Speaker 1: To us Fires touch style by Wattle stuck into the
Speaker 1: end zone of Miami Boy, tight froll, tight window. They
Speaker 1: had to get that touchdown on that play. They get it.
Speaker 1: What is up, Dolphans And welcome to the Drivetime Podcast,
Speaker 1: part of the Miami Dolphins podcast network, covering your team,
Speaker 1: your Miami Dolphins. How's it going everybody? I am your host,
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield And on today's show, it's a free agency special.
Speaker 1: We're talking to quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. We'll break down his
Speaker 1: game and get him on the podcast here to talk
Speaker 1: some football and his decision to join the Miami Dolphins
Speaker 1: from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Trading Complex.
Speaker 1: This is the Drive Time Podcast Dolphins. So free agency
Speaker 1: is underway and we have a signing to discuss here
Speaker 1: in quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who comes over to Miami after
Speaker 1: one year with the Denver Broncos following one year with
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers. He was with the Saints prior to that,
Speaker 1: and of course he began his career back in with
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings and we all know about the injury
Speaker 1: that led to his movement to the Jets in the
Speaker 1: preseason that season, eventually to the Saints, where he spent
Speaker 1: two years, and then the Panthers and Broncos last year
Speaker 1: with the Broncos seven and seven as a starter. He
Speaker 1: is thirty three and thirty in his career as a starter,
Speaker 1: so he has a total of seventy three games played
Speaker 1: sixty three games started for the former first round pick.
Speaker 1: And he came from this talent pool that we all
Speaker 1: know and love here in South Florida, and he's coming
Speaker 1: right back to where his football career began. Now. I
Speaker 1: think you can make a real strong case that Teddy
Speaker 1: Bridgewater is the best quarterback to play his prep football
Speaker 1: in the city of Miami, as he entered his senior
Speaker 1: season at a powerhouse Northwestern High School as the top
Speaker 1: the top ranked quarterback in the state of Florida, and
Speaker 1: he continued that ascent through the football world with a
Speaker 1: tremendous career at the University of Louisville before being selected
Speaker 1: in the first round the thirty second pick by the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings in two thousand and fourteen. And I think
Speaker 1: one of the best parts of this Teddy Bridgewater Miami
Speaker 1: reunion is that you look back over his professional career,
Speaker 1: and he has spent a lot of time and effort
Speaker 1: into giving back to the community here, even when his
Speaker 1: career was elsewhere, like for instance, back in twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: with the Saints, they had won a game on Thursday
Speaker 1: Night football, and so Teddy was down for the weekend
Speaker 1: at Northwestern High School to watch a big semi final
Speaker 1: playoff game in the state playoffs against Jesuit, the rival,
Speaker 1: one of the rivals down here in South Florida, and
Speaker 1: Bridgewater paid for a whole bunch of food trucks to
Speaker 1: come and feed the players and coaches and auxiliary staff
Speaker 1: after that big victory, and just you look at what
Speaker 1: we do with football units here, all the work in
Speaker 1: the South Florida community. He's gonna fit right in with
Speaker 1: that and be such a good stable in this community.
Speaker 1: As the food truck splurge was really far from the
Speaker 1: first act of generosity, because he has also organized toy
Speaker 1: drive school supply drives and also had that phenomenal viral
Speaker 1: video a couple of years back where the dance team
Speaker 1: is kind of doing this like lean back, march up
Speaker 1: the sideline, and sure enough the last person in lines
Speaker 1: Teddy Bridgewater, joining along and that went crazy across social media,
Speaker 1: just viral across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1: So a great guy to have in the community and
Speaker 1: also a winner and productive player. And you know, I
Speaker 1: go back to something that Mike McDaniel mentioned at the
Speaker 1: podium of his Scouting combine UH media availability earlier this month,
Speaker 1: where he laid out pretty transparent expectations for a number
Speaker 1: two quarterback, where he said, quote, when you're looking for
Speaker 1: a number two quarterback, there's two things. You want him
Speaker 1: to benefit the starting quarterback while the starting quarterback is
Speaker 1: the starting quarterback, and in how are him with how
Speaker 1: they approached their daily game plan responsibilities, how they developed
Speaker 1: when they're training in the offseason. But you also want
Speaker 1: a guy who can win games should the starter go down.
