Minnesota Vikings roster overview: Quarterback
With the majority of roster moves completed over the past three months, the Minnesota Vikings have now turned their focus to OTAs – Offseason Training Activities – to begin the process of determining who can best help this team in its quest to not only repeat as NFC North division champions, but to take the final step(s) needed to reach their ultimate goal: the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
Over the next three months, Vikings players will compete for a place on the 2016 roster. This overview will go through each position, starting at quarterback, to see where each position currently stands, where it’s going, and the best/worst outcomes.
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Quarterback Current order: Teddy Bridgewater, Shaun Hill, Taylor Heinicke, Joel Stave
Starter: Teddy Bridgewater enters his third season as the undisputed starter at quarterback. After an efficient yet underwhelming year largely due a great deal to ineffective pass blocking and inconsistency with last year’s group of receivers, expectations are at a fever pitch heading into 2016. Many of the offseason moves were made with the intent to help the offense become more balanced, placing the onus squarely on Bridgewater to take that next critical step in his development.
In the instances where the other two positions were functioning effectively, Bridgewater showed he was very much capable of guiding, even carrying this offense to victory. If the upgrades around him pay off, Bridgewater could very well take the step from being just another starter to being discussed as a potential top-10 quarterback.
The Bench: Shaun Hill comes in as the incumbent backup entering his 15th season. However, if he has to come in for an extended period of time, this could be a problem for the Vikings’ offense. During his one extended outing in Week nine versus the Rams, Hill struggled mightily, to the point where the Vikings handed off to Adrian Peterson on nearly every snap just to get the team in range for the game-winning field goal.
Add that he’s only signed through this season and it’s very possible, even likely, that the Vikings will have him compete with last year’s third stringer Taylor Heinicke for the spot. Heinicke surprised many during last year’s preseason, so much so that the Vikings kept him on the active roster last season rather than place him on the practice squad and risk another team snatching him up.
Best case scenario: Bridgewater does better than anyone projects and puts up 30 plus passing touchdowns and throws for over 4,000 yards; none of his backups see the field unless the Vikings are blowing out opponents in the fourth quarter.
Worst case scenario: Bridgewater regresses and/or gets hurt and the Vikings have to rely on Hill or Heinicke to rescue their season.
Fair scenario: With Bridgewater likely to see improved protection and more consistent play from his receivers, plus another of year of experience in Norv Turner’s offense with the returning personnel, the following are more than attainable numbers from the young Vikings’ quarterback: 68 completion percentage, 28 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 3800 yards passing and 30 sacks taken. With this kind of a season, Teddy would establish himself as the leader of this offense.
Clayton R. Brooks II writes for cover32 and covers the Minnesota Vikings. He can be followed on Twitter @ClaytonRBrooks2
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