Quote: @BlackMagic7 said:
Hmmm...
It took the Jets half a week to officially announce the deal. A lot of other Jets signings took/passed physicals and were announced in between.
Maybe something happened here towards the end of the season. The Jets offer him a nice deal, he verbally commits, it leaks out he's signing. Media and fans react positively. He gets to New York for a medical evaluation. The Jets don't want to commit guarenteed money and they continue negotiating. They finally re-agree to terms, Teddy signs, and the Jets announce he passed the physical 4 days later.
...Teddy's agent takes a fair deal not wanting to risk labeling the knee as a major issue to the rest of the market... this would be a fair reason even if nothing happened to Teddy here but his physical raised flags in NY.
There was something odd about his signing - the "signing announcement" photo he posted looked like it was staged in his agent's office; no Jets officials in the image.
My hunch is that Bridgewater had a verbal offer, as you suggested, and
Bridgewater himself leaked the news before passing the Jets physical. I get a strong sense that Bridgewater felt self-righteous and angry at the Vikings organization and/or maybe people who doubted he has a future in the NFL. When Keenum and Bradford both got nice new deals on the first day of open free agency, it may have seemed important to Bridgewater to appear he was just as much in demand as the others, at least in terms of not having to wait long to get a new job.