Vikings Message Board.Com

The TDs and yards are fair, but there wasn't a QB in the league who threw the ball at least 150 times and kept it above 70%.

Five or six guys were within a few points of it and Romo was one tenth of a percent(69.9) from 70 percent.

So I am thinking that is possible, but not likely.

Teddy was 64.4 .. the average seems to be 66.3 in between Rivers and Manning ... in the top ten completion percentage guys

I looked at the Stats and the number that stood out the most was the picks.. I know
four of five were receiver related, more than Teddy ...

so the main is goal is less than 10 picks and more than 22 touchdowns for a decent wildcard chance, next season

PurpleMustReign wrote:I would be fairly happy with 6000 yards, 65 TDs, 4 INTs, and a 90% completion percentage.

I am ot sure how realistic that is, but my friend can do it on Madden, so that is pretty close to reality, right?

I'm with you on yards and comp%...but the 65tds may be a bit much. Anything north of 50 is 'Uncle Rico territory' IMO, and probably not within reach.

For me it's harder to put numbers on it and easier to put it into the context of what I'll be looking for him to improve upon. The big one that jumps out is his deep ball accuracy and touch. He missed a couple of TDs just due to his penchant to overthrow deep receivers, which was a knock on him coming out of college. Looking at Bridgewater one would not expect that to be a problem for him, but either he's outstanding at anticipating deep routes coming open and just pulls the trigger a tad too soon, or he really does possess a surprisingly strong arm. Either way, if he can do a better job on the deep ball, I could see him tacking on another 5-6 scores over the year just based on that alone. Adding Wallace should help him as Wallace is tough for even NFL QBs to overthrow. Maybe if Patterson can get on the same page we'll see improvement there as well. But that's probably the single thing I would like to see him improve.

Another area he can improve on is mechanics. Bridgewater's mechanics are generally very good, but he seems to get the yips sometimes and some balls come out that just don't look right. Teddy is very accurate generally, so not sure what causes these particular passes to be so errant, especially when a sizeable number of them appear to be fairly simple completions. Like I said, this is a very minor overall criticism, and I realize nobody is perfect, especially when under pressure, but these do stand out largely because Bridgewater is so consistent.

Maybe one other area of improvement I would like to see is more aggressiveness in throwing into the end zone, especially when the Vikings are down inside the 20. This was a problem for Ponder too, and it might be a result of coaching/how productive Asiata was in those situations, but I think Bridgewater could pump up his TDs by another 5-6 if he were a bit more aggressive inside the red zone. With guys like Rudolph and Patterson, there should be some favorable matchups.

If all goes well and Bridgewater is able to do the above while staying healthy, I could see him at around 30 TDs to 12 INTs for the year and between 3,500-4,000 yards. YPA should be somewhere in the 7-8 range, but it could go above 8 if Turner decides to go more vertical. He certainly has the speed at WR now to do that.

VikingLord wrote:For me it's harder to put numbers on it and easier to put it into the context of what I'll be looking for him to improve upon. The big one that jumps out is his deep ball accuracy and touch. He missed a couple of TDs just due to his penchant to overthrow deep receivers, which was a knock on him coming out of college. Looking at Bridgewater one would not expect that to be a problem for him, but either he's outstanding at anticipating deep routes coming open and just pulls the trigger a tad too soon, or he really does possess a surprisingly strong arm. Either way, if he can do a better job on the deep ball, I could see him tacking on another 5-6 scores over the year just based on that alone. Adding Wallace should help him as Wallace is tough for even NFL QBs to overthrow. Maybe if Patterson can get on the same page we'll see improvement there as well. But that's probably the single thing I would like to see him improve.

Another area he can improve on is mechanics. Bridgewater's mechanics are generally very good, but he seems to get the yips sometimes and some balls come out that just don't look right. Teddy is very accurate generally, so not sure what causes these particular passes to be so errant, especially when a sizeable number of them appear to be fairly simple completions. Like I said, this is a very minor overall criticism, and I realize nobody is perfect, especially when under pressure, but these do stand out largely because Bridgewater is so consistent.

