New Orleans Saints: Why the Saints will rout the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
By Jason Reed
1. There should be no more worries about Teddy Bridgewater
There were understandable concerns about Teddy Bridgewater taking over for Drew Brees at quarterback. Ironically, the Saints made Bridgewater the highest-paid backup quarterback exactly for this reason as they viewed him capable enough to keep the team afloat in case of emergency.
It is not hard to understand why. Bridgewater was a Pro Bowler in his last season before his freak ACL injury and really has not gotten the chance to prove himself since.
Even with that in the not-too-distant past, Saint fans were concerned with Bridgewater. He did not look all that impressive in Week 2 after Brees was knocked out as there was a noticeable talent gap.
Bridgewater has not necessarily lit up the world since taking over Brees and he has not been as good as Brees, that is a given. However, with a week to prepare and gameplan around Bridgewater, the Saints have done enough and Bridgewater has been a good game-manager.
I would not expect Bridgewater to light it up and be the player of the week, but I definitely also do not expect him to lose the Saints the game, which is what some people worried about once he took over.