Denver Broncos: Predicting Teddy Bridgewater’s season
Teddy Bridgewater has yet to cement himself as a franchise quarterback in the NFL. He may never do so, but the Denver Broncos roster may give him the best chance.
Now that we know Teddy Bridgewater will be the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback for Week 1, we can adjust our predictions accordingly.
I was going to be optimistic with either quarterback, but I think the team’s ceiling is lower with Teddy at the helm.
However, Teddy has played some good football in his career, and I want to look back at his time in the NFL to try and predict a stat line for the eighth-year quarterback.
In his career, Teddy Bridgewater has played exactly one full season. However, he’s played 15 and 13 games in two other seasons.
For this piece, I will count those as a “full” season.
In those seasons, which were 2014 and 2015 with the Minnesota Vikings, and 2020 with the Carolina Panthers, Teddy Bridgewater’s stat line looks like this:
43 TDs, 32 INTs, 9,883 yards, 66.3 percent completion, and a passer rating of 88.7. These totals are over 44 games played.
Looking at the Denver Broncos roster compared to the teams during these three seasons, I would say the Broncos have the strongest offensive roster of the bunch.
Their elite pass catchers, bruising running backs, and the solid offensive line should elevate Teddy’s game, even if it’s just a little bit.
We also have to consider the NFL moving to a 17-game season, so totals will be inflated based on what we are all used to seeing.
The Broncos have the fifth easiest schedule in the NFL, and according to Warren Sharp, have the easiest schedule of pass defenses in the NFL.
In his three “full seasons,” Teddy Bridgewater attempts an average of 30.47 passes a game, and completes about 20.25 of them.
So, Teddy Bridgewater, in his three full seasons, typically goes 20-of-30. If we do the same averaging for passing yards, touchdowns, and interceptions, we get an average stat line of…
20-of-30, 225 yards, 1 TD, 0.7 INT.
Eh.
However, since I am higher on the Broncos offensive personnel, and think they can elevate Bridgewater, I think we can get slightly more out of him.
If we average what we just found over an entire 17-game season, this is what we get.
340-of-510, 3,825 yards, 17 TDs, 12 INTs, 66.3 percent completion, for a passer rating of 90.2.
Could I add three more touchdown passes and remove two interceptions because our offensive personnel is so good? Yeah, and I don’t think that would be out of Teddy Bridgewater’s range of ability.
If we did that, he’d have a 2:1 TD:INT ratio, and his season passer rating would jump to 93.8.
I’m not sure if that would be enough to solidify the quarterback position long-term, but that all depends on the success of the team and what the front office truly thinks.