Speaker 1: So a veteran backup is definitely in our discussions, he mentioned,
Speaker 1: But it's best, but it's the best player that we
Speaker 1: can find, whatever avenue and move forward from there. And
Speaker 1: Bridgewater was number thirty four on the original Top one
Speaker 1: one free agents list on NFL dot com, so and
Speaker 1: the highest rated quarterback on that list too, So I
Speaker 1: think you pretty well checked that box. And whether it's
Speaker 1: a starter or backup, the market just did not offer
Speaker 1: a better veteran solution than Bridgewater mentioned thirty four. Overall,
Speaker 1: he was the twelve highest rated passer in the National
Speaker 1: Football League one, with a ninety four point nine passer rating.
Speaker 1: He plays a very smart brand of football that limits
Speaker 1: turnovers and moves the offense in an efficient way. That's
Speaker 1: evident by his eight teen touchdowns compared to just seven
Speaker 1: picks last year with the Denver Broncos in those fourteen games,
Speaker 1: and in those fourteen games, the Broncos were seven and seven.
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, Bridgewater was the backup to Drew Brees
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, and when Breeze went down with an
Speaker 1: injury that year and was shelved for five games, Bridgewater
Speaker 1: steered the float. I put float there because that great
Speaker 1: Drew Brees commercial, the ESPN one where he stuck at
Speaker 1: the gate and can't get in with his Marty Graff float.
Speaker 1: He steered the float to a perfect five and oh mark,
Speaker 1: throwing nine touchdowns and just two picks in those five games.
Speaker 1: He's also a locker room favorite. Drew Brees mentioned this
Speaker 1: of Teddy when he signed with the Broncos last year, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: first off I'm a big fan of Teddy Bridgewater. I
Speaker 1: think he's brought some leadership and some mock moxie to
Speaker 1: the Broncos offense and a great skill set as well,
Speaker 1: And just kind of looking around the web, there's all
Speaker 1: kinds of really great accounts of Teddy Bridgewater proving to
Speaker 1: be a great teammate. Like one instance, last season, Justin Simmons,
Speaker 1: the All Pro safety of the Broncos, they had won
Speaker 1: a big game. He went and did an interview off
Speaker 1: to the side and missed the prayer group at the
Speaker 1: middle of the field after the game that you often
Speaker 1: see on NFL fields, And he ran back and was like,
Speaker 1: I'm worried about missing the postgame prayer in the middle
Speaker 1: of the field, And sure enough, one guy waited for
Speaker 1: him to to make sure he could get that prayer
Speaker 1: and with somebody else, and there it was Teddy Bridgewater.
Speaker 1: He put that story up on Instagram and it went
Speaker 1: viral with like thirty five thousand likes on i G
Speaker 1: that I saw, and I'm sure it did numbers across
Speaker 1: Twitter and Facebook as well. So he's got your back.
Speaker 1: As a kind of the way of saying that, right,
Speaker 1: There also a very cool common collected customer. We talked
Speaker 1: about the seventy three games of experience that he has
Speaker 1: and the benefit that can have for the quarterback room.
Speaker 1: You know, accurate quarterback since coming into the league, and
Speaker 1: it's only improved with age. Since twenty nineteen, Bridgewater has
Speaker 1: completed sixty eight percent of his passes with an interception
Speaker 1: rate of just one point seven per cent, So there's
Speaker 1: the kind of calming factor there. And then when under
Speaker 1: pressure through Pro Football Focus, Bridgewater through seven touchdown passes
Speaker 1: compared to just one pick, and the numbers against the
Speaker 1: Blitz were even better. So you send a fifth or
Speaker 1: sixth extra rushers more than four rushers against those looks.
