Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater has a lot of respect for Aaron Rodgers.
When the media asked him how what he thought about Rodgers' composure in the pocket he said this.
"It's off the charts," Bridgewater said. "He's one of the best quarterbacks in this league and I'm a huge fan of him. He's been playing some great football over the years and you watch, like you said, how he's managing the games - he's keeping plays alive, he knows when to take off and run the ball and when to get down and slide."
Rodgers sat on the sidelines and watched Brett Favre for three seasons before getting an opportunity to be the full-time starter. Bridgewater has come a long way in his first two years in the league, compiling 13 wins in his first 22 games of his career.
Either way, the second-year QB says he aspires to do the things that Aaron Rodgers can do on the gridiron.
"You see those things, that's what every young guy wants to be," Bridgewater said. "What Aaron Rodgers is right now, he's last year's MVP. He's doing a great job of leading that team."
Here are four other thoughts from Bridgewater's weekly media session:
Do teams underestimate his ability to run?
Bridgewater has clearly shown the ability to escape the pocket and run the ball on his own when he has to.
He has 119 rushing yards on the season and two touchdowns via running the ball into the end zone. He was asked if teams underestimate his ability to run the ball.
"Maybe, maybe," Bridgewater said. "I know that I don't want to be running, that's why we have Adrian [Peterson]. He can rush for 200 yards and things like that. I know that it's a weapon that I have in my game and it's something that we try to take advantage of."
Balancing being aggressive and minimizing mistakes
Bridgewater was asked how he balances making decisions when it comes to going for hitting the big play. He said usually his decisions are made based on the team's field position.
"If you're on the red zone fringe, 35-yard line, we know that Blair [Walsh] is capable of hitting 50 yard field goals," Bridgewater said. "For me, I know that try to avoid a sack to make the field goal easier for him. Coach Zimmer is big on field position, whether it's avoiding a sack, throwing the ball away so we can punt the ball to pin our opponents down, keep their back against their end zone. Just things like that, having an understanding of field position, having an understanding of what Blair is capable of doing and Jeff [Locke]."
Handling the national media attention
A lot of responsibility comes with winning.
One of those responsibilities is handling more and more attention from the media as the season goes on.
Bridgewater said his team is prepared to handle the attention being thrown at them due to the messages of Zimmer and the veterans in the locker room.
"We just have to continue to just stay humble," Bridgewater said. "We have a great group of guys here who seem to believe everything that Coach Zimmer is saying. Coach Zimmer talked about division within, that's something that he mentioned in the team meeting on Monday. We have a group of guys who knows how to handle success, we have a great group of leaders, you talk about Adrian [Peterson], Chad [Greenway], Brian Robison, those guys do a great job of just spreading coach's message throughout the locker room and keeping the young guys level-headed."
Vikings avoiding penalties on offense and defense
The Vikings team as a whole has been called for 57 penalties this year, which is the lowest in the league.
"Coach Zimmer, he's tough in that area," Bridgewater said. "We talk about trying to be the best offensively in every category and to be one of the least penalized teams, it just means that we're playing some clean football. The guys are understanding what we're asking of them."
