TZMarkie said:
Where do you guys think Bridgewater can finish at the end of the year at QB...?
How far out of the question is top 10?
A knee-jerk reaction thought for me, estimated him to *possibly* finish near 14-16 or so, which means he could be a spot starter or matchup streamer at times.
Its apparent he has picked up some weapons this year, and was certainly looking strong at the end of the year.
I have been debating in the back of my mind about targeting this guy as a possible #2 QB if I miss the others I am trying to nab in leagues this year.
(I may get him + someone else towards the end of drafts, if I miss on the guys I want earlier)
He is one guy I don't know much about, apart from a few games near the end of last season.
And one thing thats pretty much not talked about is his scrambling, especially compared to others.
Some input on this would be appreciated.
If you would like to know more about him I suggest reading the thread. There is a ton of great information and analysis about him linked throughout.
This perhaps got buried on the last post of the previous page:
Forty-Five Minutes Of Teddy Bridgewater
If you want to see him play just watch that. It includes all of his pass attempts from the 13 games he played last season.
As far as how well Bridgewater will perform as a second year QB?
In Bridgewaters rookie season the Vikings ran 981 total plays of offense. This was without Peterson who would have been and still will be the focal point of the offense in 2015. The Vikings have also upgraded their defense. Historically Mike Zimmer has done very well in his second season as defensive coordinator, having top 5 defenses with Dallas and the Bengals in his second season. The defense improved significantly in 2014. I expect them to get better against the run in particular, which was still below league average last season.
The Vikings had 18 interceptions collectively which if reduced due to Bridgewater being more experienced and better support from the running game would lead to more plays from uninterrupted drives. Similarly the Vikings gave up 51 sacks in 2014 which can kill drives. The Vikings offensive line had injuries to two starters and Matt Kalil played very poorly up until the last few games of the season. While Bridgewater is elusive with good awareness of the pass rush and ability to step up or escape the pocket under pressure, he was pressured far too much. This is perhaps the issue with the most uncertainty for me as far as how well Kalil will play in 2015. If he gets to even a average level of LT play this should reduce a lot of the pressure that Bridgewater faced last season. LG Brandon Fusco was out with an injury almost all of 2014 so his return is a plus at either guard position. The Vikings are putting their best guard next to Kalil to try to help him out this season. Phil Loadholt also missed several games in 2014. He is more of a run blocker than being good in pass protection. He struggles with speed pass rushers a lot. But he has played at a high level for most of his career. The main question is who will now play RG with Fusco moved to the left side. Overall I can see the sacks being around 40 in 2015 which would lead to more offensive plays.
The Vikings were 26th in the league in 1st downs.gained at 288. The league average was 320. I think the Vikings can at least be an average offense in terms of 1st downs in 2015 which would lead to more offensive plays.
Because of the confluence of improved offense from Bridgewater being more experienced, Peterson's return, a healthy offensive line and improved defense, the Vikings should run more offensive plays in 2015.
I see the Vikings having 1020-1040-1060 total offensive plays. I had this a bit higher a week or so ago when talking about Peterson. Trying to be reasonable here. Maybe this is still too optimistic?
The Vikings ran the ball 42% of the offensive plays without Peterson in 2014. The Vikings ran the ball 41.8% of the plays in 2013 and 48.6% in 2012. This is Teddy Bridgewaters offense now. I see the Vikings running the ball 44% of the plays in 2015 which is the average of the last 3 seasons. Norv Turner likes to have a balanced offense and they will use Peterson a lot as long as he is healthy. If the defense does improve as I expect it to this may cause the Vikings to run the ball more being able to preserve a lead. I could see the Vikings running the ball 45% or maybe even 46% of the time if they do have a lead and the running game is working well. That was a missing element of the offense last season.
At 44% run to pass ratio this would be 571-582-594 pass attempts - 40 sacks = 531-542-554 passing attempts.
At 45% run to pass ratio this would be 561-572-583 pass attempts - 40 sacks = 521-532-543 passing attempts.
At 46% run to pass ratio this would be 550-562-572 pass attempts -40 sacks = 510-522-532 passing attempts.
So putting it all together the Vikings should throw the ball 521-532-543 times.
Bridgewater had 402 passing attempts in 13 games as a rookie in 2014. This is about 31 pass attempts per game which would be 494 over 16 games.
Bridgewater has an astounding 64.4% completion rate in 2014. If Bridgewater were able to maintain that in 2015 335-342-350 completions. Last season he had 259 completions in 13 games which is about 20 per game and would be 318 over 16 games.
Teddy Bridgewater had a 7.3 yards per attempt which was 14th out of the top 33 QBs Yards per completion was 11.3 which was 23rd out of 33QB.
Yards per attempt 3803-3883-3963 passing yards. Yards per completion 3786-3864-3955 passing yards. Bridgewater lost 6 yards/sack which would be -240 passing yards.
So 2015 3555-3634-3719 passing yards. I think there is potential for this to be higher if Bridgewater is only sacked 30 times for example or if the yards per completion are higher which they could be.
Bridgewater TD% was 26th in the league as a rookie at 3.5%/attempt. I could see this improving because of additional experience, improved play action because of Peterson, a healthy Kyle Rudolph, Mike Wallace, better offensive line play. The league average is 4.5% and I could see Bridgewater doing that in 2015. This would be 23-24 TD.
Bridgewater is a mobile QB and HC Mike Zimmer mentioned to the media that he wants Bridgewater to run when that is the best option for the play. Still Bridgewater is always looking to throw the ball, even to a fault as I recall one play on either 3rd or 4th down where he scrambles and easily could have run for the 1st down but he instead tried to throw the ball which ended up incomplete causing either a punt or a field goal.
He did run for 209 yards and 1 TD in 13 games. Over 16 games this would be 16 yards/game or 257 rushing yards. With perhaps 1-2 TD.
I see Bridgewater throwing seven to nine interceptions this season. A few of the twelve he threw last season were not really on him and hopefully mistakes like drops leading to tipped passes that are intercepted don't happen as often in 2015.
This would be 262.26 points in a standard scoring league.
According to PFR (
where I pulled all this information from) 262 points was what Joe Flacco scored last season. Flacco was the 13th QB in fantasy.
Numberfire has Bridgewater projected for 546 pass attempts 332 completions 3753 passing yards 21TD 16 interceptions 226 rushing yards 2 rushing TD. So it pretty close to my numbers except they have him with slightly more pass attempts and a lot more interceptions. They have Bridgewater scoring as the 19th overall QB in 2015.