Before the start of the season, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater set an ambitious goal to complete 70 percent of his passes this season.
Bridgewater fell short of that goal, which has happened only five times in NFL history. Still, the second-year signal caller completed 65.3 percent of his passes – ranking him ninth in the NFL this year.
When the numbers are broken down a little further though, Bridgewater finds himself as the NFL’s most accurate quarterback, according to Pro Football Focus.
#Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater was the most accurate passer this season with accuracy percentage of 79.3%
— PFF (@PFF) January 21, 2016
Pro Football Focus’ accuracy rating factors out passes batted down at the line of scrimmage and throwaways, to create a more accurate picture.
“The Viking led the NFL in 2015 with an accuracy percentage of 79.3. While this number is inflated by the large amount of short throws required by the Minnesota offense, it is no small feat to be the most accurate in the league. In fact, Teddy scored his best passing grades on throws between 10-19 yards, and broke even on throws over 20 yards.”
Bridgewater finished 2015 completing 292 of 447 passes for 3,231 yards and 14 touchdowns, while throwing just nine interceptions.
The Star Tribune took a look at all of those passes, here is what they found.
- 60.2 percent traveled less than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage
- 16.1 percent were thrown behind the line
- 16.8 percent were passes between 10-to-20-yards downfield
- Only 48 passes went 20 or more yards downfield
While the Vikings probably won’t make major changes to an offense that featured the NFL rushing champion, Adrian Peterson, Bridgewater said during his postseason press conference that he would like to be more aggressive in 2016.
The Vikings will hope that Bridgewater keeps his accuracy even if he does start looking to push the ball downfield.