Speaker 1: Last year, Bridgewater seventy three point nine percent completion, eight
Speaker 1: point nine yards per past, nine touchdowns and just two
Speaker 1: interceptions when the defense brought a fifth or six rushers
Speaker 1: at Teddy Bridgewater. And then, finally, it wouldn't be a
Speaker 1: Teddy Bridgewater podcast without talking about the kind of route
Speaker 1: that his football career took from first round pick too
Speaker 1: high upside. You saw the trajectory of his career with
Speaker 1: Minnesota kind of climbing up and up and up, and
Speaker 1: then he has that training camp injury that really shook
Speaker 1: up the Vikings quarterback situations back then and Teddy Bridgewater's
Speaker 1: career there for a couple of years. I mean, he
Speaker 1: didn't play that season, didn't play the following season, besides
Speaker 1: a couple of snaps I think late in that year.
Speaker 1: And you saw Minnesota with Sam Bradford and case Keenum
Speaker 1: and they had to find a solution because Teddy was
Speaker 1: their guy, and all of a sudden they didn't have him.
Speaker 1: And you know, football comes with this inherent risk that
Speaker 1: all players must assume, but for Bridgewater, it was like
Speaker 1: the most innocuous of moments that led to one of
Speaker 1: the most discussed injuries in recent memory, a non contact
Speaker 1: injury that just left bystanders like in shock and awe.
Speaker 1: Even Teddy Bridgewater surgeon said that he was horrified about
Speaker 1: the knee injury he saw there, So you know, it
Speaker 1: was a a setback moment. And Teddy has come back
Speaker 1: so well from that, throwing forty three touchdowns and winning
Speaker 1: sixteen games as he starting quarterback since that injury, So
Speaker 1: really really good addition here to the Dolphins quarterback room
Speaker 1: in Teddy Bridgewater coming home, the work in the community,
Speaker 1: the work under pressure as a quarterback. The work with
Speaker 1: the accuracy and the placement of the football just a
Speaker 1: really good addition here to the Dolphins quarterback room. And
Speaker 1: we'll go ahead and take our first break here on
Speaker 1: the Teddy Bridgewater podcast on Drivetime, and next will welcome
Speaker 1: Teddy Bridgewater into the Drivetime studios here at the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins Baptist Health Training Complex here in Miami Gardens. Up
Speaker 1: next Drivetime podcast brought to you by Auto Nation. What's up? Dolphins?
Speaker 1: Travis Wingfield here the host of the Drivetime podcast, and
Speaker 1: I'm joined by New Dolls quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Teddy, You're
Speaker 1: back home, man, that's gotta feel great. Yeah, man, it's
Speaker 1: a great feeling. I'm excited to beeback um looking forward
Speaker 1: to us and store for tomorrow. So I heard you
Speaker 1: brought your own pen for the signing. Was a big
Speaker 1: big part of that for you? Yeah, I mean she
Speaker 1: has always got to be prepared, man, absolutely. Yeah. Do
Speaker 1: you have your own mic as well? Just messing around
Speaker 1: so you know your Miami kid coming back home here.
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you, what's your what's your Miami go
Speaker 1: to the first thing that after this day and all
Speaker 1: the responsibilities here with the within the building are done.
Speaker 1: What's the first thing you want to go do? Um, Man,
Speaker 1: I haven't even thought about that, you know. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: here in the moment right now, man, embracing all of this,
Speaker 1: taking all in one minute at a time, and I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying just everything that today is brought to me. So,
Speaker 1: you've been in a lot of NFL quarterback rooms across
Speaker 1: your college career back to high school, obviously a lot
Speaker 1: of experience. One thing coach McDaniel mentioned in his media
Speaker 1: was that a quarterback's role is to not just provide
Speaker 1: production on the football field, but also serve the rest
Speaker 1: of the room and of course the rest the team
Speaker 1: as well. How do you think your role as a
Speaker 1: quarterback and kind of serving to and the rest of
Speaker 1: the quarterback room fits in here in Miami. Um, It's
Speaker 1: just who I am, man. It's my nature of just
Speaker 1: doing everything I can to help the team, whether I'm
Speaker 1: out there plan or if I'm not out there planing. Um.
