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.
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