Who Should I Start? Teddy Bridgewater or Sam Darnold

Saturday, December 16, 12:28 PM

Detroit Lions backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said that he plans to hang up his cleats and retire from professional football after the 2023 season concludes. In his ninth NFL season, Bridgewater hasn't attempted a pass this year as the backup to Jared Goff in his first year in Detroit. The 31-year-old was once considered a franchise QB for the Minnesota Vikings before suffering a devastating knee injury. He spent the first three years of his career in Minnesota and made his lone Pro Bowl appearance in 2015. Injuries continued to limit Bridgewater in recent years, and he made only two starts for the Miami Dolphins since 2021. If Bridgewater doesn't play the rest of this season, he'll end his career with a 66.4 completion percentage on 2,067 attempts for 15,120 yards, 75 touchdowns and 47 interceptions in 79 games (65 starts) with Minnesota, New Orleans, Carolina, Denver and Miami.

Wednesday, May 8, 11:20 PM

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold could be named the team's Week 1 starter over first-round pick J.J. McCarthy. As Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com writes, "It's only a matter of time before McCarthy becomes the Vikings' starting quarterback [...] but it is not likely to happen as quickly as some fans might hope, and if anything, the Vikings are poised to err on the side of methodical caution." Such a scenario could see Minnesota let Darnold, whom they signed this past offseason when Kirk Cousins left for Atlanta, start a few games before transitioning to McCarthy. Darnold has struggled to support major fantasy production from his playmakers at previous stops, including the Jets and Panthers, so fantasy managers might want to temper expectations with players like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson to start the year. Darnold himself falls to the low-end QB3 tier in fantasy football drafts.