Welcome to Miami Teddy Bridgewater

We're talking to quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. We'll break down his game and get him on the podcast here to talk some football and his decision to join the Miami Dolphins from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Trading Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast Dolphins. So free agency is underway and we have a signing to discuss here in quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who comes over to Miami after one year with the Denver Broncos following one year with

the Carolina Panthers. He was with the Saints prior to that, and of course he began his career back in with the Minnesota Vikings and we all know about the injury that led to his movement to the Jets in the preseason that season, eventually to the Saints, where he spent two years, and then the Panthers and Broncos last year

with the Broncos seven and seven as a starter. He is thirty three and thirty in his career as a starter, so he has a total of seventy three games played sixty three games started for the former first round pick. And he came from this talent pool that we all know and love here in South Florida, and he's coming

right back to where his football career began. Now. I think you can make a real strong case that Teddy Bridgewater is the best quarterback to play his prep football in the city of Miami, as he entered his senior season at a powerhouse Northwestern High School as the top the top ranked quarterback in the state of Florida, and he continued that ascent through the football world with a tremendous career at the University of Louisville before being selected

in the first round the thirty second pick by the

Minnesota Vikings in two thousand and fourteen. And I think one of the best parts of this Teddy Bridgewater Miami reunion is that you look back over his professional career, and he has spent a lot of time and effort into giving back to the community here, even when his career was elsewhere, like for instance, back in twenty nineteen with the Saints, they had won a game on Thursday Night football, and so Teddy was down for the weekend at Northwestern High School to watch a big semi final

playoff game in the state playoffs against Jesuit, the rival, one of the rivals down here in South Florida, and Bridgewater paid for a whole bunch of food trucks to come and feed the players and coaches and auxiliary staff after that big victory, and just you look at what we do with football units here, all the work in the South Florida community. He's gonna fit right in with that and be such a good stable in this community.

As the food truck splurge was really far from the first act of generosity, because he has also organized toy drive school supply drives and also had that phenomenal viral video a couple of years back where the dance team is kind of doing this like lean back, march up the sideline, and sure enough the last person in lines Teddy Bridgewater, joining along and that went crazy across social media, just viral across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all that fun stuff.

So a great guy to have in the community and also a winner and productive player. And you know, I go back to something that Mike McDaniel mentioned at the podium of his Scouting combine UH media availability earlier this month, where he laid out pretty transparent expectations for a number two quarterback, where he said, quote, when you're looking for

a number two quarterback, there's two things. You want him to benefit the starting quarterback while the starting quarterback is the starting quarterback, and in how are him with how they approached their daily game plan responsibilities, how they developed when they're training in the offseason. But you also want a guy who can win games should the starter go down. So a veteran backup is definitely in our discussions, he mentioned, But it's best, but it's the best player that we

can find, whatever avenue and move forward from there. And Bridgewater was number thirty four on the original Top one one free agents list on NFL dot com, so and the highest rated quarterback on that list too, So I think you pretty well checked that box. And whether it's a starter or backup, the market just did not offer

a better veteran solution than Bridgewater mentioned thirty four. Overall, he was the twelve highest rated passer in the National Football League one, with a ninety four point nine passer rating. He plays a very smart brand of football that limits turnovers and moves the offense in an efficient way. That's evident by his eight teen touchdowns compared to just seven picks last year with the Denver Broncos in those fourteen games, and in those fourteen games, the Broncos were seven and seven.

In twenty nineteen, Bridgewater was the backup to Drew Brees in New Orleans, and when Breeze went down with an injury that year and was shelved for five games, Bridgewater steered the float. I put float there because that great Drew Brees commercial, the ESPN one where he stuck at the gate and can't get in with his Marty Graff float. He steered the float to a perfect five and oh mark, throwing nine touchdowns and just two picks in those five games.