Speaker 1: We all have a job to do, you know, and
Speaker 1: I always believe that. Man. It's my my job to
Speaker 1: execute my role with my job, you know, to the
Speaker 1: best of my ability. So, speaking of that kind of
Speaker 1: quarterback brotherhood. It's always you know, a unique element of
Speaker 1: the football field. Right. There's only like a hundred or
Speaker 1: so of you guys in the National Football League, and
Speaker 1: in that kind of limited space, you guys have experiences
Speaker 1: that not a lot of people can relate to. So
Speaker 1: how do you kind of in this high stress, high
Speaker 1: stakes environment, how can you positively impact to ah in
Speaker 1: that quarterback room? Um? Honestly, man, it just starts with
Speaker 1: the mindset. Um, you know, as I get to know
Speaker 1: Tour on this journey, you know, in this chapter of
Speaker 1: my life, my career, I'm pretty sure I'll find out
Speaker 1: some things about him that drives him. And you know,
Speaker 1: how can you you help, you know, a person use
Speaker 1: the things that drive them to keep them going even further. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's one of my unique abilities is to
Speaker 1: be able to you know, dive within and and and
Speaker 1: get to know people and understand, you know, there why
Speaker 1: and help them really, you know, move forward towards the why.
Speaker 1: He's not the only person you know here on the
Speaker 1: roster obviously a former Louisville teammate, Davanta Parker, how you
Speaker 1: how excited you to reunite with DVP out here. Oh man,
Speaker 1: that's a new nickname to me, dvpe it. But now
Speaker 1: I'm excited, man. You know he's probably sitting somebody watching
Speaker 1: SpongeBob even both a cereal or something. But uh no,
Speaker 1: I'm excited, man um, just to to get to work
Speaker 1: man with you know, the different guys on this this roster. Um,
Speaker 1: there's some some great talent. Um you're bringing his coaching staff,
Speaker 1: a great group of which is who know how to
Speaker 1: utilize guys screens and their ability. So I'm excited for No,
Speaker 1: what's the store for this team? So I mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: your experience in the National Football like tons of organizations
Speaker 1: across the league, tons of football and just a bunch
Speaker 1: of experiences that you've you know, ups and downs and
Speaker 1: that that that's how football careers go, right, adversity and
Speaker 1: overcoming it. If there's one thing you've taken away from
Speaker 1: your entire football career, what do you think that would be?
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's a that's a good question. Um. Thank
Speaker 1: you Now for me, man Um, it's knowing how to
Speaker 1: turn it on and turn it off. Um. And I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about when you you step on the field
Speaker 1: and step off the field, like knowing how to turn
Speaker 1: it on for a player too. Really understanding who you
Speaker 1: are man, um in society. Um, I think oftentimes man,
Speaker 1: because we're we're number five or number ten on Sundays,
Speaker 1: we think we're that person seven. And you got to
Speaker 1: know how to disconnect, man, the your career from who
Speaker 1: you are in society and think that's what's really helped me,
Speaker 1: you know, continue to be real with myself and understand,
Speaker 1: you know, my my purpose because you know, football has
Speaker 1: been great to me. Is opened so many doors for me,
Speaker 1: and it's giving me opportunities to impact so many people.
Speaker 1: And then when I take the jersey off and I
Speaker 1: see that, hey man, people still genuinely love me. Man. Uh,
Speaker 1: it really made me have a different view on life itself.
