Tag: Teddy Bridgewater stats

After playing 12 games in a Carolina Panthers uniform, we can comfortably say that we know what this version of Teddy Bridgewater is all about. That is to say, he’s the same quarterback he’s been for his entire career. Bridgewater’s game is about as average as it gets in the NFL. While he won’t make ugly mistakes that cost you wins, he also can’t carry your team to one.

These two stats from Pro Football Focus explain Bridgewater’s season (and career) pretty much perfectly. Heading into Week 15, Teddy ranks second in avoiding negativly graded plays and third-worst in positively graded ones.

Teddy Bridgewater is absolutely the quarterback we thought he is: 2nd best in avoiding negatively graded plays, 3rd worst in generating positively graded plays.

— Moo (@PFF_Moo) December 16, 2020

While PFF’s grades are subjective, they also reflect what we’ve seen on tape from Bridgewater this season. His instinct to take the easy, underneath throws the defense gives has helped Carolina field a relatively efficient passing game. The downside of that mentality is that it makes it very difficult to lead comebacks or game-winning drives, of which Bridgewater has zero this year.

You can win in the NFL with an average, conservative-minded QB. However, the rest of the roster needs to be very deep and these Panthers simply don’t have that going for them. Unless they somehow land several defensive superstars and a play-making tight end in the offseason, it’s difficult to see this group competing for a playoff spot in 2021.

For this team to get back to being a contender, they will need to make a change and find a more aggressive and dynamic passer to lead their attack.

[lawrence-related id=631788]

[vertical-gallery id=631799]

Teddy Bridgewater has played four games as the Panthers’ starting quarterback. While he’s done a good job of moving the chains and making accurate throws in general, Bridgewater has also made a few too many mistakes for us to be truly pleased with his performance.

According to Pro Football Focus, they have Bridgewater ranked No. 26 at his position going into Week 5. That ranks him lower than mediocre QBs such as Nick Foles, Derek Carr and Ryan Fitzpatrick, just to name a few. Here is what PFF had to say about what Teddy has done so far in a Carolina uniform.

“Bridgewater is showing elements of his game-managing reputation, with the fourth-lowest percentage of uncatchable passes on passes up to 9 yards downfield, but he uncharacteristically has the third-highest percentage of turnover-worthy plays at 4.9%.”

This analysis is exactly right by PFF. The Panthers knew Bridgewater’s skill-set coming in. If they wanted a QB to sling the ball around deep like Brett Favre they would have tried to find a different starter. Bridgewater’s best asset is his ability to take care of the ball. However, he simply hasn’t done well enough in that department.

To be fair, Bridgewater is trying to run a new offense with new teammates without the benefit of a true offseason program and no preseason games. Some rust and early mistakes were to be expected.

That said, four games should be plenty to get into a rhythm with his receivers. Bridgewater needs to clean up the miscues and turnover-worthy plays starting with this week’s game against the Falcons.

[lawrence-related id=629578]

[vertical-gallery id=629623]

There’s more than one way to play quarterback. Some like Deshaun Watson like to play aggressive and test the defense deep. Others like Drew Brees prefer to throw conservatively, taking what the opponent gives them and rarely taking risks down the field.

The Panthers are getting the latter in Teddy Bridgewater, who signed a three-year, $63 million deal this offseason. While a three-year, mid-level deal for a QB hardly sends a “this is our franchise QB” kind of message, Bridgewater projects to be the team’s new starting quarterback in the post-Cam Newton era.

For the uninitiated, Bridgewater is an excellent game manager type of quarterback who knows how to read defenses and attack their weaknesses. What may decide whether or not he sticks around as the team’s long-term QB1 is how well and how often he puts his foot on the gas and takes shots deep.

Despite his reputation, Bridgewater has a relatively respectable long ball. He won’t chuck it 50+ yards down the field on the run like Watson or Patrick Mahomes but he can reliably throw 25+ yards from the pocket.

According to Pro Football Focus, Bridgewater ranked No. 19 in deep ball passing performance last season. He completed 46.7% of his deep passes last year, averaging 15.7 yards per attempt and posting a 75.7 passer rating. Those are not great but also not terrible numbers for a starter. It’s admittedly a small sample size (five games) but that syncs with what we know about him. Teddy is an average-at-best long ball thrower who prefers to target underneath routes and check-down options.

For the Panthers, that likely means Christian McCaffrey and D.J. Moore will wind up getting more attention than Robby Anderson and Curtis Samuel.

Fans who are concerned about Bridgewater’s lack of a deep ball should note that Brees ranked lower on PFF’s list, coming in at No. 22. Brees’ deep passing performance has declined over the years, but the New Orleans offense has remained elite in the twilight of his career in large part because he’s still brilliant at reading and exploiting different coverages.

Bridgewater can’t compare to Brees in this area, but this is also a strength of his game and he’ll be playing in a very similar scheme to the one Brees has excelled in for such a long time.

There’s also more than enough talent at the skill positions for Bridgewater to have the best season of his career in Carolina.

The x-factor will be the offensive line. Pass protection has been an issue for the Panthers several years now. If Pat Meyer and the new faces up front like Michael Schofield, Russell Okung and John Miller can turn this part of the game around, this will be a legit offense.

[lawrence-related id=622860]

[vertical-gallery id=622758]