Teddy Bridgewater, Vikings Offense Surging with Improved Play from Receivers

The Minnesota Vikings offense has finally taken off as the 2014 season comes to a close on the back of growth from all of its components, especially in the passing game. Improved play from receivers has seemingly flipped the switch for Teddy Bridgewater, too, sparking the rookie to a stretch of quality outings.

Three consecutive games over 250 passing yards and four consecutive games with higher than 70 percent completions tell the story of the unit’s progress. Bridgewater and company pulled off those performances against Football Outsiders’ No. 5, No. 10, No. 23 and No. 13 pass defenses in the last four games.

Over that time span, the effectiveness of the rookie quarterback and the Minnesota passing attack is inarguable.

"

At 105.8, Teddy Bridgewater has the #4 passer rating in the league over last four weeks. #2 in completion percentage.

— Darren Page (@DarrenPage) December 22, 2014"

The corps of receivers deserves credit too. It carries a significant load.

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Teddy's yards per attempt, 8.89, is #1 in the league over the last four weeks. Air yards only 44%, lots of work being done after the catch.

— Darren Page (@DarrenPage) December 22, 2014"

Bridgewater’s early struggles fell on his shoulders and those of his receivers. While the picture he was getting in coverage was often fuzzy or unclear to him as he worked through growing pains, too often his receivers were failing to get open.

Opposing defenses were aggressively defending Minnesota receivers, forcing them to beat man coverage with heavy contact. They were often failing.

Their struggles caused problems for Bridgewater, a quarterback who can try to be too perfect for his own good. With blanketed receivers, he was hesitant to pull the trigger and resorted to checking the ball down regularly. Other times he patted the ball too long in the pocket and took unnecessary amounts of time to get it out, resulting in sacks.

Play designs were failing as far as first and second options, and Bridgewater lacked the confidence and developed skills to make up for that.

Now his completion percentage has spiked. First and second reads have begun coming open for the quarterback, giving him simpler throws. On top of that, his anticipation has grown by leaps and bounds, and his mental processing has quickened.

A prominent feature that has shown through in Bridgewater’s play is little reliance on any one receiver. Instead of using a veteran like Greg Jennings or an athlete like Charles Johnson as a crutch, he does a fine job operating inside the structure of the play, simply locating receivers that come open.

The wide scope of targets Bridgewater has utilized thus far shows that.

Credit: Darren Page -- Bleacher Report

His top two targets, Jennings and Johnson, don’t cover 50 percent of the targets within his top six. The targets only slightly fall from No. 2 to No. 5. Put simply, Bridgewater throws to a wide spread of receivers, including wide receivers, tight ends and running backs.

The significance of this tendency is that Bridgewater can be highly effective when his receivers perform well. If they are able to beat coverage and get open, even marginally so, he has been finding them.

Lately, his receivers have been doing that. Over the last four games, the average time to pass attempt for Bridgewater was 2.54 seconds, per Pro Football Focus premium (subscription required). Of all his throws prior to the Carolina game, the average was 2.69 seconds.

While that amount is small on average, the difference points to how well plays have been working. Receivers have been coming open, and Bridgewater has been quickly finding them instead of having to dance around in the pocket and improvise behind a porous offensive line.

Two different plays from the last two weeks show improved route running and aid Bridgewater.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

With this play design, featuring three downfield routes and a safety valve underneath, defenses could have banked on Bridgewater checking down five or six weeks ago. Receivers struggled with the contact of defensive backs, the rush closed quickly and Bridgewater had to limit risk with short throws.

On the first play against Miami, though, Jarius Wright holds up his end of the deal, beating slot cornerback Jamar Taylor with ease and giving his quarterback a big window to complete the pass.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

The Vikings move the chains with a third-down completion within the play design, because Wright beats man coverage.

When opponents challenged Vikings receivers earlier in Bridgewater’s season, they often folded. He wasn’t given easy throws, even periodically. Completing passes was like pulling teeth.

That wasn’t so against Miami or Detroit, two terrific defenses.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

A few of Minnesota’s successful plays against Detroit came from five-wide sets such as this. It gave receivers space to operate in, and they took advantage.

Johnson runs a slant from the slot, beating press coverage to give Bridgewater a clear window for the throw.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

After giving his CB the slip, Johnson scampers for a 40-yard gain after the catch.

Vikings receivers have done a masterfully better job beating coverage over the last few weeks, and it shows in the numbers. Bridgewater’s stats have skyrocketed, especially those sensitive to completions and overall efficiency. Yardage after the catch, such as those Johnson picked up against Detroit, also shine a bright light on the corps’ recent work.

Time and time again, the rookie QB has shown a propensity for finding open receivers. Now that those exist, the offense has hummed.

As the Vikings evaluate their units to close the season and identify their needs for 2015, the improved play from wide receivers is a promising development. Another strong group of rookie receivers will enter the league next season. Now the Vikings will have some tough decisions to make. Guys like Wright and Johnson have stated clear cases for keeping their roles moving forward.

The play of the entire unit may also be quickening the development of Bridgewater, which is a bonus at this point.

Statistics via ESPN.com unless noted otherwise.