Minnesota Vikings: Making Life Easier for Teddy Bridgewater

By Ben Ryan | Mar 29, 2015

There’s no questioning anymore that the future of the Minnesota Vikings lies within the hands of Theodore Edmond Bridgewater, otherwise known as the simple, Teddy Bridgewater. While the Minnesota Vikings have been making smart moves in free agency and potentially the draft to overall better their team, don’t forget that they’re making things easier for the uprising quarterback.

Acquiring players on both sides of the ball such as Casey Matthews, Taylor Mays, Terence Newman, and the absolutely enormous 6’9″ 351 pound Polish lineman Babatunde Aiyegbusi have given the Viking’s a better understanding going into the draft and who they could potentially grab. Looking more into it, the main point of focus should be looking at another offensive lineman to help protect their future.

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Bridgewater is coming into his second year at quarterback, and from a more than impressive rookie season, he’s ready to improve the 7-9 record that he started one year ago. After turning the team around from a 5-10-1 2013 season, Bridgewater has even more weapons, and more protection. For the face of the future, the Vikings will need to acquire the right needs to protect him.

Bridgewater lead the lost, confused, and Adrian Peterson-less offense to 9-7. Now, with additions of Mike Wallace, and the upside of Charles Johnson; Bridgewater now has an arsenal of weapons to choose from. For Cordarrelle Patterson, this could be the year that decides his future with the Vikings. If he can figure things out and all the receivers start clicking, it’s going to be a nightmare for secondaries around the league.

But there’s one problem…they still need to be able to protect him.

With the No. 11 pick in the draft, the Viking’s should not leave Brandon Scherff out of the question, at all. Bridgewater was sacked 39 times last year, which ranked him at 7th in the league for times most sacked. For a young 22-year-old, and his first season in the NFL, that’s quite the amount of hits to his body. With Bridgewater progressing each and every game, the hope is rising in Minnesota. So why not keep him safe?

At Iowa, the 6’5″ 315 pound lineman won the Outland Trophy in 2014, and is an incredible blocker overall. While Scherff excels in run blocking, he should have no problem excelling in pass blocking as well. If the Vikings add him to the left side of the line, alongside Matt Kalil, they would compliment each other and overall be a force and act as a brick wall for the young 22-year-old Bridgewater.

A dynamic duo of Scherrif-Kalil on the O-Line is scary, and scary is an understatement. There is no doubt is anybody’s mind that they won’t bully players to the ground to protect the prized possession in Bridgewater.

Overall, the Vikings are making the right steps towards being a consistent winning team, and threat to the league. The defense is getting better with the additions from Newman, Mays, and Matthews. The offense is more than in the right direction for greatness.

Wallace will play a huge roll next season with Bridgewater throwing to him, and Johnson should just continue to grow as a player, and for the team, hopefully star. As long as the Vikings get their offensive line situation figured out, it’s not just going to get easier, but much better for the team in general.

Just remember Viking fans; the future is bright.

Next: Adrian Peterson Saga Over?

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