Teddy Bridgewater Has 'Significant' Knee Injury, List Of Potential Replacements Is Bleak

Teddy Bridgewater’s knee injury is the big story on Tuesday, and during a press conference this afternoon Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer updated everyone on what the team currently knows. Zimmer said Bridgewater has a “significant” knee injury and that it could be season-ending.

While we all figured that was probably the case, Zimmer confirmed those fears and claimed the team would have an update tonight or tomorrow once the team learns the full extent of the injury.

The Vikings were a trendy pick to make a run at the Super Bowl this year and Bridgewater’s development was a big reason why. Now the team will likely be left scrambling to find a replacement, and the options out there are awful.

Shaun Hill will immediately move from the backup role to the QB1 spot, but the team will undoubtedly look outside the organziation for an upgrade. If the Vikings want to grab someone who knows offensive coordinator Norv Turner’s system, they could go after a number of guys currently on rosters. Brian Hoyer, Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder have all played under Turner before.

Adam Caplan also posted a list of the unattached quarterbacks currently out there:

Like I said, the options are not exactly appealing. You’d have to think Michael Vick probably makes the most sense, given that he was serviceable last year for the Steelers and has the mobility to improvise while he gets on the same page as the rest of the offense.

Whitehurst also played under Turner in San Diego, so there could be some continuity there as well. Mark Sanchez is likely to be released by the Broncos, and Colin Kaepernick’s spot with the 49ers is by no means secure and the Chargers just dumped Zach Mettenberger. That said, I don’t see fans having much confidence in any of those guys either.

The basic idea here is that no matter what the Vikings do, they’ll almost surely have to write off the quarterback position this year and rely on the running game and defense to win games. Minnesota could just snap the ball directly to Adrian Peterson and run the single-wing, but that would require Turner to have actual vision and creativity, something about as likely as Tim Tebow being guided into town by a host of angels to save the day.

So yeah, sorry Vikings fans, you’re screwed. Unless…hey, what’s Brett Favre up to these days?