Speaker 1: When you say disconnected, reminds me of that viral video
Speaker 1: of you on with the with the cheerleaders and school
Speaker 1: doing the walk there that was kind of part of that. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, at the end of the day, Man,
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time, you know, we're rock
Speaker 1: stars and superstars with heroes or whoever we want to
Speaker 1: be for during a half hours on Sundays, you know,
Speaker 1: in the fall and um, once you step outside of
Speaker 1: those lines, man, we go back to the reality and
Speaker 1: we still can make an impact, you know, in life,
Speaker 1: you know, outside of the game. And um that's all
Speaker 1: I try to do. Speaking to viral moments, there was
Speaker 1: a moment last season in Denver with Justin Simmons, your
Speaker 1: teammate there with the Broncos, who went into the postgame
Speaker 1: interview and then he was looking for the prayer circle
Speaker 1: afterwards and he found you at midfield. He shared that
Speaker 1: story on Instagram and it winds up going viral. Can
Speaker 1: you talk to talk to us about that moment and
Speaker 1: kind of why that was important to you? Yeah, just
Speaker 1: after the games, man, we you know, we meet up
Speaker 1: on the fifth of our team and our opponents and
Speaker 1: we just pray, and you know because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, man, you know, we give all glory
Speaker 1: to God because he makes all things possible when we're
Speaker 1: out there. But um, I knew that Justin was busy
Speaker 1: doing his postgame interview and I knew that he was
Speaker 1: a part of the circle. After every game when we
Speaker 1: would pray, and the prayer we tried to wait. We
Speaker 1: tried to wait, and uh, you know the way team
Speaker 1: usually had to hurry back to the locker room and
Speaker 1: things like that. And I just wanted to wait for
Speaker 1: Justin because I knew, you know how much he's a
Speaker 1: god fair man, just like myself. And I knew that,
Speaker 1: you know, the prayer meant something to him. You know,
Speaker 1: it gives you closure, you know, on that game on
Speaker 1: that day sometimes, and um, it was just great to
Speaker 1: share that moment. It was great to know that it
Speaker 1: really meant a lot to him, you know, me being
Speaker 1: there with him in that moment. So you've made positive
Speaker 1: impacts really every stop you've been around the National Football League,
Speaker 1: but you continue to do work in the South Florida community,
Speaker 1: even when you were in Denver, in New Orleans across
Speaker 1: the league and just reading about that, you know why
Speaker 1: is giving back to the South Florida community so important
Speaker 1: to you? Uh? Man, it's it's for one is home.
Speaker 1: But um, also I always tell people, man, um, when
Speaker 1: I was younger, Um, the ones who did a lot
Speaker 1: in the community were aren't really the ideal people. And um,
Speaker 1: you know, we had so many guys from South Florida
Speaker 1: who went off to have careers on a professional level,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you didn't really see him, you know, you
Speaker 1: only saw him on the TV, and UM, I always
Speaker 1: want the people to see me in the flesh. I
Speaker 1: understand that I am accessible. Um, I'm not just a
Speaker 1: guy you see on TV. I'm from the same I
Speaker 1: walked down the same sidewalks, visit the same corner stores
Speaker 1: buying snacks. So it means that much to me, just
Speaker 1: you know, because I was once you know, and in
Speaker 1: the next child shoes um years ago, so um, and
Speaker 1: they still motivate me to this day. I tell everyone
Speaker 1: a story about when I was injured and my sister,
Speaker 1: she lived down in a little Haiti, and we were
Speaker 1: just sitting outside and one of the young kids, he
Speaker 1: was about eleven years old at the time, and because
Speaker 1: I was injured, he was piste off. He was like, man,
Speaker 1: you suck man, He's supposed to be out there. How
Speaker 1: you get hurt? And of course I was like, man, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but you know, it really hit home, like, man,
Speaker 1: it really means something, you know when I'm out there,
Speaker 1: that I'm really making an impact, you know, when I'm
Speaker 1: out on a football fielding, and it just you know,
Speaker 1: gave me a chip on my shoulder to really try
Speaker 1: to overcome what I was going through. You mentioned the injury.
Speaker 1: What did you ultimately take away from that? Because you
Speaker 1: came back and you've had some good numbers one a
Speaker 1: lot of football games after that injury win. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a moment where people were worried about your
Speaker 1: long term prognosis and here you are back with the
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins and a long NFL career. What did you
Speaker 1: take away from that entire process? Um, I found my
Speaker 1: purpose in life, you know, And um, that was that
Speaker 1: was the biggest thing I took away. But I also
Speaker 1: realized that, um, you know, I've come from a fighting DNA.
