How Teddy Bridgewater's familiarity with Joe Brady has aided Carolina's virtual offseason program

Sir Purr

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Mar 16, 2019
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Bridgewater hasn't been a full-time starter since suffering a career-threatening knee injury in August 2016. But he did go 5-0 for the Saints last year when a thumb injury sidelined starter Drew Brees.


Brady believes the time he and Bridgewater spent together back in 2018 helped him grow significantly as a coach because it allowed him to teach the offense to a quarterback. Plus, it gave him some valuable insight into how Bridgewater thinks and learns. So when head coach Matt Rhule and general manager Marty Hurney targeted the 27-year-old quarterback this spring, Brady was all for it.


"I knew what we had in Teddy Bridgewater," Brady said. "I know the type of winning football that he has (played) and is going to play. So I'm excited for him to finally be able to do that again."


Here are some more highlights from Brady's virtual press conference.


On the Panthers' depth at quarterback:


"I think it's been a great offseason for that room with the quarterbacks: Teddy, Will (Grier), and P.J. (Walker). I've learned just as much from them as they've learned from me. I think that (quarterbacks coach) Jake Peetz has done a great job of teaching the offense to them and seeing their recall and their competitiveness, their intelligence. I love the direction and I love the men that we have in that room."


On designing an offense with RB Christian McCaffrey as a featured player:


"You walk into this job and you get to coach Christian McCaffrey — I don't know how many coaches have the opportunity to coach a player of his caliber. So the thing for us is, to me, he's a running back and he can do everything. But to label him strictly a running back is an injustice to him. So I think a guy like Christian McCaffrey, he can play literally any position on the football field. I think it's going to be to our advantage to be able to do that. And I think a critical element to this offense is not just allowing people to know where players are going to be at all times, trying to utilize different formations, different tempos or personnel groupings to create the mismatches that you want. So Christian is one of the pieces that definitely is going to be a driving force of our offense."


On the high amount of touches McCaffrey has received over the past two seasons:


"I think Christian had 429 touches this past year. That's a lot, obviously, but if there's one person that can take it — one person that takes care of his body the way that he does — is Christian McCaffrey. I can't sit here and tell you guys, 'Hey, the number's 400. The number's 350.' I can't. I think every single game, it'll be different. I think a lot of it will come down to the rest of the personnel on our team and figuring out how they're going to be utilized. There is an expectation of Mike Davis, of Reggie Bonnafon, of Jordan Scarlett, (of) Rodney Smith to elevate their game as well. So depending on how that running back room and wide receiver room and tight end room goes, a lot of that will factor into Christian McCaffrey's touches. Christian McCaffrey will get his touches. If we weren't getting the ball to Christian McCaffrey also, I wouldn't be doing my job."
 
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