Maybe one other area of improvement I would like to see is more aggressiveness in throwing into the end zone, especially when the Vikings are down inside the 20. This was a problem for Ponder too, and it might be a result of coaching/how productive Asiata was in those situations, but I think Bridgewater could pump up his TDs by another 5-6 if he were a bit more aggressive inside the red zone. With guys like Rudolph and Patterson, there should be some favorable matchups.

If all goes well and Bridgewater is able to do the above while staying healthy, I could see him at around 30 TDs to 12 INTs for the year and between 3,500-4,000 yards. YPA should be somewhere in the 7-8 range, but it could go above 8 if Turner decides to go more vertical. He certainly has the speed at WR now to do that.

Wow, several people have now expressed the hope that Bridgewater will throw 30+ TDs and while I understand that it's a hope, not a prediction or expectation, it strikes me as a very high hope. It's pretty rare for a QB to throw that many TDs in his second pro season. Who was the last QB to do it? Culpepper? Maybe Carson Palmer? Stafford didn't hit that height in season 2, did he?

I think Bridgewater's going to have a hard time topping 25 TDs in season 2 and I hope he gets that many. Regarding his deep ball: part of the problem could just be lack of experience/chemistry with his receivers. I imagine it takes time to get a feel for how quickly they'll get to a spot far down the field.

I'd like to see a little more patience for Bridgewater in season 2. I thought he was often a little eager to take the check down and could have let plays develop a bit more. Of course, he had good reason to want the ball out of his hand quickly, since the pass protection was often lousy last season. Maybe if that improves, he'll feel a little more comfortable letting routes develop.

I'm also hoping to see his accuracy improve. It was problematic at times last year.

I'd like to see 28 TDs, 10 ints, and avg under 25 attempts a game with around 70% completion percentage.

Mostly I'd also like to see the vikings run for over 2000 yards and make things easier on Teddy

Mothman wrote:Who was the last QB to do it?

Ok, I got some time at work Lets see...

Culpepper?

Technically he did it in his 2nd year (33) but he didn't throw a pass in '99 so it was really his 1st year.

Maybe Carson Palmer?

Yep, 32 TDs. Only time in his career he surpassed 30.

Stafford didn't hit that height in season 2, did he?

Only 6. He had 41 in season 3, and like Palmer, the only time he's surpassed 30 TDs.

At least 3000 yards 60%+ 2:1 TD:INT

Man some people are really expecting a lot out of this guy!

S197 wrote: Ok, I got some time at work Lets see...
Technically he did it in his 2nd year (33) but he didn't throw a pass in '99 so it was really his 1st year.
Yep, 32 TDs. Only time in his career he surpassed 30.
Only 6. He had 41 in season 3, and like Palmer, the only time he's surpassed 30 TDs.

Thanks!

Man, Culpepper had a heck of a first season... at least until that last game.

I'm gunna guess he goes something like:
20 TD's
8 INT's
3100 yards

I'd love those numbers for a 2nd year guy, My expectations, however, have nothing to do with stats. My expectation is Playoffs and nothing less. This team has all the makings of a playoff team and I feel like the other teams in the division have either taken a step back or stayed the same.

Loki wrote:I'm gunna guess he goes something like:
20 TD's
8 INT's
3100 yards

I'd love those numbers for a 2nd year guy, My expectations, however, have nothing to do with stats. My expectation is Playoffs and nothing less. This team has all the makings of a playoff team and I feel like the other teams in the division have either taken a step back or stayed the same.

Even if he plays at the same level as last year and does a full 16 he would have more TDs than that and more yards than that.



I am expecting:
26 TDs
3600 Yards
10 INT
64% completion

Does anyone really care what TB's numbers look like as long as the Vikings win the majority of games? As long as he doesn't stink up the joint who cares if he throws 10 or 30 td's? 2000 yds or 4000?
I care more about the turnovers.

