With free agency starting a week from today, this week we’ll be looking at some options the Redskins could pursue at various positions of need. Of course, given the uncertainty surrounding Alex Smith’s future, the quarterback position is the biggest need for the Redskins as they enter the offseason. Here are two options at quarterback the Redskins could look to pursue.
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Teddy Bridgewater
In terms of potential, Bridgewater has the highest ceiling of this free-agent class. He’s still only 26 and shown flashes of being an above-average NFL quarterback when on the field. The issue for Bridgewater is that he’s only played one full game since 2015. In late August 2016, he tore his ACL and suffered other structural damage to his knee that would keep him out of the 2016 season and the majority of the 2017 season too. Last year, he signed a one-year deal with the Jets before being traded to the Saints, where he backed up Drew Brees and only saw the field in Week 17 when the Saints were resting starters for the playoffs.
That makes it tough to evaluate where Bridgewater is at this point in his career. Teams will have to go back multiple years to gather film worth studying, and there’s no guarantee that Bridgewater has gotten back to that level after the injury. However, in that final game of the season for the Saints, we did see a few positive glimpses from Bridgewater.
Here, the Saints run a play-action bootleg to their left. Bridgewater executes the fake and rolls out to his left on the bootleg. He could easily dump the ball off in the flat with some yards after the catch potential there, but instead he works to the back side crosser. It’s a much more difficult throw, having to get his shoulders and hips aligned while on the run, but Bridgewater makes it look easy and hits his target for a first down.
This is an encouraging play for many reasons. First, it was a solid throw on the run to his left, which not every quarterback can make look as easy as he did. But most importantly, he showed strength, mobility and confidence in that knee that he could roll out and make that type of a play without any concerns. Many quarterbacks would struggle to trust their knee after a significant injury, but Bridgewater showed throughout the game that it’s not a concern for him.
On this play, Bridgewater finds himself under pressure early on. The Panthers get interior pressure on a play-action fake, causing Bridgewater to scramble to his right to avoid the sack. Unfortunately for Bridgewater, all of the routes had gone to the left side of the field, leaving him with no available targets. Bridgewater continues to scramble to his right and directs one of his tight ends, who was originally in to block, to work out into a route. Bridgewater invites pressure onto himself, allowing his tight end to work free, before dumping the ball off to the tight end for a positive gain on what could have been a broken play.
With the Saints resting key starters, Bridgewater and the offense struggled to get going against the Panthers. But Bridgewater still managed to make some solid throws, including his touchdown pass late in the third quarter.
The Saints empty the backfield this time, with Bridgewater in the gun. He initially wants to work to the slot receiver to his right, but the safety works a bracket with the corner and bumps him off his route. Bridgewater resets and looks to his left, but the inside receiver also gets knocked off his route. Bridgewater progresses to the middle receiver on the trips side, who fakes a break inside before breaking back outside. The corner in coverage is still a threat, but Bridgewater pulls the trigger on the throw, deliberately placing the ball high where only his receiver can make the catch. The receiver goes up and makes the grab over the corner to complete the touchdown.
While there were flashes of positive play from Bridgewater, he also had an interception that was entirely on him.
Here, Bridgewater attempts to hit his tight end on a crossing pattern off of play-action. However, the tight end initially gets bumped by a linebacker, forcing him to adjust his route deeper, where the trailing safety and corner could catch up. Bridgewater then forces a throw into a nonexistent window, trying to fit the ball in behind the sinking linebacker and in front of the undercutting safety. The linebacker just fails to make the play, but the safety has no such issue, undercutting the route and pulling in the interception.
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Bridgewater undoubtedly comes with some risks and a lack of playing time over the past three seasons, but he provides the most upside of any of the free agent quarterbacks and at just 26, has plenty of time to improve too. He would likely be looking for another short contract with the opportunity to start and earn a bigger contract a year from now, which would fit in with the timeline of Alex Smith’s recovery.
Ryan Tannehill
Tannehill isn’t a free agent, he’s still under contract with the Dolphins through the 2020 season. However, there’s been rumors about his future in Miami, with some speculation suggesting the Dolphins are ready to move on. Tannehill could be a trade candidate, but if the Dolphins can’t find a partner, they have a potential out if they cut him this offseason. He might prove too expensive for the Redskins, in both trade value and contract value, but he could be an intriguing option worth exploring if they could find a way to make the contract work.
Tannehill has spent years behind a poor offensive line in Miami. He rarely gets the opportunity to sit and make throws from a clean pocket. In one sense, this has forced Tannehill to understand how to move around in the pocket to buy time, when to scramble to extend plays and when to throw hot or just throw the ball away. But it’s also heavily had an impact on his ability to perform at the level of a quarterback drafted in the first round and paid like a franchise quarterback. When he has been afforded time in the pocket, Tannehill has made some impressive throws.
On this play against the Patriots, the Dolphins run a sail concept. They flood the left side of the field with the running back working to the flat and the tight end on the corner route. The outside receiver is primarily there to take the top off the defense and vacate space behind him for the tight end, but the Patriots play a form of quarters coverage, with the safety carrying the tight end outside. That leaves the middle of the field open for the outside receiver on his post route. Tannehill processes this very quickly and pulls the trigger the moment the safety takes a step outside toward the tight end. The end zone angle shows the incredible ball placement by Tannehill, as he gets the ball up and down over the sinking linebacker in coverage and places it where only his receiver can make a play on the ball, despite the corner sticking tight to him. The throw deserved a touchdown and his receiver held on to give him one.
Tannehill made some throws with fantastic ball placement, especially in that game against the Patriots.
Here, Tannehill works a long-developing play-action concept with two deep routes as his primary outlets. The first route, a deep corner-post, is taken away by the coverage, but Tannehill quickly progresses to Kenny Stills on the deep over route. The nature of the route and the coverage matches up Stills against a linebacker, who is attempting to sink back in coverage and do enough to carry Stills up the field and prevent a throw. Tannehill likes the matchup and sticks with it for as long as possible, checking that the corner on that side of the play isn’t in position to make a play. But then pressure begins to arrive and Tannehill delivers his throw as he receives a big hit. That it doesn’t have any impact on the throw, as the ball is perfectly placed for nearly 50 yards down the field.
While Tannehill made some eye-catching throws, he is also subject of some questionable decisions.
This is a simple play Tannehill cannot allow to happen. Off of play-action, he looks to his left for the deep curl route, but pressure arrives at his feet as he begins his windup, causing him to reset. The defender at his feet can’t bring him down, but does prevent him from stepping into a throw. Tannehill resets to keep his balance and then blindly throws the checkdown to the back in the flat, failing to check for the flat defender buzzing over the route. The defender undercuts the route easily and makes the interception, taking it all the way back for a touchdown.
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Tannehill is by no means a perfect quarterback, there’s a reason the Dolphins are rumored to be willing to move on from him after all. That being said, he’s not been placed in the best position by his coaching staff and his offensive line. The line struggled to protect him all season, and yet the coaching staff kept calling plays like deep curls and deep comebacks that required good protection and time for the routes to develop. Any sort of pressure would bust those types of plays because timing is everything, and the offensive line couldn’t protect Tannehill enough to allow him to get into a rhythm on those throws. A healthy Redskins offensive line would be the best Tannehill has played behind and Jay Gruden runs a scheme that would suit his skill set much better. While the contract and the potential to surrender draft picks in a trade would make this an unlikely move, it’s one the Redskins should consider if they can find a way to make it work.
(Photo of Teddy Bridgewater: Derick E. Hingle / USA Today Sports)