Finally Given His Chance, Can Teddy Bridgewater Become Teddy Ballgame Again?

It has been many years since we saw the real Teddy Bridgewater.   

The version of Bridgewater we saw Sunday—rushed out of the bullpen on the road against the defending NFC champions and asked to execute a game plan that wasn't designed for him after Drew Brees tore a ligament in his thumb—wasn't the real one. Bridgewater dinked and dunked, rarely threw downfield, saw big offensive plays erased by penalties and game-changing defensive turnovers negated by officiating flubs, and was utterly unimpressive in a dreary 27-9 loss to the Rams.

The version we saw in the preseason wasn't the real one either. That was a veteran understudy, executing vanilla game plans sometimes behind a backup offensive line. And the version we saw go through the motions with a makeshift supporting cast, throwing for just 118 yards in a meaningless, unwatchable Week 17 game last year? Not the real one.

There may have been some flashes of the real Bridgewater during the 2018 Jets preseason, but really, who remembers anything about the 2018 Jets preseason?

Even the successful 2014-15 Vikings version of Bridgewater wasn't the real thing. That guy was simply a Vikings quarterback. Vikings quarterbacks under head coach Mike Zimmer are interchangeable. Their job is to hand off and avoid mistakes. Bridgewater was great at being that quarterback, better than the guy the Vikings paid $84 million to ultimately replace him. But he threw for just 28 touchdowns in two seasons as a starter, spending most of his Sundays feeding Adrian Peterson, checking down to Stefon Diggs, preserving victories by 20-13 final scores and hoping the kicker didn't choke away playoff losses.

The real Teddy Bridgewater was Teddy Ballgame.

Teddy Ballgame was something of a cross between Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott for Louisville in 2012 and 2013. He could make anything happen. He was a master of the deep sideline teardrop and the improbable throw from an imploding pocket. A gutsy escape artist. A never-say-die playmaker who lit up the highlight reels.

Then the Vikings drafted him 32nd overall in the 2014 draft, and Zimmer and old-school coordinator Norv Turner tried to transform him into the ultimate game manager, the type of quarterback who goes 17-of-24 in a 10-9 playoff loss, as Bridgewater did at the end of his second season. Heading into the next year, hopes were high that he could become something more—but then came a gruesome, freakish preseason practice leg injury that jeopardized his career and erased nearly all of two seasons.

Bridgewater returned just in time for the Vikings to decide they were one quarterback away from the Super Bowl and that somehow Kirk Cousins was that quarterback. He signed with the Jets, was traded to the Saints and turned down an offer from the Dolphins this offseason (wise move) to remain in New Orleans in the dual role of inexpensive journeyman backup and kinda-sorta quarterback of the future behind what appeared to be a nigh-indestructible Hall of Famer.

It was a long, difficult journey. But Bridgewater is still only 26 years old, and with Brees expected to miss six weeks after undergoing thumb surgery, he may finally get a chance to unleash Teddy Ballgame on the NFL.

This is as close to an ideal situation as a backup quarterback can find himself in. Bridgewater gets to throw to Michael Thomas, one of the NFL's best receivers. He gets to hand off and dump off to Alvin Kamara, one of the league's best all-purpose backs. He'll play behind an offensive line built to exacting "protect Drew Brees at all costs" specifications. He has the benefit of a Saints defense that, while rickety in the secondary, gets the job done. In Sean Payton, he has one of the league's best game-planners. And he's had an entire year in the system to absorb the playbook.

At the same time, expectations are astronomical. The Saints entered the season as Super Bowl contenders who felt robbed by the refs in the NFC Championship Game last year. Brees is the NFL's all-time leader in all sorts of important categories, and over the last 13 years he led the Saints and their fans from the all-too-real-world tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to Super Bowl glory to an extended run as perennial contenders. Even Tom Brady hasn't been as singularly responsible for his team's success as Brees has been.

Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

Managing a few games until Brees returns and keeping the Saints from falling out of the wild-card picture would be enough for most backup quarterbacks. For Bridgewater, it would be a lost opportunity. For the Saints, it could herald the end of an era.

Bridgewater could be in line for a huge contract extension and a chance to reclaim the chance at superstardom that was taken from him when he was carted off a practice field in 2016—if he can become Teddy Ballgame again. The version of Bridgewater we saw Sunday, in the preseason and in Week 17 last year? Some rebuilding team would probably sign him for a year or two while it grooms a rookie.

The real fear for both the Saints and for Bridgewater is that Teddy Ballgame is gone forever and the other guy is now the "real" Bridgewater.

It's a fear born not just of the 2016 injury, the lost seasons or an old Vikings highlight reel full of routine throws that your basic Ryan Tannehill-type quarterback can execute, but of the fact that even during his collegiate glory years, Bridgewater wasn't as big, rifle-armed or fast as the typical top prospect. He wasn't as gifted as Blake Bortles or Johnny Manziel, who were both drafted before him. He proved to be far more reliable than they were (now there's an understatement), but do you know what happens to the "reliable" young quarterback who loses a little bit of athleticism to injury and a little bit of boldness to years of conservative game plans, rehab and proving that he once again belongs on a roster? That's right: He becomes a gutsy journeyman backup quarterback.

Bridgewater needs to shed his play-it-safe checkdown habits, trust his health, talents and teammates, and rediscover what he is capable of.

Payton, Thomas, Kamara and the rest of the Saints need to do their part as well.

The Saints need the real Bridgewater. An NFL full of starting quarterbacks named Gardner Minshew II and Jacoby Brissett needs him too.

It's time for the real Bridgewater to return and remind everyone just how special and electrifying he was to watch. He will never get a better chance. It's now or never.

Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeTanier.