Sam vs Teddy Revisited
I was listening to Chicago sports radio this afternoon and they were talking about teams around the NFL and who had a good weekend and who didn't. Some of the teams they mentioned have bad QB's and have had for a few years now.
It got me to thinking about this whole Sam/Teddy debate that goes back and forth between some of the fans on this and other boards. No matter who you like in this debate, you have to admit it's good to have guys that are at the very least, decent QB's.
You may not like Sam, but he by no means will ever be a Christian Ponder, Tarvaris Jackson, or any of the 3rd rate QB's the Vikings had actually starting games for them. You may not like Teddy, but he's at the very least a guy you can get behind and have to love his upside if he can overcome the knee injury.
Look what Houston has gone through over the years with a great defense and nobody to play QB for them. The 49ers signed not one, but two guys that the Bears didnt want anymore. The Bears for God's sake!
I know everyone wants a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, or even Aaron Rodgers, but those guys are really few and far between. Be glad we have a guy who given time to throw can light up defenses, and a guy who with a little more time could be a guy who plays for a very long time.
I for one would rather be in this position than where this team used to be, searching for a half way decent QB every season and coming up short.
Also, the line played very well last night. It was good to see that progress has been made in that area.
@"MaroonBells" said:@"dukes" said: The Vikes need to trade Bridgewater while he still has some value. A 1 and a 2 should do it. The bad part is that Teddy won't recover his trade value until he proves he can play in a game. That may not happen this year.That wont happen this year IMO and its a moot point. We sink or swim with Sam and now that the season has started... I just want to win
@"StickyBun" said:Maybe. As I've said all along, it's hard to see a scenario where Teddy stays on this team. Mostly because I fully expect Bradford to play well, given better protection and offensive balance.@"MaroonBells" said:Yep, exactly. He won't garner a 1st round pick, IMO, with questions remaining. I think its going to be a tough decision by the Vikings regardless. Younger fans seem to care more about the players than the teams. Bradford could play lights out, get Minnesota to the NFCC game and there'd still be fans that want Bridgewater.@"dukes" said: The Vikes need to trade Bridgewater while he still has some value. A 1 and a 2 should do it. The bad part is that Teddy won't recover his trade value until he proves he can play in a game. That may not happen this year.But I don't have a dog in this race. Vikings are my dog. Never understood the whole QB X vs. QB Y bullshit.
Best case scenario might be Bradford playing at an all pro level, then God forbid, suffering a minor injury late in the year, allowing Teddy to come in and play for a game or two. Teddy lights it up, but the team goes back to Bradford. That would at least restore Teddy's trade value. And could even give the Vikings a little pause on which QB to move forward with. But I suspect if Bradford continues to have a good year, they will extend him during the season.
This is just fan discussion. Sam will get an extension and be our qb for five years. He has earned it.
Teddy may play again. He wont replace Sam unless Sam is injured.
@"MaroonBells" said:@"StickyBun" said:Maybe. As I've said all along, it's hard to see a scenario where Teddy stays on this team. Mostly because I fully expect Bradford to play well, given better protection and offensive balance.@"MaroonBells" said:Yep, exactly. He won't garner a 1st round pick, IMO, with questions remaining. I think its going to be a tough decision by the Vikings regardless. Younger fans seem to care more about the players than the teams. Bradford could play lights out, get Minnesota to the NFCC game and there'd still be fans that want Bridgewater.@"dukes" said: The Vikes need to trade Bridgewater while he still has some value. A 1 and a 2 should do it. The bad part is that Teddy won't recover his trade value until he proves he can play in a game. That may not happen this year.But I don't have a dog in this race. Vikings are my dog. Never understood the whole QB X vs. QB Y bullshit.
Best case scenario might be Bradford playing at an all pro level, then God forbid, suffering a minor injury late in the year, allowing Teddy to come in and play for a game or two. Teddy lights it up, but the team goes back to Bradford. That would at least restore Teddy's trade value. And could even give the Vikings a little pause on which QB to move forward with. But I suspect if Bradford continues to have a good year, they will extend him during the season.
I agree with much of what you say. It's too early to look into my crystal ball, after just one game. If Slingin' Sam sucks next week in Pittsburgh, then this is all moot. I do think that the assembled team, scheme, and coaching is better than it has been in years, for a variety of reasons. But you need a competent driver of the bus, and last week, Sam was it.He's always had the pedigree, but with a questionable supporting cast.
This year, in a best case scenario, Sam takes us down the field, the supporting cast doesn't throw games away, and he earns himself a BIG contract. Teddy, (love the kid), becomes a valuable asset (whatever that is) for a trade to someone who needs a healthy, smart, young, mobile QB. If that scenario plays out, Teddy will be gone before the draft, and RS will be sitting with the asset that he was forced to give up to get Bradford.
