New Orleans Saints: How Teddy Bridgewater should fit in the long-term

Dreew Brees recently returned under center for the New Orleans Saints after Teddy Bridgewater impressed everyone by going 5-0 as a starter.

The New Orleans Saints made Teddy Bridgewater the highest-paid backup quarterback in the NFL for a reason: he is someone who could keep the ship afloat if Drew Brees were to ever go down.

We see it all the time in the NFL; a team that has an elite quarterback is left clueless when that quarterback is injured, simply because there are not enough good quarterbacks in the NFL.

Then you have guys like Bridgewater, who was once a Pro Bowl starter, and Matt Moore in Kansas City, who is an experienced veteran that can be good enough to win games. Bridgewater is different from Moore, however, as he was more than good enough.

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There were times that Bridgewater looked nothing more than a game-manager, especially early in his stint as the starting quarterback for Brees. However, each and every week Bridgewater got better and better. Bridgewater finished with 1,208 passing yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions in his five starts.

He was on pace for 3,856 passing yards, 28 passing touchdowns and six interceptions if he started all 16 games for the Saints.

And while this is with an offensive-minded head coach that always crafts one of the best offenses, the Saints do not have much in the receiving corps past Michael Thomas and Bridgewater also had to play without Alvin Kamara AND Jared Cook.

With his exceptional play, Bridgewater has now made his future with the New Orleans Saints a serious talking point. Bridgewater is a free agent after this season and is definitely going to garner interest from teams who need a quarterback.

Drew Brees is in the closing stages of his career and it would not be all that shocking if this was his last season if the Saints won it all. Even if it isn’t, he only has one, maybe two years more at the most. It is time to start discussing what the future holds at the quarterback position.

If the New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl then I think that guarantees that Teddy Bridgewater will return to the Saints. This increases the chances that Brees retires and thus puts the Saints on the spot at quarterback.

Instead of drafting a rookie and hoping that he can be good right away, the Saints would be much better off staying in-house and giving Bridgewater a three-year deal to be a stop-gap option as the starting quarterback.

The problem with getting a rookie quarterback for next season would be that the Saints are not high on the draft boards and also have a talented core still that could use a solid quarterback to contend for more Super Bowls. Bringing in a rookie can close that window fast, and then when he is progressed, that core might be gone.

Bridgewater still gives them a shot to win the Super Bowl with this current core. Then, either in the 2020 draft or the 2021 draft, the Saints can still select a quarterback and let him sit and learn under Bridgewater as Philip Rivers did with Brees or Aaron Rodgers with Brett Favre.

The team can essentially do the exact same thing if Brees does not retire after this season. They can draft a quarterback to learn under one of the greatest of all-time for a season or two, which is not a bad situation to be in.

However, if Brees sticks around then there is no way that Bridgewater does as well. Some team is going to offer him a hefty contract that is not worth matching to be a backup quarterback. With the rookie and Taysom Hill on the roster, spending money on a fourth quarterback (who would be the backup still) is not a smart play.

Next. We have learned something about the Saints the last two weeks. dark

All that to say that I do not think Teddy Bridgewater is the future of the franchise. I think there is a chance that he is under center for the next several years, but we won’t be looking back in 2029 about the strong decade he had with the New Orleans Saints.

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