Against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was unusually absent.
Bridgewater was in uniform and went through pregame warmups with the team prior to the Vikings 18-11 win over Seattle. But instead of trotting out on the field to start the game and play with the first-string offense, Bridgewater was a spectator. Shaun Hill started and played most of the first half for Minnesota.
So why didn’t Bridgewater play?
“Because I sat him,” Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said afterward.
Ok, why did you sit him?
“Because I wanted to,” he said.
Zimmer didn’t elaborate further on why Bridgewater sat, only in saying that the reasons were not disciplinary.
“Teddy Bridgewater is the nicest kid in the work,” he said. “There is no disciplinary action ever with Teddy. It had nothing to with discipline. It happened to do with my decision. It was my decision.
Bridgewater said he respected the decision, via Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
“It was Coach Zimmer’s decision. You don’t argue with Coach Zimmer, so we left it at that. Of course, I’d love to be out there with my guys but like I said it was Coach Zimmer’s decision,” Bridgewater said.
Maybe Zimmer had little faith in the Vikings’ offensive line being able to adequately protect Bridgewater. Whatever the reason, it’s still odd for an uninjured starting quarterback not to play in a team’s second preseason game.
Hill completed 10 of 17 passes for 129 yards against Seattle and was not sacked. Joel Stave was 6 of 14 for 67 yards and was sacked once.