All of a sudden the New York Jets look as though they have a good kind of problem at the quarterback position, which is quite a dramatic turnaround considering last season they were hoping for either Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg to emerge as a potential starter under center.
Teddy Bridgewater, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings and brought in via free agency, is put on a show at organized team activities (OTAs) last week.
According to ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini, the Jets “couldn’t be happier” with one of their new quarterbacks.
“Not only did he perform well in the first practice… he maintained it throughout the week,” Cimini noted.
Entering OTA’s Bridgewater was widely considered the third option in the Jets quarterback situation. Veteran Josh McCown, who was brought back on a one-year deal after a surprising career year at age 38, has been slated to be the team’s starter in 2018 in front of Sam Darnold, the promising USC prospect selected No. 2 overall in this year’s draft last month.
Signed on a one-year deal as well, Bridgewater still has plenty to prove before it is deemed that he is ready to be a starting quarterback in the NFL again. Once a promising young player performing at a Pro Bowl level in Minnesota, his career was derailed by a horrific knee injury that forced him to miss the entire 2016 season.
He attempted just two passes last year as Case Keenum ran away with the starting job after Sam Bradford went down with injury issues as well.
Bridgewater’s surgically-repaired knee still hasn’t been deemed fully healthy and won’t be until he sees real game action, which initially put him behind the eight ball when it came to the starting job. But this week of OTAs has only helped his stock.
Cimini noted that his trade value is “trending upward,” which could allow the Jets to acquire some more assets for a rebuild that has gone promisingly well so far this offseason.
However, if the Jets don’t believe Darnold is ready to take snaps in the regular season just yet after this summer, Bridgewater will likely be held on to as a direct backup for McCown and the Jets would roll with three quarterbacks for the time being.
