Teddy Bridgewater is a Florida kid who played the majority of his high school and college football in the south before launching his NFL career outdoors at the Minnesota Vikings’ temporary home stadium. The franchise was still building the soon-to-be-opened U.S. Bank Stadium, and it’s fair to wonder if the 23-year-old quarterback might have been better during his first two seasons had the Vikes played their home games indoors.
Vikings general manager Rick Spielman seems to think so, because he’s confident the third-year Louisville product will benefit greatly from playing home games at the domed U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.
“I think it’s just in general, quarterbacks playing indoors (play better),” Spielman said on PFT Live, via ESPN Minnesota and NFL.com. “If you look at Teddy’s stats and how he performed when we were indoors, in Detroit or even out in Arizona, some of those ideal conditions, we feel he can take another step forward. But he still has to play outdoors.”
The last part is important, because Bridgewater will still have to play annual outdoor games in cold-weather cities Green Bay and Chicago so long as he’s in the NFC North, and Minnesota will also travel to Washington and Philadelphia in 2016. But that still beats the 11 games he had to play outdoors in cold-weather cities in 2015.
When he’s outside in temperatures 50 degrees or colder, Bridgewater is 7-5. Indoors or outdoors in warm weather, he’s 10-6. Not a huge difference, but his numbers differ rather greatly between those environments.
Bridgewater in warm climates or domes: 68.4%, 8 TD, 5 INT, 7.7 YPA, 93.1 rating
Bridgewater outdoors in colder climates: 63.1%, 20 TD, 16 INT, 7.0 YPA, 84.0 rating
So if you’re looking for Bridgewater to make a big third-year leap, his new home might help.
