Almost two years after Teddy Bridgewater blew out his knee at Vikings practice, his surgeon is thrilled by his recovery.
Dr. Dan Cooper, who operated on Bridgewater’s knee in September of 2016, says Bridgewater has shown amazing resolve to get himself back on the field and play well this preseason for the Jets.
“It’s certainly the worst knee dislocation in sports I’ve ever seen without having a nerve or vessel injury,” Cooper told ESPN. “It’s an injury that about 20-25 percent of NFL players are able to come back from. . . . It’s a horrific injury. You’ve torn every single thing in your knee and it’s hanging on by one ligament on one side like a hinge.”
Cooper said that Bridgewater’s ACL was torn, which is a bad enough injury in itself, but there was far more damage than he usually sees when he does ACL repairs.
“And then everything on the lateral side of his knee was reconstructed, about five ligaments over there,” he said. “We repaired them, then took one of his own hamstring tendons and transplanted it to the lateral side of his knee.”
Now Bridgewater looks like he’s ready to go again. Although the Jets, who drafted Sam Darnold third overall, don’t have him in their long-term plans, he has done enough that he should draw interest from other teams. He has a good chance of playing meaningful snaps in the NFL this season, something many thought he would not be able to do two years ago.
