When you look at the Year 2 quarterbacks from this past season, you see the dramatic improvements made by Oakland's Derek Carr and Jacksonville's Blake Bortles. Both signal-callers improved their numbers across the board while showcasing better playmaking skills, accuracy, downfield throwing and blitz pickups. Then, you see Johnny Manziel's disastrous second season. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.
Bridgewater was competent and effective for the 11-5 Vikings this past season, but he didn't make the same type of strides that Carr and Bortles did. No one is going to argue with a 65 percent completion rate and a positive touchdown-to-interception ratio, but the second-year passer did little to shed his game manager label. Could that lead to change in mechanics? It's a question posed to ESPN Vikings reporter Ben Goessling in his weekly mailbag.
"I don't think the Vikings are planning to overhaul Bridgewater's mechanics; the only change Mike Zimmer listed after the season was that Bridgewater needed to use an over-the-top delivery more consistently," Goessling wrote. "When Bridgewater drops his elbow, the ball tends to sail on him. He knows it, too, but as with anything involving muscle memory and repetition, it's hard to permanently fix during the course of a season. I'd expect Bridgewater will spend some time focusing on his mechanics this offseason, to develop a more consistent release, and the Vikings think it will help him be more accurate and hit more receivers in stride."
Bridgewater was excellent on short throws but showed a real reluctance to push the ball down the field. His average yards per pass of 7.23 ranked 17th in the NFL, behind guys like Alex Smith, Marcus Mariota and Tyrod Taylor. Now some of that had to do with his lack of downfield threats at wide receiver. Bridgewater and Mike Wallace never seemed to get on the right page, Charles Johnson dealt with a nagging rib injury all season and Stefon Diggs did what he could as a rookie. But general manager Rick Spielman wants to see Bridgewater open up the offense more in Year 3, and perhaps a tweak in his throwing motion could help.