If Joe Montana and Steve Young could co-exist on the same team for 5 seasons, why can't Sam and Teddy both be with the Vikes for a couple seasons? Why is it one or the other? Teddy isn't going to make 20 mil a year after that injury, so sign them both and let the best QB get the nod. One of the two could get traded down the road, if the right offer comes along.
@"HappyViking" said: If Joe Montana and Steve Young could co-exist on the same team for 5 seasons, why can't Sam and Teddy both be with the Vikes for a couple seasons? Why is it one or the other? Teddy isn't going to make 20 mil a year after that injury, so sign them both and let the best QB get the nod. One of the two could get traded down the road, if the right offer comes along.
Because you can't tie up over 20% of the cap on one position. No one does. Young was signed on the cheap in SF after breaking the bank in the USFL with guaranteed money. When he pushed Montana, the 49ers picked the younger Young and shipped Montana to KC. Same reason Brad Johnson had to be traded when Randall Cunningham lit it up for one year in 1998. Cunningham had to be paid. And after 1998, almost all fans wanted Randall. He stunk in 1999.
@"Tom Moore" said: Because you can't tie up over 20% of the cap on one position. No one does. Young was signed on the cheap in SF after breaking the bank in the USFL with guaranteed money. When he pushed Montana, the 49ers picked the younger Young and shipped Montana to KC. Same reason Brad Johnson had to be traded when Randall Cunningham lit it up for one year in 1998. Cunningham had to be paid. And after 1998, almost all fans wanted Randall. He stunk in 1999.Couldn't Teddy be paid a backup QB salary if they throw a big pay day contract at Sam? Montana wasn't exactly "shipped" to KC. He played for four years as the starter before leaving the team after getting hurt. Actually, the last season in SF for Montana, he was Young's backup, I do believe.
My only hope is that they don't ditch Sam or Teddy until the time is right. What if they sign Sam and let Teddy walk, and then Sam gets injured? It'd be nice to have a proven starter waiting there.
@"MaroonBells" said:@"StickyBun" said:Maybe. As I've said all along, it's hard to see a scenario where Teddy stays on this team. Mostly because I fully expect Bradford to play well, given better protection and offensive balance.@"MaroonBells" said:Yep, exactly. He won't garner a 1st round pick, IMO, with questions remaining. I think its going to be a tough decision by the Vikings regardless. Younger fans seem to care more about the players than the teams. Bradford could play lights out, get Minnesota to the NFCC game and there'd still be fans that want Bridgewater.@"dukes" said: The Vikes need to trade Bridgewater while he still has some value. A 1 and a 2 should do it. The bad part is that Teddy won't recover his trade value until he proves he can play in a game. That may not happen this year.But I don't have a dog in this race. Vikings are my dog. Never understood the whole QB X vs. QB Y bullshit.
Best case scenario might be Bradford playing at an all pro level, then God forbid, suffering a minor injury late in the year, allowing Teddy to come in and play for a game or two. Teddy lights it up, but the team goes back to Bradford. That would at least restore Teddy's trade value. And could even give the Vikings a little pause on which QB to move forward with. But I suspect if Bradford continues to have a good year, they will extend him during the season.
Lol, thats the worst thing that could happen. If Teddy lights it up for 2 games at the end it would make the decision on who to keep even more cloudy. I love Teddy but Sam is our future. I don't think we'll get anything for Teddy. He'll be the #2 next year and leave via FA in 2019. Sam is going to get paid this year. $20M a season for 5ish yrs
@"Montana Tom" said:This year, in a best case scenario, Sam takes us down the field, the supporting cast doesn't throw games away, and he earns himself a BIG contract. Teddy, (love the kid), becomes a valuable asset (whatever that is) for a trade to someone who needs a healthy, smart, young, mobile QB. If that scenario plays out, Teddy will be gone before the draft, and RS will be sitting with the asset that he was forced to give up to get Bradford.
The "asset that he was forced to give up to get Bradford" would be a #1 and #4 pick. I'm doubtful we can recoup that completely: it would require some team who liked Bridgewater coming out of college (but weren't willing to draft him with any of the first 31 picks) to feel his past 4 years (2 14-TD seasons and a devastating injury) have at least maintained or increased his value.Many of us often forget that Spielman also acquired $11 Million from the Eagles last year - they paid that much of Bradford's 2016 salary because we were at the cap limit. There is no denying the money increased what we had to pay in draft picks, but uncertain how much.
