From the sounds of things, you’d think that Teddy Bridgewater threw himself into undrafted free agent territory from his Pro Day performance Monday.

 

Cut-up of his Pro Day courtesy of RosterWatch.com:

 

Most of the pundits & analysts were underwhelmed. NFL Network Draft Grand Poobah Mike Mayock called Teddy’s workout, “Average at best.”

The reactions of Teddy’s draft stock falling is understandable. Most Pro Days are a formality for the top QBs headed into the draft. You’ve gotta think an NFL ready QB would be able to look good slangin’ it on home turf, with receivers he knows, in a controlled environment, right?

Guess not in Teddy’s case. It’s a shame Bridgewater undid his career: 30-9 record, 72 TDs, and 68.4% completion percentage in one day of playing catch in shorts.

By all accounts he seemed nervous and struggled on deep throw accuracy and velocity. All traits we Vikings have recently seen (all too often) in our last high draft pick QB, Christian Ponder.

That comparison may scare the bejezus out of the Vikings faithful if Teddy falls to #8 in May’s NFL Draft – a scenario that is seemingly becoming more and more likely – but there’s something special about Teddy. A quite confidence, a cerebralness, a proven winner that this franchise has lacked at the QB position since Francis Asbury Tarkenton hung em up.

People knock Teddy’s weak schedule in the American Athletic Conference, but I contend that he and Louisville could have lost those games too. But they didn’t (a near run game vs Blake Bortles & UCF aside).

Teddy could have also lost to The U in their bowl game. But didn’t. 36-9. 447yds & 3 TDs plus a rushing TD. Bowl game MVP.

He could have also lost to Florida the year before in the Sugar Bowl – on the big stage – against the Nation’s #1 pass defense. But didn’t. 33-23. 266yds & 2TDs with 1 pick. Bowl game MVP.

Before you write TB off for one bad catch session in gym shorts, check out this profile on him by Greg A. Bedard over at the MMQB from January. It’ll give you some insight on why we love this kid so much.

He’s a mature young man who had a rough upbringing, but overcame. He was a three year starter at Louisville and also graduated in 3 years with a degree in Sports Administration.

His Pro Day performance backed up what scouts have been saying about his game tape: he lacks the arm strength for deep & outside throws. But arm strength isn’t the be-all end-all trait for QB success last time I checked.

You can have big armed Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell. I’ll take comparatively noodle-armed Peyton Manning and Joe Montana. Who’s winning?

The man is a Winner, he’s wise beyond his 21-years of age, and he had full commanded of a sophisticated offense while at Louisville where he put up nearly 4,000 passing and 31 TDs vs only 4 (4!) INTs in 2013.

The fact that the man doesn’t “throw this football over them mountains” is of no consequence to me.

If the Vikings draft him, he’ll win the starting job Day 1 and be our franchise QB for the next decade. A decade that will be filled with success and perhaps a few Lombardis sprinkled in there.

I firmly believe that. His so-so Pro Day performance might have been a blessing in disguise. It might just land us Teddy at 8.

 

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Here’s what we thought of him back in February in our segment “Andy Review Potential Future Franchise Vikings QBs and Compares Them to Restaurants”:

 

 

 

 

 

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