*Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer *
Q: Thoughts on Sam Bradford going on IR?
A: Yes, it's disappointing. The guy worked extremely hard to try and get back. He spent a whole bunch of his own money trying everything to get back and it just didn't work out. Hopefully we'll be able to get him back when he gets healthy.
Q: What made him/your staff decide that now was the time for him to have surgery?
A: It was just lingering. We thought it was going to be a one week deal, then it was two, then it was three, and then it was eight. Nothing else was working. We had to try something.
Q: Do you have any idea on his long term progress?
A: You know really no one knows. I mean when they went in there they just cleaned it out. He's not bone on bone. I mean there's a lot of good things, but who knows. We didn't expect it to be this long.
Q: Is playoffs an option for him or is he done for the season?
A: No, it's an option.
Q: Is there something that changed? Doctors said they expected it to go away.
A: Yes, we all did. Nothing really changed, it just didn't get better.
Q: Is Teddy Bridgewater ready for a game?
A: Yes.
Q: Will you start Case Keenum Sunday?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you balance the reps with Case Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater?
A: Pretty much the same way we've been doing it all along. He gets a few every period. Just trying to get him up to speed as fast as possible.
Q: How have you felt about how Teddy Bridgewater is doing so far?
A: He's doing excellent. He's moved well, thrown the ball well, good accuracy.
Q: When you say you're trying to get him up to speed, what is left for him?
A: He hasn't had training camp. He hasn't done anything. We're just trying to get him to where everybody feels comfortable with him.
Q: How has he looked overall? Any rust?
A: Not too bad really. When he was rehabbing, before he started practicing, he was throwing to non-receivers, but since then he's been pretty good. There might have been one day he was a little rusty, but for the most part I thought he's thrown the ball well.
Q: At this point is Teddy Bridgewater limiting his runs?
A: That's hard to say. He's moving fine. I don't know if everything is the same, he is wearing a brace, but yes, he's moving good.
Q: How much were you able to get from practice on his ability to elude the pass rush?
A: Well we had guys run at him. There's no tackling in training camp on the quarterbacks either. First time he tackled will be in a game, just like it would be in the regular season.
Q: Is he going to dress on Sunday?
A: Yes.* *
Q: Do you take it week-by-week with your starting quarterback?
A: Yes, we're just going to go day-by-day and see how it goes.
Q: What do you see from Washington?
A: Defensively they're really good up front. The two pass rushers, [Ryan] Kerrigan and [Preston] Smith, are handfuls. They're physical up front. They play a lot of tight coverage in the backend. [Josh] Norman and [Bashaud] Breeland, I think they did a good job there. Offensively, they have a bunch of good tight ends that can really run and catch the ball, spread you around. Cousins does a nice job of getting the ball out quick. Excellent play action team. The two top-five picks in the offensive line. They're a good football team.
Q: Washington doesn't rank very high defensively, but they seemed to do a good job against Seattle. What do you see in their defense?
A: They did a really good job of pressuring Russell Wilson in that game. The thing they do is they're the second-least penalized team in the NFL. They seem to cause all their offenses penalties quite a bit of points. So they end up being second-and-fifteen, second-and-twenty, and first-and-twenty. Up front, they kind of got after them a little bit.
Q: Sam Bradford becomes a free agent after the season. Is the hope now that you'd like to have him long term or just wait and see and let everything unfold?
A: I don't know. I have an outstanding relationship with Sam. He is a great person, heck of a quarterback. We don't know where he's at with his knee. I haven't talked to him about anything about next year. We're just thinking about this year. I love the kid. Great kid, great competitor. It was disappointing we had him for one game, but that's life.
Q: Will he stay around the team?
A: Yes.
Q: When Teddy Bridgewater is at a point where everyone is comfortable with him, do you want him to start at that point?
A: We'll just see how it goes. We'll see where we are at, where we're going. Case [Keenum] has done great. We'll just keep going from there and see how this thing all plays out.
Q: Will you have Kyle Sloter up Sunday too, or just the two?
A: Probably two [QBs].
Q: If Teddy Bridgewater has to go in if something happens to Case Keenum, what is the level of confidence he can go out there and function?
A: 100 percent.* *
Q: Is it possible you could put Teddy Bridgewater in to enter the game on Sunday to get him some game touches?
A: That sounds like a Tomasson question. Everything is possible.
Q: Is one of the hard things about the Sam Bradford thing is how well he played in Week One and it looked like he was ready?
A: It's really disappointing for him because he played so great in that ballgame. He's done everything right really since he's been here. I'm telling you he spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, of his own money, trying to get this thing back right. He wants to play very, very badly. He's worked really hard. It's disappointing for him, I know.
Q: How is Sam Bradford seem to be handling this emotionally?
A: Good. I haven't really talked to him too much. I've texted him. The feedback I get from people that have talked to him say he understands everything.
Q: What overall comment can you give just summing up Teddy Bridgewater back on the active roster with everything he's been through incredibly coming back this soon in 15 months?
A: No different than what I've said before. He worked extremely hard. He's a great kid. It's a great success story from where he was to where he is now and hopefully he continues to be.
