The Denver Broncos have picked Teddy Bridgewater as the winner in their starting quarterback competition over current starter Drew Lock, the team announced Wednesday.
The decision comes after coach Vic Fangio, who informed the team of the decision on Wednesday morning, had maintained across the training ground that the battle was “matched”.
“The good news about this competition is that we have two quarterbacks with whom we think we can win,” Fangio said Tuesday.
Bridgewater, 28, is with his third team in three seasons. He was 4-11 as the Carolina Panthers starter in 2020 and a perfect 5-0 as he replaced injured Drew Brees for the New Orleans Saints in 2019. Bridgewater is 26-23 in his career in Minnesota, New Orleans and Carolina.
Lock, 24, went 8-10 in two seasons with the Broncos, who took him to the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft. He tied most interceptions in the NFL last season with 15 and was the last of the league starters in percentage of completion. Bridgewater had the fifth highest completion percentage in the NFL.
During most of the training camp, the quarterback clash was very hard, in which none of the passers-by put together stellar performances overnight, and sometimes not even a mock-up. another.
Still, they both elevated their game to preseason.
Lock had a splendid game in Minnesota in the preseason opener, but Bridgewater won the job with a stellar performance against the Vikings and an outstanding start in Seattle.
Lock’s preseason included an 80-yard throw to KJ Hamler, and on Tuesday he started training with a 60-yard throw to Jerry Jeudy. But Lock continued to fight in three-tier formations and did not show as much order, pre-instant management, pocket awareness and accuracy as Bridgewater did.
Bridgewater will become the 11th starting quarterback in Denver since Peyton Manning retired after winning Super Bowl 50. Manning was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this month.
The Broncos are between 32 and 48 years old since he retired.
This report used information from Jeff Legwold of ESPN and The Associated Press.