Speaker 1: My mom she's a breast cancer survivor, and um, everything
Speaker 1: that I went through with my injury, I pretty much
Speaker 1: applied what I learned from watching her to go through
Speaker 1: what she went through with breast cancter. She never you know, frowned,
Speaker 1: She never you know was down. She continued to smile
Speaker 1: through it all. And you know, that was like big
Speaker 1: for me. You know, I was fourteen fifteen years old
Speaker 1: at the time and thinking, Okay, my mom has breast cancer,
Speaker 1: what's next, you know, thinking all the worst things possible,
Speaker 1: and um, and she stayed positives, kept helping people. She's
Speaker 1: had such a big heart. So when I was injured,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, my mom went through something ten
Speaker 1: times worse, you know, and it's like, I can't frown
Speaker 1: about it. I can't be sad. She didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: frown be sad. So that was one of the biggest
Speaker 1: takeaways that, you know, I come from a fighting DNA.
Speaker 1: I have to guess mom is gonna have season tickets
Speaker 1: this year, and I don't know because she actually lives
Speaker 1: in South Carolina. So I joke with it other day though,
Speaker 1: I said, Man, everyone saying you're probably gonna move back
Speaker 1: to South Florida now that you know I'm coming home.
Speaker 1: So so I had to I had to ask you,
Speaker 1: south Ford, the humidity, you know the weather very well,
Speaker 1: But our gloves going to be part of the Teddy
Speaker 1: Bridgewater experience? Yeah, yeah, they don't be a part of
Speaker 1: the experience for sure. I had to ask it, had
Speaker 1: to ask it. So as you look to your career
Speaker 1: here with the Miami Dolphins and starting this new chapter here,
Speaker 1: what's the ultimate thing that Dolphins are gonna get with
Speaker 1: Teddy Bridgwater as a player, as a person, Man, m
Speaker 1: just gonna get a guy who wants to compete, you know, compete,
Speaker 1: you know as a player and as a as a
Speaker 1: man in society. Um, you know every day that I
Speaker 1: wake up in my feet hit the ground. I hit
Speaker 1: the ground running because I'm thankful that I get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to make an impact in the world. And um,
Speaker 1: I saw what I want to continue to do. Very good.
Speaker 1: So on you from you, Teddy. Teddy Bridgewater, Dolphins quarterback,
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot man, Thank you. And there he goes
Speaker 1: new Dolphins quarterback Teddy Bridgewater here on the Drivetime podcast.
Speaker 1: Let's take our last break and put a boat on
Speaker 1: this episode Drive Time with Travis Wingfield on the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins Podcast network. Alright, another one of these free agent
Speaker 1: podcast here in the books. Lots of fun to break
Speaker 1: down these guys as game as far as the numbers
Speaker 1: and the stats, but even better to hear from them
Speaker 1: here on the podcast and kind of get the y
Speaker 1: and the decision to join Miami and when they can
Speaker 1: talk about the coaching staff and their teammates. A lot
Speaker 1: of fun stuff here and we have more fun ones
Speaker 1: coming your way here the rest of the weekend here
Speaker 1: on the Drivetime Podcast. But in the meantime that is
Speaker 1: gonna be my time. You all, please be sure to
Speaker 1: subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast. Leave us a rating,
Speaker 1: leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Wingfield NFL. You can follow the team at Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins across all social channels. We're gonna have plenty of
Speaker 1: content coming your way the rest of the weekend and
Speaker 1: the week that is. Also the fish Tank Podcast, the
Speaker 1: YouTube channel for our media availabilities for Dolphins Today, as
Speaker 1: well as the video versions of these interviews on interviews
Speaker 1: with the free agent players here and of course last
Speaker 1: mon Last Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time finds
Speaker 1: up Caroline, Daddy has gone home.