you're just looking at it from a a, you know, team building, like future outlook standpoint,

Bridgewater was the best choice. Plus a rookie, like you said. Hey everyone. I want to tell you about our friends. It's Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends, they are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads. And if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable,

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patch up more holes if they had obviously had that extra $12 million. But I, I totally agree with you. The other option would have been to trade for Alex Smith, which I really think that Alex Smith would have been the perfect quarterback for Mike Zimmer which I really think that Alex Smith would have been the perfect quarterback for Mike Zimmer. Just a guy who does not turn the ball over, who wins a lot with good teams. I mean, my gosh, I think he was something like 85 and 30 as a Kansas City chief, something crazy good or, or since whatever year. So maybe not capable of winning the Super Bowl, but certainly capable of getting you at the doorstep. He would have been, I think, a perfect Zimmer quarterback. Not turning the ball over was

another thing. In 2018, Kirk Cousins was a turnover machine, pick sixes, strip sacks, interceptions. They kind of put too much on his plate, but it resulted in, I remember adding this up, it was like 42 or 49 points against came just from Kirk cousins, throwing it to the other team that year or fumbling it to the other team that year that would not have happened with Alex Smith. And he wouldn't have gotten injured either. So I think he would have continued on 2018, 19, where they would have been pretty competitive. I don't know, probably not a super bowl team, especially with some of the things that happened in 2018 with the defense regressing. But I think they would have won more in 2018 and 2019 if they had Alex Smith instead of Kirk Cousins.

But if we're only looking at it through the lens of what was your best chance to win the Super Bowl, it was to keep Teddy, hope that he bounces back, draft a quarterback. If he doesn't bounce back in 2018, you move to the other quarterback and you go forward there. Those were probably the better options than what they decided to do. And when they decided to do it, I mean, I think everybody knew, like, if this doesn't work out, there's going to be a lot of pressure in the next couple of years. And it hasn't. There's no objective way to say that it's worked out. They did not pay for one playoff win and two times missing the playoffs. So when you're able to rewind it, of course, you would have said draft Lamar Jackson.

And I will say at the time, I don't want to like pat myself on the back because I'm wrong a lot too. But at the time I felt like you should draft Lamar anyway, because he'll need a couple of years to develop. And you signed Kirk cousins to a short-term contract. That was how I felt at the time. Um, so, you know, that's one of those, what could have been in itself, which is a whole other episode of like the draft and who they decided to go with. But that one has taken them down a very interesting path. The only thing I would say about the Kirk Cousins decision, though, if they don't extend him after 2019, I think you might have had a different conversation of like,

look, it didn't work out, but it wasn't like totally devastating because it was just a short-term thing. Now, if he doesn't win this year, if they, if they, if they miss the playoffs this year, oh my gosh, like, then this has been a unmitigated disaster because you, you not only paid him once, but you paid him twice. So it's, it's very interesting to, to look back at that decision and say, you guys had a hundred different options. You had to pick one Avenue and go with it. They did. And it kind of came, came up the wrong way so far, but still has a chance to come up the right way. So final thoughts on what could have been Zimmer era quarterback, Sam, go ahead. Yeah. Well, I mean the, the Bridgewater draft pick,

even though it, it didn't necessarily work out with Bridgewater at the helm, it did reinforce what you can do with a rookie quarterback who is competent. They won a division title in 2015, and it kind of laid the groundwork for the team that ended up nearly winning a Super Bowl in 2017 because you were able to build around this rookie QB and get a ton of talent in there. They also had one of the best drafts ever in 2015. That helped a lot on that 2017 group, but that's kind of reinforcement too for your theory of going after a rookie in 2018. Now, having given Cousins the contract they did, it wouldn't have made sense, but that was one avenue they could have taken. think i i circle back to putting a bow on

it uh snake bit that's kind of how i i view the situation up until cousins cousins was a very intentional decision that could end up being a five-year roadblock for the team but the first five years like okay you've got you know matt castle is supposed to be the the stabilizer he gets hurt teddy bridgewater starts out and he's a little bit raw um you know then teddy gets hurt sam bradford gets hurt and then you find yourself in i don't know if there's been a situation like it ever where you have three starting caliber quarterbacks all hitting free agency at the same time on one team. Like most teams don't even have three quarterbacks on the 53 man roster. And the Vikings had a legitimate quarterback quandary with all three of these guys on the market at once.

That may never happen again in the league. I'll just say that from a perspective of people who analyze this, it has been incredibly, incredibly interesting and it's not stopping in terms of its intrigue because of this year's draft. They could have taken Mac Jones with their own pick. They decide not to. They could have made a more aggressive play for Justin Fields. They decide not to. So those guys and their trajectories are now forever tied to the Vikings decision, which is something that will continue to follow. And we'll be doing what could have been, you know, in a couple of years for another theme week, talking about Mac Jones adjusted fields. So it's like, even when it stops with a franchise

quarterback that Kirk cousins has been made to be, it still doesn't. And so that's why we do this because it's super fun to talk about. So great stuff, Sam, appreciate you. All the people who listened to us live on the, on the formerly locker room app, now grade room app, very much appreciate you guys.

And we will catch you all later. Lots of, lots of great. What could have been to come throughout the week? Thanks, Sam. Thanks guys.