He's also a locker room favorite. Drew Brees mentioned this of Teddy when he signed with the Broncos last year, saying, quote, first off I'm a big fan of Teddy Bridgewater. I think he's brought some leadership and some mock moxie to the Broncos offense and a great skill set as well, And just kind of looking around the web, there's all kinds of really great accounts of Teddy Bridgewater proving to

be a great teammate. Like one instance, last season, Justin Simmons, the All Pro safety of the Broncos, they had won

a big game. He went and did an interview off to the side and missed the prayer group at the middle of the field after the game that you often see on NFL fields, And he ran back and was like, I'm worried about missing the postgame prayer in the middle of the field, And sure enough, one guy waited for him to to make sure he could get that prayer and with somebody else, and there it was Teddy Bridgewater.

He put that story up on Instagram and it went viral with like thirty five thousand likes on i G that I saw, and I'm sure it did numbers across Twitter and Facebook as well. So he's got your back. As a kind of the way of saying that, right, There also a very cool common collected customer. We talked about the seventy three games of experience that he has and the benefit that can have for the quarterback room. You know, accurate quarterback since coming into the league, and

it's only improved with age. Since twenty nineteen, Bridgewater has completed sixty eight percent of his passes with an interception rate of just one point seven per cent, So there's the kind of calming factor there. And then when under pressure through Pro Football Focus, Bridgewater through seven touchdown passes compared to just one pick, and the numbers against the Blitz were even better. So you send a fifth or sixth extra rushers more than four rushers against those looks.

Last year, Bridgewater seventy three point nine percent completion, eight point nine yards per past, nine touchdowns and just two interceptions when the defense brought a fifth or six rushers at Teddy Bridgewater. And then, finally, it wouldn't be a Teddy Bridgewater podcast without talking about the kind of route that his football career took from first round pick too

high upside. You saw the trajectory of his career with Minnesota kind of climbing up and up and up, and then he has that training camp injury that really shook up the Vikings quarterback situations back then and Teddy Bridgewater's career there for a couple of years. I mean, he didn't play that season, didn't play the following season, besides a couple of snaps I think late in that year.

And you saw Minnesota with Sam Bradford and case Keenum and they had to find a solution because Teddy was their guy, and all of a sudden they didn't have him. And you know, football comes with this inherent risk that all players must assume, but for Bridgewater, it was like the most innocuous of moments that led to one of the most discussed injuries in recent memory, a non contact injury that just left bystanders like in shock and awe.

Even Teddy Bridgewater surgeon said that he was horrified about the knee injury he saw there, So you know, it was a a setback moment. And Teddy has come back so well from that, throwing forty three touchdowns and winning sixteen games as he starting quarterback since that injury, So really really good addition here to the Dolphins quarterback room in Teddy Bridgewater coming home, the work in the community,

the work under pressure as a quarterback. The work with the accuracy and the placement of the football just a really good addition here to the Dolphins quarterback room. And we'll go ahead and take our first break here on the Teddy Bridgewater podcast on Drivetime, and next will welcome Teddy Bridgewater into the Drivetime studios here at the Miami Dolphins Baptist Health Training Complex here in Miami Gardens. Up next Drivetime podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. What's up? Dolphins?

Travis Wingfield here the host of the Drivetime podcast, and I'm joined by New Dolls quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Teddy, You're back home, man, that's gotta feel great. Yeah, man, it's a great feeling. I'm excited to beeback um looking forward to us and store for tomorrow. So I heard you brought your own pen for the signing. Was a big big part of that for you? Yeah, I mean she has always got to be prepared, man, absolutely. Yeah. Do

you have your own mic as well? Just messing around so you know your Miami kid coming back home here. I gotta ask you, what's your what's your Miami go to the first thing that after this day and all the responsibilities here with the within the building are done. What's the first thing you want to go do? Um, Man, I haven't even thought about that, you know. Um, I'm here in the moment right now, man, embracing all of this, taking all in one minute at a time, and I'm

enjoying just everything that today is brought to me. So, you've been in a lot of NFL quarterback rooms across your college career back to high school, obviously a lot of experience. One thing coach McDaniel mentioned in his media was that a quarterback's role is to not just provide production on the football field, but also serve the rest of the room and of course the rest the team as well. How do you think your role as a quarterback and kind of serving to and the rest of

