Why Teddy Bridgewater is a Steal in All Dynasty Formats

Rhys Tefertiller Posted On August 4, 2020

Editor’s note: This article was written by Rhys Tefertiller.

In the analysis of a fantasy offense’s ceiling, the offensive play-caller should be a key factor. An offense can have top-tier players and still be a mediocre unit because the play-caller is a non-factor and does not play to the strengths of his best players.

The best offense in the college football last season (Louisiana State) lost a key part of their success this off-season: Passing game coordinator Joe Brady. Brady was able to turn Joe Burrow, an Ohio State castoff (who was beaten out by Dwayne Haskins), into a runaway Heisman Trophy winner with the best season for a quarterback in NCAA history, and the clear first overall pick in last April’s draft.

Brady has now left that team to team up with another castoff QB: Teddy Bridgewater.

Bridgewater is now on his fourth team in four years, including stints with Minnesota, the Jets, the Saints, and now the Panthers. The former first-round pick is familiar with Brady as they were both in New Orleans for the 2018 season. The Panthers have plenty of toys for Brady and Bridgewater to play with, including All-Pro RB Christian McCaffrey, who happens to moonlight as a receiver (McCaffrey caught 116 passes last year). They also have rising star DJ Moore, field-stretcher Robby Anderson, versatile Curtis Samuel, and the athletic Ian Thomas.

Last year, the Panthers were second in the league with 633 pass attempts. The reason not many people know this is the fact that McCaffrey was the best fantasy running back this past season. Another reason is that the Panthers threw for more interceptions (19) than touchdowns (17). However, it was Kyle Allen throwing most of those interceptions.

In New Orleans, Bridgewater posted a healthy 9:2 TD:INT ratio. In fact, he had a passer rating over 100 in three out of his five starts last year. Bridgewater’s extreme efficiency is also shown by the fact that over his five starts, he had a 69.7 completion percentage, which would have been fourth in the league had he qualified.

Bridgewater was on pace for 3,856 passing yards and 29 touchdowns with only six interceptions. Those numbers translate to 316 fantasy points from only 528 pass attempts. He scored a whopping .6 fantasy points per pass attempt. If you average Bridgewater’s 16-game pace for attempts in 2019 (528) and the total pass attempts by the Panthers last year (633), his attempts jump up to 580. With his .6 fantasy points per pass attempt, he would score 348.3 fantasy points or 21.8 fantasy points per game. 21.8 fantasy points per game would have been good enough for QB11 last year.

Bridgewater has only started 12 or more games in a season just twice, making his arm fresher than most. In his only full season as a starter (2015), he led the Vikings to an 11-5 record, they won their division, and would’ve won at least one playoff game had Blair Walsh not choked a 27-yard field goal against the Seahawks. Bridgewater has a 22-12 record as a starter, including going 5-0 filling in for Drew Brees last year.

The Panthers obviously believe in Bridgewater as they invested heavily in building around him. They gave him a three-year, $63 million contract this off-season. With that kind of monetary investment, there is no way, injury exclusive, that they will draft a QB high for the first two years of this contract. They also made two notable player deals: they signed Anderson to a two-year, $20 million pact and traded guard Trai Turner for left tackle/blind-side protector Russell Okung.

As mentioned above, the Panthers hired Joe Brady to be their offensive coordinator. But there was also another large change for the offensive in the coaching staff: the hiring of former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule.

Rhule has led two turnarounds for Temple and Baylor. At Temple, he took over a four-win Owls team and turned it around in four years into a ten-win team. Rhule was then hired by Baylor to take over their often-troubled team that managed only three conference wins. After two years, he had a bowl-eligible team that beat Vanderbilt in the Texas Bowl. In 2019, he led them to an 11-win season, including a Sugar Bowl berth. It is unsurprising then that the Panthers hired him, as he has shown that he will win.

Rhule already has an impressive resume, but Brady also has shown how good he is as well. Brady last year pushed the offense to heights college football has never seen. His LSU Tigers set the NCAA record for most points in a season (726), and his QB, Burrow, tore up record books with each passing game. Now, I do not think Bridgewater will have the same success and numbers as Burrow did, but I am saying Bridgewater has the capacity to put up healthy numbers.

Bridgewater is going to be a starting quarterback for the next two years, guaranteed, and probably at least a third. He is only 27 and has lots of throws left in his arm. The potential he has with Brady and Rhule, plus McCaffrey, Moore, Anderson, Samuel, and Thomas is high. If Brady can turn someone who was beaten out by Dwayne Haskins into a Heisman winner, imagine what he can do to a player who has Bridgwater’s potential.

He is nearly free in dynasty leagues and if he misses, it is no big deal. If a free thing does not work right, it costs you nothing. But with Bridgewater, there is so much potential with this offense and Joe Brady that Teddy could become a low-end QB1.