Free agent QB Teddy Bridgewater has ‘strong’ offer from Detroit Lions

According to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, free agent quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has several teams interested in his services. However, Fowler points to the Detroit Lions, specifically, as a team who has a “strong contract offer” for Bridgewater. The free agent quarterback, per Fowler, is taking his time to decide on his next step.

The Lions have had a strong interest in upgrading their quarterback room, even telling starting quarterback Jared Goff this offseason that they intended on adding competition to the room.

“I communicated with Jared at the end of the season about—just like I told you guys at the Combine—yeah, we’ve got Jared, but we didn’t have anything else behind him,” Lions general manager Brad Holmes said at the recent owners meeting. “So (we) just let him know that, ‘Look, man, we’ve got to get more behind you.’”

That said, the Lions did re-sign backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld earlier this offseason, and Holmes almost seemed to suggest they were done in free agency after targeting three players.

“We were looking at some quarterbacks that had a little more game experience, but obviously it just didn’t work out,” Holmes said. “But it’s not like we had a pool of experienced quarterbacks that we were just looking through. Really, it was down to three guys, including Nate. So it just only looking at two (other) guys that we were kind of just looking at and it didn’t work out.”

Bridgewater certainly falls under the category of experienced quarterbacks. Once a first-round pick for the Minnesota Vikings, Bridgewater has started 65 games over nine years in the league. He has battled through several injuries but started at least 14 games for the Panthers (2020) and Broncos (2021) recently.

If Bridgewater were to sign with the Lions, it would be a reunion with coach Dan Campbell, as Bridgewater spent two years (2018-19) with the New Orleans Saints, while Campbell was the team’s tight ends coach/assistant head coach.

As noted by Holmes back at the NFL Combine, some quarterbacks like to wait until after the draft to see what kind of quarterback room they are stepping into. With the Lions doing a little research on this year’s quarterback class, it’s entirely possible Bridgewater waits until May to make a decision.