The Denver Broncos’ experiment in 2021 with Teddy Bridgewater turned out to be a complete waste of everyone’s time. Here are 3 reasons why.
The Denver Broncos made a move just before the 2021 NFL Draft to trade for veteran quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who has become a journeyman in the NFL since his devastating leg injury with the Vikings a handful of years ago.
In his lone season with the Denver Broncos, it’s become abundantly clear that the decision to choose Bridgewater over Drew Lock as the starting quarterback for the 2021 season has been almost a complete waste of time.
Teddy Bridgewater’s season with the Broncos has not been fruitful
There are a handful of reasons why the Denver Broncos have clearly lost a season with Bridgewater as the primary starting quarterback.
The logic for choosing him over Drew Lock was understandable. A veteran coaching staff led by Vic Fangio preferred the veteran Bridgewater, who has a high career completion percentage and a reputation for taking care of the football, at least for the most part.
He also has a history of durability issues and his ability to limit turnovers is obviously not as great as people seem to think unless you simply prefer trading interceptions and fumbles for three-and-outs.
Among a variety of reasons why the decision to go with Teddy (after what we were all told was an extremely close race throughout training camp) are three that really stand out among the rest.
1. The Broncos’ WRs have been forsaken with Teddy Bridgewater under center
The Denver Broncos’ top four players this season in terms of targets in the passing game is as everyone expected it probably would be:
- Courtland Sutton
- Tim Patrick
- Noah Fant
- Jerry Jeudy
Mission accomplished, right?
Wrong.
The decision to go with Teddy Bridgewater has put a ceiling on the production we’ve been seeing from the wide receiver position this season, with the occasional spurts of production mixed in there.
Jerry Jeudy has zero touchdowns in nine games played this season. Courtland Sutton has eclipsed 30 yards receiving only one time since Halloween.
Tim Patrick doesn’t have a single game with 10 targets or 100 yards receiving.
Noah Fant is averaging less than 10 yards per reception.
To be fair, Pat Shurmur and Teddy Bridgewater both deserve plenty of blame for the lack of overall production by the Broncos’ receivers this season. These guys should all be absolute game-changers and they have been anything but for the majority of the year.
The inability of Teddy Bridgewater to appropriately incorporate these playmakers has been one of the most frustrating things to watch in the entire 2021 season.
2. What happened to those playoffs?
The only reason anyone could really justify choosing Teddy Bridgewater over Drew Lock given the Broncos’ situation was the team’s need to get into the playoffs.
Vic Fangio likely needed it to keep his job beyond this season. The Broncos have been in a playoff drought since Super Bowl 50.
Everyone wants and needs the playoffs in Denver.
Teddy Bridgewater was picked by this coaching staff in Denver because they figured he gave them the best shot at getting to the postseason. Although the Broncos have not been formally eliminated from playoff contention at this point, Bridgewater has absolutely failed to deliver in key moments where a veteran quarterback should be expected to step up.
Remember Cleveland on Thursday Night Football? Remember the home game against the Eagles coming off of a huge road win in Dallas?
Remember the offensive ineptitude in Kansas City?
The list of failures for Bridgewater and the Broncos this season is extensive, but it’s been this team’s play against fellow AFC playoff contenders that has been maddening. The Broncos lost to all of the Ravens, Steelers, Browns, and Raiders…consecutively.
More recently, they’ve lost to the Chiefs, Bengals, and Raiders (again).
Bridgewater wasn’t the sole reason the Broncos lost all of those games, but in the ones he was healthy for, he was not only a primary reason the Broncos didn’t win, but he was also a primary reason they lost.
A lot of that goes back to point number one — the inability to properly involve the receivers in the game plan.
Specifically, imagine how different this Broncos season would be if they had beaten a battered Browns team earlier this year, or if they could have gotten anything going offensively in the first three quarters of the Steelers game.
It has been a frustrating season offensively, to be certain, and the offense has not had as many turnovers as last season but they have also not replaced those turnovers with more points on the board.
3. The Broncos have forsaken a year of Drew Lock for Teddy Bridgewater
We have seen a lot of the Denver Broncos playing or coaching not to lose in the 2021 season, a maddening strategy that ultimately always seems to lead to losing.
Choosing Teddy Bridgewater over Drew Lock in the first place signified the “playing not to lose” sentiment.
This argument may frustrate a lot of you, but the decision to go with someone other than Drew Lock made no sense unless that player was substantially better, which Bridgewater was not in preseason play.
Lock just made his first start of the season in Las Vegas and he’s slated to make just his second start of the season in Los Angeles. He had been poor in relief opportunities prior to the Cincinnati game, but we’ll never know for sure what kind of season Lock could have had getting every rep, every single week.
Maybe it would have been much of the same from what we saw a season ago. It’s hard to fault Vic Fangio for doing what he thought was best to preserve his job in Denver, but a lot of Drew Lock’s lack of development has to do with Vic Fangio’s clear disdain and lack of trust for the young QB.
Even if Lock would have stunk badly in the 2021 season, the Denver Broncos would be right where they are now anyway, and the team would at least know that they know that they know.
Maybe the receivers would have been more productive along the way.
Denver Broncos 2022 mock draft with surprise trade up for QB
The Denver Broncos are loaded with 2022 NFL Draft capital and they can solidify one of the top rosters in the NFL next season with a strong class.
The lost year for Drew Lock, to me, is an unforgivable mistake by Vic Fangio and his staff, whose decision to roll with Teddy Bridgewater has been all but a waste of time in 2021.