CbusVikesFan wrote:Does anyone really care what TB's numbers look like as long as the Vikings win the majority of games? As long as he doesn't stink up the joint who cares if he throws 10 or 30 td's? 2000 yds or 4000?
I care more about the turnovers.

Stats (while often misconstrued and misleading) reflect performance. So I do care what they look like. If Teddy plays 16 games and throws for 10 TDs and 2,000 passing yards, do you really think the Vikings are going to win the majority of their games? Even if he has only two interceptions? This thread was an exercise in quantifably gauging fan expectations heading into Teddy's second year.

Take heart. Teddy might be on the right track yet. Some good nuggets here:

Teddy Bridgewater solid through 16 starts, but pressure remains an issue

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... s-an-issue

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Bridgewater has a passer rating of 85.2 through 16 starts, which puts him 11th among the 28 current NFL starters who made their first 16 starts after 2001 (for the purposes of our research, we're excluding Peyton Manning, Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston and Ryan Mallett). Through his first 16 starts, Bridgewater threw for more yards than Matt Ryan, one fewer touchdown than Drew Brees and completed more of his passes than anyone but Ben Roethlisberger. Still, he's been blitzed on 35.3 percent of his dropbacks, and faced pressure on 30.2 percent of them.

For his first 16 starts, here are Bridgewater's numbers: 324-of-497, 3,543 yards, 16 touchdowns, 14 interceptions and 50 sacks. Only Blake Bortles (61) and Josh McCown (52) were sacked more often in their first 16 starts, and in part because of how much pressure he's faced, Bridgewater has averaged just 7.53 air yards per attempt in his first 16 starts.

dead_poet wrote:Take heart. Teddy might be on the right track yet. Some good nuggets here:

Teddy Bridgewater solid through 16 starts, but pressure remains an issue

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... s-an-issue

To put that into some perspective, he also threw for 256 yards more, 3 INTs less and 5 TDs less than Christian Ponder while being sacked 7 more times. He completed 22 more passes than Ponder over his first 16 games. Ben Goessling wrote that "Bridgewater has no guarantees of being elite, but his up-and-down play to this point should be no indicator he won't make it there" and while that's absolutely true, we're not far removed from a reminder that this could still go either way. Ponders numbers at this point weren't dramatically different. I'm not sure about passer rating and completion percentage. I think Ponder's percentage at this stage was around 60%. I don't know how to calculate passer ratings but I'd expect Bridgewater to have an advantage there too. I think he is better than Ponder but we're looking for him to become much better.

He'd obviously benefit from less pressure but as with Ponder, teams are pressuring him because it's working. A lot of that's on the line. Some of it's on the QB.

Mothman wrote:To put that into some perspective, he also threw for 256 yards more, 3 INTs less and 5 TDs less than Christian Ponder while being sacked 7 more times. He completed 22 more passes than Ponder over his first 16 games. Ben Goessling wrote that "Bridgewater has no guarantees of being elite, but his up-and-down play to this point should be no indicator he won't make it there" and while that's absolutely true, we're not far removed from a reminder that this could still go either way. Ponders numbers at this point weren't dramatically different. I'm not sure about passer rating and completion percentage. I think Ponder's percentage at this stage was around 60%. I don't know how to calculate passer ratings but I'd expect Bridgewater to have an advantage there too. I think he is better than Ponder but we're looking for him to become much better.

He'd obviously benefit from less pressure but as with Ponder, teams are pressuring him because it's working. A lot of that's on the line. Some of it's on the QB.

And some of it may be other things. I honestly don't know. As I've posted before, I wish I could see the games in person as opposed to on TV or a computer monitor. I can't tell what's going on the entire field as each play unfolds. I'd like to see what the WRs are doing. Are they really getting open? And what routes are they being asked to run and do the routes make sense against an extreme pass rush?

I guess I'm just saying that there might be more to it all than just the OL (which I believe is a large part of the problem, especially on the road) and/or Bridgewater.