@"HappyViking" said:@"Tom Moore" said: Because you can't tie up over 20% of the cap on one position. No one does. Young was signed on the cheap in SF after breaking the bank in the USFL with guaranteed money. When he pushed Montana, the 49ers picked the younger Young and shipped Montana to KC. Same reason Brad Johnson had to be traded when Randall Cunningham lit it up for one year in 1998. Cunningham had to be paid. And after 1998, almost all fans wanted Randall. He stunk in 1999. Couldn't Teddy be paid a backup QB salary if they throw a big pay day contract at Sam? Montana wasn't exactly "shipped" to KC. He played for four years as the starter before leaving the team after getting hurt. Actually, the last season in SF for Montana, he was Young's backup, I do believe.My only hope is that they don't ditch Sam or Teddy until the time is right. What if they sign Sam and let Teddy walk, and then Sam gets injured? It'd be nice to have a proven starter waiting there.
I'm with you, Happy. I'd love to see them keep both guys but I know Tom makes a good point about the salary cap. I'm hoping with the uncertainty regarding Teddy's chances at complete recovery (to the point where he can safely play football again) it will keep his price down, but Teddy probably wouldn't want to be the backup and I don't blame him for that. I'm hoping for a miracle I guess, because although I know Teddy hasn't shown Sam's level of accuracy on downfield throws I feel like he was ready to make that leap until the injury took all of that away. I keep having this deep down feeling that if we trade Teddy we'll regret it in many ways. Yes, fans and people in general love Teddy the person. I know on the board here that gets called out. But can we really just dismiss Teddy because he's at an early juncture of his career and not at the level yet of Sam, who is a 7 year veteran?
This franchise isn't known for an outstanding ability to draft QBs. With the exception of course of Fran Tarkenton and Daunte Culpepper, and Brad Johnson, who was traded away for the veteran Cunningham (sound familiar?), we've really sucked at it. I think a lot of people thought we'd finally hit on a guy who could turn into a very good pro when we got Teddy.
People, for whatever reason, love to make conclusive
opinions on limited data. The test of a
QB is not a few good games, it’s being consistently good and getting the team
to victory when things are the toughest.
We don’t have to decide right now.
The very earliest we would have to decide is game 7. Just let Bradford continue to show what he’s
got and it will all resolve itself.
Before he was injured, he was not accurate on his deeper throws. IIRC he has a mechanical
issue with his elbow so he tends to loft it too high.
That doesn't he can't be a solid starter ... a game manager.
But he has a 200 yards, 1 td and 1 int average. Without downfield accuracy, defenses can gamble more.
@"A1Janitor" said: Before he was injured, he was not accurate on his deeper throws. IIRC he has a mechanical issue with his elbow so he tends to loft it too high.That doesn't he can't be a solid starter ... a game manager.
But he has a 200 yards, 1 td and 1 int average. Without downfield accuracy, defenses can gamble more.
Yeah, Teddy seemed to drop his elbow and just kinda lob his deep passes, which affected his accuracy and ability to drive the ball.
I know he was working on that and I was excited to see his progress last preseason but then came the catastrophic injury to his knee. I love Teddy but there are just so many questions surrounding him right now. For starters, will he ever be recovered enough to even play QB in the NFL again?
I don't get the whole "he was poised to make a giant leap" mantra that keeps getting bandied about regarding Teddy. Yes, he had a very good 3rd pre-season game last year. But I think we've discovered that pre-season performances mean little to nothing in the real season. Go back Teddy's last game and listen to the pre-game commentary regarding our QB play if you can. Fans are getting frustrated by lack of scoring, holding the ball too long, sacks, the short passing game, etc. I enjoy Teddy's personality, attitude, demeanor, etc. as much as the next guy. But honestly, where did he ever have a sustained run of dominant performances that pointed to him being our carved in stone "franchise QB" for the next decade? And for the people saying that Teddy is a mobile QB, there's at least a 50/50 chance you'll have to say that in past tense. "He WAS a mobile QB". There's no promise he'll get that part of his game back IF/WHEN he comes back. He may not be any more mobile than Sam is, after that injury. No one knows if that's the case or not. Once you get passed the "Teddy Love" and look at what should matter the most, which is the play on the field, Sam has outplayed Teddy in just about every category outside of rushing and smiles. Sam may even have him beat by record by the end of the year if we play like we did on Monday night all season. While having 1,000ish less yards rushing, no off-season with the team, learning a new offense/organization/teammates/city last year. Sam has given us his all, under extremely difficult circumstances and has played the position better than we've seen anyone do it since 2009. He deserves A LOT more love and respect than he's getting from the fans and media in this state.
