Can Mike Wallace Revive His Career on Shoulders of Budding Teddy Bridgewater?

The Miami Dolphins won free agency in 2013, with wide receiver Mike Wallace as their top prize.

But of course, you can’t really win something that only exists on tickers, computer screens and updates that dance across social media. Once it’s official, breaking free-agent news appears on depth charts, and boy do those names look great…until they don’t translate into winning anything with actual meaning, like games or championships.

Then you’re stuck with heavy dollars and heavy losses. The Dolphins were stuck with Wallace, who is rather incredibly earning an average annual salary of $12 million, the fourth-highest among wide receivers, according to Spotrac.

They needed to free themselves from Wallace’s icy money grip. They needed to trade the untradeable, especially after signing tight end Jordan Cameron and trading for wideout Kenny Stills, moves that made Wallace expendable.

Mercifully, a financial debacle for Miami has now reached its messy end. And Wallace has been gifted a better offensive fit after being traded to the Minnesota Vikings. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported the trade:

Wallace is a pure speed threat, and when utilized properly, he’s one of the NFL’s premier vertical wide receivers. It seems like a distant memory now, but there was a time with the Pittsburgh Steelers when he was constantly going for long Sunday jogs and waiting for a football on the other end.

In 2010, Wallace averaged 21 yards per reception on 60 catches. Over four seasons with the Steelers, his per-catch average always reflected what he is as a receiver: a nearly invisible blur, mostly.

Then he quickly became very visible in Miami. Visible in the worst way.

Team	Yards per season	Yards per reception
Pittsburgh Steelers (2009-12)	1,010	17.2
Miami Dolphins (2013-14)	896	12.8

Wallace isn’t a skilled route-runner, and therefore, he excels when his section of the playbook generally consists of long, straight lines. When he ran those routes in Miami, there was a clear disconnect with quarterback Ryan Tannehill, whose deep-ball accuracy is sorely lacking.

That problem should evaporate quickly when Wallace runs the routes drawn by Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner and catches the far more accurate balls thrown by sophomore quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Quarterback	Comp %	Yards	TDs
Teddy Bridgewater	46.3	467	5
Ryan Tannehill	37.7	478	3

Basically, he’ll get to be Mike Wallace again, and Turner has the offensive mind to make the Wallace-Bridgewater bond grow into a budding bromance.

As either a head coach or coordinator, Turner has presided over a top-10 passing offensive 11 times. He’s also not far removed from orchestrating a passing attack with the Cleveland Browns that led to wide receiver Josh Gordon’s 1,646 receiving yards in 2013 over only 14 games.

Like Wallace, Turner is all about verticals and using them to force opposing defensive backs into making difficult decisions quickly. Wallace might not know it yet, but he should be overjoyed.

Hey Mike, Smile! But unfortunately, smiling is probably not the wideout's reaction to the trade, per Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. 

If history is any indication, Wallace will be cheerful soon.

Look back on his Pittsburgh days once more, and note the offensive coordinator during those thriving times: Bruce Arians, who’s also very much a supporter of vertical madness. Wallace’s peak year in 2010 under Arians featured 26 receptions for 20-plus yards. Over two seasons in Miami, he only caught 21 of those passes.

Vertical scheming will help to revive Wallace, but so will Bridgewater. He’s a polished young quarterback who lacked a reliable deep option during his rookie season. Wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson was supposed to be that option, but his inability to show even a shred of route-running skill eventually led to a chilly bench seat in favor of Charles Johnson.

Enter Wallace, who’s still relatively young at 28 years old and will now benefit from Bridgewater’s more accurate crosshairs. After taking the typical rookie-quarterback lumps early, Bridgewater completed at least 70 percent of his passes over five of Minnesota’s final six games in 2014.

He was really, really accurate. Historically accurate. Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press provided some of Bridgewater's incredible stats:

Wallace will be inserted alongside the also-young and also-blazing Johnson. Turner called the 26-year-old Johnson “far and away our best receiver” when talking to ESPNCleveland.com’s Tony Grossi in February, a title he may now cede to Wallace. Over six starts in 2014, Johnson averaged 17.3 yards per reception.

Bridgewater is surrounded by weapons now, as Wallace joins veteran receiver Greg Jennings and tight end Kyle Rudolph. If running back Adrian Peterson can also be talked into returning, the league’s 28th-ranked passing offense in 2014 could climb those standings quickly.

Much of that swift improvement potential lies with Wallace. He’s out of excuses now, and it’s time to justify his paycheck.