The Minnesota Vikings are firmly on the Teddy Bridgewater bandwagon (though some NFL analysts are not). The organization is confident he can develop into a bona fide franchise quarterback and keep the Vikings in contention every year. Through 15 career starts, he's justifying that optimism.
For his career, Bridgewater is completing 65.5 percent of his passes (74.0 this season) and has thrown for 3,303 yards with 15 passing touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He's also rushed for 246 yards and two additional scores while displaying impressive poise and accuracy. Yet the Vikings allowed the fifth most sacks (51) and sixth most QB hits (96) in 2014. This season, they've already surrendered six sacks and nine QB hits. Minnesota will have to do a better job of protecting Bridgewater if they want their franchise QB-in-the-making to reach his full potential. That's why CBS Sports' Rob Rang projects the team to select LSU guard Vadal Alexander in the 2016 NFL Draft.
"With an offense built around the powerful running of Adrian Peterson and protecting relatively slim quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, reinforcing the offensive line with a massive earth-mover like Alexander makes a lot of sense."
Although draft predictions this early are rarely accurate, getting an idea of where teams value certain players and which positions they are looking to address is a worthwhile exercise. The Vikings need help up front, especially with left tackle Matt Kalil (whose contract is up after the 2016 season) coming off a poor 2014 campaign.
Let's revisit this prediction down the line once we've gotten an opportunity to study Minnesota's offensive line this season.
