2014 Minnesota Vikings: Norv Turner Contextualizes Teddy Bridgewater’s Training Camp

Earlier today, Norv Turner took the podium and was able to answer some questions about the Vikings offense and Teddy Bridgewater’s development as a quarterback. He seems fairly confident, as you would expect any coach to express at this time of year, but at least provided some solid context for why he thinks Teddy is playing at an “awfully high level.”

Teddy Bridgewater at QB Training Camp 2014

The first, of course, is that Teddy’s interception rate in camp in eleven-on-elevens is fairly low, three for every 150 passes thrown so far—or about eleven in a typical season (though he said 150 is half a season, perhaps hoping the Vikings are constantly ahead in games and willing to rush the ball). That’s a good point.

Further, Turner broke it down into the types of plays that would be a demerit for a quarterback or not, and concluded that Teddy, along with Matt Cassel, only threw one interception that could be characterized as a “bad decision” (by which I assume he means the Greenway interception in the red zone Saturday night). He also threw one interception that was a “great play” by the defense, and one that was a receiver falling in his route (I assume Derek Cox on Adam Thielen).

Norv went on to further contextualize the great play by diminishing the statistic as a camp total—there’s no pass rush and the game isn’t full speed at this point, but he remains impressed.

Beyond that, “there’s things we’re doing with Teddy that we would never call in a game”—a refrain we hear from offensive coordinators in every camp, though it rings true given how often Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees throw bad interceptions in camp only to enter the regular season in pristine condition.

As for me, I’d pump the brakes a little bit more. Teddy’s interceptions in camp aren’t what have concerned me—he is consistently making the correct decision in camp. As of right now, my primary concerns are the high passes in camp that make receptions harder to come by, increase tipped interceptions and reduce yards-after-the-catch. In my estimation, much of this has to come from the fact that he’s been asked to speed up his mechanics and control his drop from center more than he did in Louisville. Time will tell, but for now the future is optimistic and his mistakes are correctable.

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