As Teddy Bridgewater leaves Vikings, echoes of his knee injury still reverberate

In a sport where injuries are an ever-present threat and playoff hopes can end with one defeat, a team’s rosiest scenarios are always on shaky ground.The 66,143 fans who packed U.S. Bank Stadium for the Vikings’ first game there on Aug. 28, 2016 got a glimpse of a quarterback coming into full view. Teddy Bridgewater, then 23, was beginning his third year as the Vikings’ starter, seemingly ready to enter the upper echelon of the NFL’s quarterback ranks.
He’d been only a Blair Walsh field goal from a playoff victory over the Seattle Seahawks. He appeared ready to be more assertive with his downfield throws. And that Sunday, in a win over the San Diego Chargers, Bridgewater completed 12 of his 16 passes for 161 yards, throwing the first touchdown in U.S. Bank Stadium history on a 27-yard strike to Kyle Rudolph. His emergence, the thinking went, would usher in an era where the Vikings would routinely rank among the NFC’s contenders.
The Vikings still believe they’re on a similar trajectory, but later this week, they’re expected to give Kirk Cousins a three-year, $84 million deal in an effort to ensure they remain on course. Cousins, who is expected to become the highest-paid QB in the NFL and the first with a fully-guaranteed contract, will become the fourth Vikings QB to start a game since that day, when the TD pass Bridgewater threw to Rudolph turned out to be the last one he would throw in a Vikings uniform.
What happened two days after the Chargers game — when Bridgewater dislocated his left knee and tore multiple ligaments in a freak injury that ended the Vikings’ final preseason practice after about 15 minutes — will go down as a moment that altered the history of the franchise....
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