Whether or not he plays a snap this season for the Lions, Teddy Bridgewater will help this team. His impact could already be felt when he worked with a group of young receivers Monday afternoon, Jameson Williams included, after his first practice in Detroit.
Bridgewater is a willing and eager teacher at this stage of his career, a nine-year vet intent on giving back to the game that's given so much to him. He signed a one-year deal worth up to $5 million with the Lions last week to join a team that, in his view, is ready to announce itself to the NFL: "I'm pretty sure the league, everyone is on high alert."
"With the talent on this team, the starters on this team, the experience on this team, it just felt like a great situation for me to come in and honestly just be a mentor for some of the younger guys, teach them how to be pros, while also fine-tuning my game," Bridgewater said. "Feel like I still got something left in the tank, so it’s a great situation."
Bridgewater, 30, is so well-traveled in the NFL that he was a mentor to J.T. Barrett, now a quarterbacks coach for the Lions, when Barrett was a rookie with the Saints. He used to train in the offseason with Lions linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard. He's always had a passion for working with young players, Bridgewater said, "because I know I won't play this game forever."
"So it's like, man, how can I leave an everlasting impact?" he said. "How can I prepare the next wave of talent, the next wave of athletes for what's in store? It's kind of my gift to life, just pouring into the younger players on the team. That's how I keep getting opportunities, of course outside of what I'm able to do as a football player. It just means a lot to me, especially when you see guys like Jameson Williams who have unbelievable talent. I get to be part of his journey."
During his time in New Orleans, when he overlapped with Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn, Bridgewater came into the facility every Saturday to review Sunday's game plan with the team's young receivers. One of those receivers was Michael Thomas, who would quickly become one of the best players in the game. For Bridgewater, these experiences are "life trophies," he said, "the "plaques that I get that you don't see on the walls."
The Lions signed Bridgewater as an insurance policy for Jared Goff, of course. The team has too much at stake this season to leave its fate in the hands of Nate Sudfeld, should Goff get hurt. They also signed him for the betterment of everyone in his orbit, from a second-year receiver like Williams to a rookie quarterback like Hendon Hooker. Bridgewater said he won't let any of the team's young players leave the field after practice without stopping in his classroom.
"It's just like, 'Hey, man, come here. All you young guys after practice, don't leave the field without seeing me," Bridgewater said. "It's a way for me to get throws, also. ... It's an opportunity for the young guys to stay behind and go through the practice script. It's like getting live reps. I'm trying to get myself ready and they're trying to continue to fight for a spot on this team. It's just me going out and (saying), 'You come here. You come here.' Then you have the ones who want it. Those are the ones you bring in a little closer, because it means that much to them."
Does it mean that much to Williams? It did on Monday, anyway. Not typically one of the last players to leave the practice field, Williams stuck around to run a couple routes with Detroit's new quarterback. He said he has "high respect" for Bridgewater, a guy who's seen it all in the NFL.
"I’ve been in the league two years, people been three years, I think he's 10 in. That’s half my age," Williams said with a laugh. "You can learn a lot from somebody who’s spent a lot of time in systems and knows what’s going on and things like that, so he’ll be a great mentor."
Williams has all the talent in the world, which is why the Lions traded up last year to draft him 12th overall. He can be a superstar in the NFL if he puts it all together. Right now, as he prepares to serve a six-game suspension to start his second season, after missing most of his rookie season recovering from a torn ACL, Williams needs as many productive reps as possible in practice and preseason games. He hasn't exactly gotten those with Sudfeld, working mostly with the Lions' second-team offense. Like Sudfeld's throws, Williams' details and hands haven't always been sharp.
Bridgewater, who's thrown 75 touchdowns across 78 NFL games, is someone who can A) get Williams the ball, B) help him hone his route-running and C) keep pushing the 22-year-old to improve -- even if "it makes him hate me," Bridgewater said with a smile.
"I want to just push him to those limits he may have never been pushed," said Bridgewater.
He said that for coaches, critiquing every player on every mistake in practice can be a challenge, "because you have to get to the next play." That's where Bridgewater sounds inclined to step in and instruct Williams as much as possible. Constructive criticism can go a long way.
"He's a guy I really want to see have a long future in this league, because we all know he was a first-rounder for a reason," Bridgewater said. "I just want to challenge him to be the best player he can be, be a true pro. And I'm excited I get to challenge him and really, I'm going to implement some things that are going to make him hate me. But it's going to be great for JG, for this offense, for this organization. I'm excited about his future."
It's not just Williams who will benefit from Bridgewater's presence. It's not just the receivers and pass catchers in general. It's also a 25-year-old quarterback recovering from a torn ACL as he embarks on his first NFL season. Hooker can expect constant feedback from Bridgewater, who returned from a torn ACL himself after his first and only Pro Bowl season.
Bridgewater, who's not a football junkie outside the building, didn't know much about Hooker at Tennessee. After they met Monday, Bridgewater said he was impressed to learn that Hooker "would have won the Heisman last year if he didn't get hurt."
"I was like, 'Man, I didn't know that.' I've got a ton of respect for him, just the amount of success that he's had, and then the setback that he had," said Bridgewater. "But I'm watching him right now, the way he's attacking each day, I'm excited that I get to just be a crutch if he needs me, to give him some of my knowledge and my experience that I've gained from being in different quarterback rooms, seeing different vets."
This is Bridgewater's role now, his football purpose. Sure, he liked the idea of reuniting with Campbell and Glenn, the latter of whom "remembers the days when I used to torch (his defense) in practice," Bridgewater grinned. And he loved the idea of joining a team that's ready to make noise: "You talk about this division, you talk about the way this team finished the season last year, guys are aware of what we have here."
But most of all, Bridgewater was drawn to Detroit to pursue a few more life trophies, which just might help the Lions win something real.
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