Teddy Bridgewater heads south, joins Dolphins

Former Denver Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is heading to a new team, agreeing to a deal with the Miami Dolphins on Monday. 

As the NFL’s free-agent legal tampering period began, many players around the league are finding new teams and getting big contracts. Teddy Bridgewater found a team to give him another chance, putting to rest any notion that he would be brought back to Denver in a backup role.

Bridgewater and the Miami Dolphins agreed to a one-year deal, a move that will become official when the new league year begins on Wednesday.

Like Joe Flacco and Case Keenum, Bridgewater lasted just one season with Broncos

In Miami, Bridgewater will serve as the No. 2 quarterback to starter Tua Tagavailoa. Chris Streveler and John Lovett are the other quarterbacks on the roster.

Bridgewater lasted just one season in Denver and eventually ended with the same fate as Case Keenum and Joe Flacco. Quarterbacks that were brought in with some promise, but who failed to garner any major success.

For the Broncos, Bridgewater played in 14 games and completed nearly 67 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,052 yards with 18 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. His numbers weren’t bad, but he failed to get the team into the end zone often enough which seemed to stem from his propensity to check the ball down way too much. As a result, the team’s major offensive weapons were unable to have much of an effect on the game.

Bridgewater was named the team’s starter after beating out Drew Lock in the preseason, though he never looked better than Lock in any game. He suffered a nasty injury in Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals which led to a concussion and that was effectively the end of his time with the Broncos.

The Dolphins will be the sixth different team for the former first-round draft pick.

Meanwhile, Broncos Country is still waiting for the first significant free-agent signing George Paton makes. The team has made some smaller in-house moves, however.

Fullback/Tight end Andrew Beck was re-signed to a one-year deal.

Offensive tackle Calvin Anderson agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million deal to stay with the Broncos. The team also placed Exclusive Rights Free-Agent tenders on quarterback Brett Rypien, linebacker Jonas Griffith and safety P.J. Locke. The team chose not to tender offensive lineman Austin Schlottmann and wide receiver/kick returner Diontae Spencer.

The one player the Broncos have brought in to this point on Monday is offensive lineman Ben Braden. Undrafted out of Michigan in 2017, Braden has played for three teams but does have experience in Nathaniel Hackett’s offense with the Green Bay Packers, so he is just a depth signing and a replacement for the departed Schlottmann, it seems.