the quarterback room fits in here in Miami. Um, It's just who I am, man. It's my nature of just doing everything I can to help the team, whether I'm out there plan or if I'm not out there planing. Um. We all have a job to do, you know, and I always believe that. Man. It's my my job to execute my role with my job, you know, to the best of my ability. So, speaking of that kind of quarterback brotherhood. It's always you know, a unique element of

the football field. Right. There's only like a hundred or so of you guys in the National Football League, and in that kind of limited space, you guys have experiences that not a lot of people can relate to. So how do you kind of in this high stress, high stakes environment, how can you positively impact to ah in that quarterback room? Um? Honestly, man, it just starts with

the mindset. Um, you know, as I get to know Tour on this journey, you know, in this chapter of my life, my career, I'm pretty sure I'll find out some things about him that drives him. And you know, how can you you help, you know, a person use

the things that drive them to keep them going even further. Um. I think that's one of my unique abilities is to be able to you know, dive within and and and get to know people and understand, you know, there why and help them really, you know, move forward towards the why. He's not the only person you know here on the roster obviously a former Louisville teammate, Davanta Parker, how you how excited you to reunite with DVP out here. Oh man, that's a new nickname to me, dvpe it. But now

I'm excited, man. You know he's probably sitting somebody watching SpongeBob even both a cereal or something. But uh no, I'm excited, man um, just to to get to work man with you know, the different guys on this this roster. Um, there's some some great talent. Um you're bringing his coaching staff, a great group of which is who know how to utilize guys screens and their ability. So I'm excited for No,

what's the store for this team? So I mentioned earlier your experience in the National Football like tons of organizations across the league, tons of football and just a bunch of experiences that you've you know, ups and downs and that that that's how football careers go, right, adversity and overcoming it. If there's one thing you've taken away from your entire football career, what do you think that would be?

Oh man, that's a that's a good question. Um. Thank you Now for me, man Um, it's knowing how to turn it on and turn it off. Um. And I'm not talking about when you you step on the field and step off the field, like knowing how to turn it on for a player too. Really understanding who you are man, um in society. Um, I think oftentimes man, because we're we're number five or number ten on Sundays,

we think we're that person seven. And you got to know how to disconnect, man, the your career from who you are in society and think that's what's really helped me, you know, continue to be real with myself and understand, you know, my my purpose because you know, football has been great to me. Is opened so many doors for me, and it's giving me opportunities to impact so many people. And then when I take the jersey off and I

see that, hey man, people still genuinely love me. Man. Uh, it really made me have a different view on life itself. When you say disconnected, reminds me of that viral video of you on with the with the cheerleaders and school

doing the walk there that was kind of part of that. Yeah, man, you know, Uh, at the end of the day, Man, I tell people all the time, you know, we're rock stars and superstars with heroes or whoever we want to be for during a half hours on Sundays, you know, in the fall and um, once you step outside of those lines, man, we go back to the reality and we still can make an impact, you know, in life, you know, outside of the game. And um that's all

I try to do. Speaking to viral moments, there was a moment last season in Denver with Justin Simmons, your teammate there with the Broncos, who went into the postgame interview and then he was looking for the prayer circle afterwards and he found you at midfield. He shared that story on Instagram and it winds up going viral. Can you talk to talk to us about that moment and

kind of why that was important to you? Yeah, just after the games, man, we you know, we meet up on the fifth of our team and our opponents and we just pray, and you know because at the end of the day, man, you know, we give all glory to God because he makes all things possible when we're out there. But um, I knew that Justin was busy doing his postgame interview and I knew that he was a part of the circle. After every game when we

would pray, and the prayer we tried to wait. We tried to wait, and uh, you know the way team usually had to hurry back to the locker room and things like that. And I just wanted to wait for Justin because I knew, you know how much he's a god fair man, just like myself. And I knew that, you know, the prayer meant something to him. You know, it gives you closure, you know, on that game on that day sometimes, and um, it was just great to

share that moment. It was great to know that it really meant a lot to him, you know, me being there with him in that moment. So you've made positive impacts really every stop you've been around the National Football League, but you continue to do work in the South Florida community, even when you were in Denver, in New Orleans across the league and just reading about that, you know why is giving back to the South Florida community so important to you? Uh? Man, it's it's for one is home.

