Teddy Bridgewater is healthy enough to play in the NFL, but the Vikings weren’t convinced that he would ever be the same after his 2016 knee injury.
Zimmer expanded on his initial thoughts when Bridgewater went down August 2016: "After it happened, and I got the reports, I was concerned he may never play again. Honestly, I didn’t think he’d walk again. This was a bad injury." #vikings
— Brian Murphy (@murphmedia_) March 27, 2018
The revelation came Tuesday morning from Mike Zimmer, who was speaking to reporters at the annual league meetings in Arizona. Here it is in Zimmer’s words, according to USA Today.
“Well, I thought he was doing good in practice,” he said. “The reports I’d get back from the medical people weren’t as positive as I was.”
“That’s kind of how it came down. They said his knee wasn’t — they saw there was some recovery he needed to do. But when I watched him in practice, he moved well. I didn’t see limitations, but from what I was told, there were some.”
Bridgewater passed his physical before signing a one-year contract with the New York Jets, so he’s clear to play and likely compete with Josh McCown for the starting job in New York.
According to Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press, Zimmer appeared somber about not being with Bridgewater anymore.
“I always told him you and I are going to be together forever,” Zimmer said. “My career’s going to go as long as your career goes. But it just didn’t work out that way.”
Minnesota also let Case Keenum (Broncos) and Sam Bradford (Cardinals) reach free agency.
Kirk Cousins and Trevor Siemian are Minnesota’s top two quarterbacks entering the upcoming NFL Draft.
