Carolina Panthers: Can Bridgewater become a deep-threat QB?

Can Teddy Bridgewater improve his deep-ball distribution with the Carolina Panthers in 2020?

How Teddy Bridgewater gets on under center is going to go a long way to determining whether the Carolina Panthers are going to be successful in 2020. The signal-caller has been out of the spotlight for some time as a prominent starter and it remains to be seen whether he is up to the challenge.

There will be nobody within the NFL rooting against Bridgewater. His career-threatening leg injury turned his fortunes from a promising starter with the Minnesota Vikings to someone who was forced to accept a backup role despite his talent.

After going 5-0 with the New Orleans Saints when Drew Brees was forced to miss some time last season. Bridgewater signed a three-year, $63 million deal with the Carolina Panthers to lead them during a period of transition.

The comparisons with recently released quarterback Cam Newton will be prominent during the early stages of his time with the franchise. And it will be up to the player to dispel the myth that the organization would have been better off with the 2015 NFL MVP.

The Panthers have done a good job of putting some solid offensive pieces around him who can contribute in all areas of the field. There are still some huge concerns regarding their offensive line. But if they hold up then Bridgewater will get a chance to distribute the football to some productive players.

This also includes stretching the field, which has come with mixed success for Bridgewater during his career. In a recent feature by Pro Football Focus ranking the best deep-ball quarterbacks in the NFL, the former first-round pick out of Louisville was No. 19 on the list.

Bridgewater had a 46.7 percent completion percentage with shots down the field in 2019. This resulted in a 15.7 yards-per-attempt average and a passer rating of 75.7.

PFF’s Sam Monson had this to say on Bridgewater.

"“You have to go a long way back to get a large enough sample size for Teddy Bridgewater, to the point those games likely mean nothing anymore, but the alternative was including Kyle Allen, which just doesn’t seem like fair use of anybody’s brainpower. Allen was awful when it came to deep passing, but Bridgewater — much like Derek Carr — was actually good at it when he convinced himself to actually throw deep. The encouraging sign for Panthers fans is that after a couple of games, Bridgewater did start to open up and take more shots, but even with those, only Jimmy Garoppolo threw it deep less often.”"

Can Bridgewater make deep balls count with the Carolina Panthers?

While Bridgewater might have been reluctant to throw deep during his time with the New Orleans Saints. This is something that has to change during his time under center with the Carolina Panthers.

The likes of D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, and Curtis Samuel all have the potential to stretch the field. And it will be up to their new quarterback to deliver accordingly.

Bridgewater has been seen as more of a game manager during his time in the NFL. But given the uncertainty surrounding the Panthers’ young defense in 2020. The onus is going to be on No. 5 to move the chains quickly if his team finds themselves in a hole.

Whether Bridgewater has the confidence and tools to do this remains to be seen. Although the leg injury is now firmly behind him. It would be remiss if the player did not at the very least have it at the back of his mind.

What he has gone through to get back into a starting spot is nothing short of extraordinary. But it is only natural to have lingering doubts.

The Panthers offense is going to go through their All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, which will open up opportunities to let loose down the field. Carolina’s offensive coordinator Joe Brady has to come up with specific schemes to ensure this element of surprise can be maximized and, more importantly, that Bridgewater is in a position to deliver.