But um, also I always tell people, man, um, when I was younger, Um, the ones who did a lot in the community were aren't really the ideal people. And um, you know, we had so many guys from South Florida who went off to have careers on a professional level, and sometimes you didn't really see him, you know, you only saw him on the TV, and UM, I always want the people to see me in the flesh. I understand that I am accessible. Um, I'm not just a

guy you see on TV. I'm from the same I walked down the same sidewalks, visit the same corner stores buying snacks. So it means that much to me, just you know, because I was once you know, and in the next child shoes um years ago, so um, and they still motivate me to this day. I tell everyone a story about when I was injured and my sister, she lived down in a little Haiti, and we were just sitting outside and one of the young kids, he was about eleven years old at the time, and because

I was injured, he was piste off. He was like, man, you suck man, He's supposed to be out there. How you get hurt? And of course I was like, man, yeah, you know, but you know, it really hit home, like, man, it really means something, you know when I'm out there, that I'm really making an impact, you know, when I'm out on a football fielding, and it just you know, gave me a chip on my shoulder to really try to overcome what I was going through. You mentioned the injury.

What did you ultimately take away from that? Because you came back and you've had some good numbers one a lot of football games after that injury win. You know, it was a moment where people were worried about your long term prognosis and here you are back with the Miami Dolphins and a long NFL career. What did you take away from that entire process? Um, I found my purpose in life, you know, And um, that was that

was the biggest thing I took away. But I also realized that, um, you know, I've come from a fighting DNA. My mom she's a breast cancer survivor, and um, everything that I went through with my injury, I pretty much applied what I learned from watching her to go through what she went through with breast cancter. She never you know, frowned, She never you know was down. She continued to smile through it all. And you know, that was like big

for me. You know, I was fourteen fifteen years old at the time and thinking, Okay, my mom has breast cancer, what's next, you know, thinking all the worst things possible, and um, and she stayed positives, kept helping people. She's had such a big heart. So when I was injured, I was like, man, my mom went through something ten times worse, you know, and it's like, I can't frown about it. I can't be sad. She didn't, you know,

frown be sad. So that was one of the biggest takeaways that, you know, I come from a fighting DNA. I have to guess mom is gonna have season tickets this year, and I don't know because she actually lives in South Carolina. So I joke with it other day though, I said, Man, everyone saying you're probably gonna move back to South Florida now that you know I'm coming home.

So so I had to I had to ask you, south Ford, the humidity, you know the weather very well, But our gloves going to be part of the Teddy Bridgewater experience? Yeah, yeah, they don't be a part of the experience for sure. I had to ask it, had

to ask it. So as you look to your career here with the Miami Dolphins and starting this new chapter here, what's the ultimate thing that Dolphins are gonna get with Teddy Bridgwater as a player, as a person, Man, m just gonna get a guy who wants to compete, you know, compete, you know as a player and as a as a man in society. Um, you know every day that I wake up in my feet hit the ground. I hit the ground running because I'm thankful that I get an

opportunity to make an impact in the world. And um, I saw what I want to continue to do. Very good. So on you from you, Teddy. Teddy Bridgewater, Dolphins quarterback, Thanks a lot man, Thank you. And there he goes new Dolphins quarterback Teddy Bridgewater here on the Drivetime podcast. Let's take our last break and put a boat on this episode Drive Time with Travis Wingfield on the Miami Dolphins Podcast network. Alright, another one of these free agent

podcast here in the books. Lots of fun to break down these guys as game as far as the numbers and the stats, but even better to hear from them here on the podcast and kind of get the y and the decision to join Miami and when they can talk about the coaching staff and their teammates. A lot of fun stuff here and we have more fun ones coming your way here the rest of the weekend here on the Drivetime Podcast. But in the meantime that is gonna be my time. You all, please be sure to

subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. You can follow the team at Miami Dolphins across all social channels. We're gonna have plenty of content coming your way the rest of the weekend and

the week that is. Also the fish Tank Podcast, the YouTube channel for our media availabilities for Dolphins Today, as well as the video versions of these interviews on interviews with the free agent players here and of course last mon Last Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds up Caroline, Daddy has gone home.