Greg Schiano wasn't right about much during his two-year stint as Tampa Bay's head coach, but if he's right about Teddy Bridgewater, the Minnesota Vikings could be enjoying a lot success over the next 15 years.
During an interview this week, Schiano said that Bridgewater looks like a "young Joe Montana."
"This may be a little bit weird, but I look at Teddy Bridgewater and he reminds me of a young Joe Montana," Schiano told ESPN's Mike and Mike. "He's accurate, he's just mobile enough to give you real fits and he's a smart quarterback. He's got weapons around. That's why i think his ceiling is sneaky."
Although Bridgewater hasn't exactly put up eye-popping numbers since he was taken 32nd overall by the Vikings in 2014, that doesn't mean he can't play. To any Bridgewater doubters out there, Schiano pointed out that Montana also had plenty of doubters after he was taken in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft.
"Remember, when Joe was young, people were questioning, 'Could he even play in this league?'" Schiano said.
Montana's career actually got off to a rocky start. The three-time Super Bowl MVP actually went 3-8 in his first 11 starts. During Montana's first full-season as a starter in 1981, 49ers coach Bill Walsh used the running game to take pressure off of his quarterback: Only 48 percent of San Francisco's plays that year were pass plays.
In that sense, Bridgewater is being used the same way. Through nine games this year, the Vikings have thrown 260 passes, which represents 48.6 percent of their offensive calls. Minnesota has run the ball 274 times, which leads the NFL.
This isn't necessarily an era-thing either because once Montana began to grasp the offense, Walsh let him throw more. In 1990, the 49ers threw the ball 583 times compared to only 454 runs. That means the 49ers threw the ball 56.2 percent of the time on their way to a 14-2 finish.
If Bridgewater follows that same career-arc, that means he'll be throwing the ball more as his career progresses. The good news for the Vikings is that's not something they need to worry about now. As long as Adrian Peterson's healthy, Bridgewater just has to play smart football.
That doesn't mean he has to be a game manager though, and even if you think he's a game manager, don't call him that because Vikings coach Mike Zimmer doesn't want to hear it.
"I don't know what a game manager is really, but I think Teddy has got an extremely bright future," Zimmer said this week, via the team's official website. "I think he's a heck of a quarterback and I'm glad he's mine."
Zimmer might not be the next Bill Walsh, but he sounded like him when he was describing Bridgewater. In the West Coast offense, Walsh wanted his quarterbacks to make short, safe passes while playing mistake-free football.
"I guess one of the best statistics is that he doesn't hurt his team ever," Zimmer said of Bridgewater. "Very rarely does he hurt his team. Most of the time, he's helping his team in a lot of ways that don't show up in number of yards. We always said we wanted to be a team that runs the football well, plays good defense, plays good special teams; we kind of do that a little bit."
Anyway, after Montana went 3-8 in his first 11 starts, he followed that up by going 13-2 in his next 15 regular season starts, a run that ended with the 49ers winning their first Super Bowl after the 1981 season.
As for Bridgewater, he went 5-6 in his first 11 starts and has gone 8-2 since. All he needs to do to catch Montana is get five more regular season wins and a Super Bowl title.
