The Minnesota Vikings found that Teddy Bridgewater has an abnormal heartbeat, but it obviously wasn’t enough of an issue to dissuade them from drafting the former Louisville quarterback in the first round. Minnesota traded back into the first round Thursday to select Bridgewater with the 32nd overall pick.
According to USA Today’s Tom Pelissero, they did so despite finding out in the pre-draft process that Bridgewater has an abnormal heartbeat. Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer said Bridgewater came in for a second physical because of the irregular heartbeat.
Bridgewater apparently had no idea about it, and he says no other teams checked on him about it.
Like Manziel, Bridgewater fell in the draft based on initial projections. At first many analysts had him as the top quarterback and potentially going first in the draft. But Bridgewater struggled on his pro day and in some private workouts, and his accuracy issues gave some teams pause. The Vikings figured he was worth trading back into the first to draft because they wanted the option for a fifth year on his contract in case he pans out.
I feel about Bridgewater much the same way I did about Christian Ponder: I don’t like the pick. Accuracy issues don’t improve in the NFL; they only get worse. Although I will say that Bridgewater at least completed over 70 percent of his passes last season at Louisville and threw just four interceptions, so that is a good sign.