@"AGRforever" said:@"MaroonBells" said:@"StickyBun" said:Maybe. As I've said all along, it's hard to see a scenario where Teddy stays on this team. Mostly because I fully expect Bradford to play well, given better protection and offensive balance.@"MaroonBells" said:Yep, exactly. He won't garner a 1st round pick, IMO, with questions remaining. I think its going to be a tough decision by the Vikings regardless. Younger fans seem to care more about the players than the teams. Bradford could play lights out, get Minnesota to the NFCC game and there'd still be fans that want Bridgewater.@"dukes" said: The Vikes need to trade Bridgewater while he still has some value. A 1 and a 2 should do it. The bad part is that Teddy won't recover his trade value until he proves he can play in a game. That may not happen this year.But I don't have a dog in this race. Vikings are my dog. Never understood the whole QB X vs. QB Y bullshit.
Best case scenario might be Bradford playing at an all pro level, then God forbid, suffering a minor injury late in the year, allowing Teddy to come in and play for a game or two. Teddy lights it up, but the team goes back to Bradford. That would at least restore Teddy's trade value. And could even give the Vikings a little pause on which QB to move forward with. But I suspect if Bradford continues to have a good year, they will extend him during the season.
Lol, thats the worst thing that could happen. If Teddy lights it up for 2 games at the end it would make the decision on who to keep even more cloudy. I love Teddy but Sam is our future. I don't think we'll get anything for Teddy. He'll be the #2 next year and leave via FA in 2019. Sam is going to get paid this year. $20M a season for 5ish yrs
Yeah, it would be just awful to have two franchise QBs. smh. You're also wrong about Teddy's value. He has to prove he's completely healthy, but if he does, and proves the injury hasn't affected his composure, then his value on the market is very high. The problem, like I said, is getting that opportunity. We may have to trade him sight unseen, which would be a huge hit to his value.
Courtney CroninVerified account @CourtneyRCronin 30m30 minutes ago
@"AllBS" said: Once you get passed the "Teddy Love" and look at what should matter the most, which is the play on the field, Sam has outplayed Teddy in just about every category outside of rushing and smiles.
Actually it is wins. And it is a team game, but that is part of what made Teddy so popular, he led the team to wins. No shade on Sam, last year wasn't a fair assessment, but when the chips are down, the team needs a drive, I want a QB that has it.
Sam answered many question last week, amazing accuracy, down field passing, timing with the WRs, 3rd down efficiency and scoring in the red zone. One big question is left, can he do it down late in the 4th? Games will come down to the wire, if Sam can show he has game, then sign him long term. End of story.
Why is anybody talking like 1 game settles things either way? If he would have shit the bed in game 1, would he have been cut? Of course not, so why would an opposite performance have an opposite effect on determining hos future with the team.
Unless Sam has a stellar start to the season, basicall repeating mondays performance through the middle of the schedule, I see no way this is decided until the offseason at the soonest.
Lots and lots of football to be played yet before anything is settled for our QB future.
@"JimmyinSD" said:iI'd say two shots after a full off season of nonstop nonsense and pure bullshit shows remarkable restraint...@"BarrNone55" said: Its not a debate...what bothers me is the Pro Teddy fan boys who will flat out lie about his accomplishments, stats, Bradford's stats, Teddy's injury...its comical..I know these guys should be dismissed as their collective football IQ wouldn't reach room temperature...but it still annoys me... Didn't you already take your shots on this matter in another thread? No reason to belittle those of a different opinion than yours.
@"BarrNone55" said:Id say the validity of any claims by either side after 1 game would be nonsense and quite possibly bull shit.@"JimmyinSD" said:iI'd say two shots after a full off season of nonstop nonsense and pure bullshit shows remarkable restraint...@"BarrNone55" said: Its not a debate...what bothers me is the Pro Teddy fan boys who will flat out lie about his accomplishments, stats, Bradford's stats, Teddy's injury...its comical..I know these guys should be dismissed as their collective football IQ wouldn't reach room temperature...but it still annoys me... Didn't you already take your shots on this matter in another thread? No reason to belittle those of a different opinion than yours.Sam had a great game and I expect it to be a pretty consistent result if things continue around him as they did. I am sure he will still hit some snags and rough patches along the way, but its pretty clear that he is definitely the better QB right now and likely deserving of the job going forward, but like I said in my other post... lots of football to be played yet.
(and nothing to be won by rubbing anybodies nose in anything, it would be different if they had made it personal, but for the most part it was just passionate fans defending their guy, and when Teddy wasnt ready by mid summer most of the BS stopped, not all but most.)
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