The Minnesota Vikings drafted Teddy Bridgewater at the end of the first round of this years NFL Draft. Now the team will proceed with the difficult task of figuring out when to place the former Louisville Cardinal quarterback on the field.
“The objective is to get the best players on your board,” General Manager Rick Spielman said via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “Everybody has a development stage. Some hit it right off the bat. Some take some time. But we feel very strongly that they are part of the foundation of what we are building here.”
At one point Bridgewater was considered the top quarterback but after a disappointing display in the NFL combine his stock fell. The Vikings nabbed him at the end of the first round hoping that he will solve their quarterback problems going forward.
Currently the Vikings have two of last years starters on their roster in Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder.
New Vikigns coach Mike Zimmer was previously with the Cincinnati Bengals when the team made the decision to draft Andy Dalton and start him as a rookie. Zimmer says that the situation is different in Minnesota as the Vikings have options at quarterback while the Bengals had just traded Carson Palmer to Oakland.
“Teddy will play when we feel like he’s ready, if he’s the best guy, which we hope that he will be,” Zimmer said. “We always want to have competition.”
Unless Cassel gets off to a hot start for 2014 it could be just a matter of weeks before Bridgewater assumes the starting spot.
