There are a couple reasons that the battle to become back-up quarterback has quite easily made the most headlines at Saints' training camp. The fact that it includes the rare case that is a freakishly athletic 28 year old who is trying to package the skills that he displayed as a special teams ace into something that mildly resembles an NFL-caliber signal caller is certainly the most compelling of those reasons. The much more telling takeaway from the attention directed under center is that it's a direct result of there being no other glaring weaknesses on a young, rebuilt roster that looks set to contend for longer than it stands to be led by a 39 year old Drew Brees. It feels weird to say, as everyone in the Saints' organization knows the pressure to win is currently being applied, but a huge focal point of the preseason games has been trying to figure out the future. Insert Teddy Bridgewater. To be honest, when I saw the news that fulfilled what was previously considered to be a pipe dream of over-optimistic fans, my first instinct was to gather my jaw off the ground and shatter every window in my apartment in solidarity with a franchise that potentially had theirs broken open for the foreseeable future. As I am currently writing this, as opposed to making an extremely costly Home Depot trip, I was able to suppress that urge, deepen my breath, and think rationally about the prospects of a promising player who is currently on a one-year, "prove it" deal eventually taking the reigns of an otherwise solidified offense from an arm that will then eagerly await its induction into the Hall Of Fame. The conclusion I came to is as follows. Considering both their recent success in the draft and the monster move they made for Marcus Davenport, there is no chance in hell that the Saints traded away another relatively high pick for someone they didn't fully expect to eventually play a valuable role for them. As I hardly consider holding a clipboard to be worthy of a 3rd round price tag, there is some sort of plan in place for Teddy Bridgewater to be that oh-so-elusive successor to Drew Brees. Whether that plan comes to fruition or not is probably dependent on the patience of the former and the competitiveness of the latter. However, if there is a coach out there that can convince a 25 year old with successful starting experience to sit and wait his turn to take over an otherwise complete team then it's the one that basically shares a brain with one of the best passers in the history of football. Sean Payton seems to have gotten a pretty good return on the first investment he made in "damaged goods" at the most prominent of position, so what better mentor to have while putting a devastating, career-threatening injury in the rearview than the man under which a 27-year old Drew Brees began revitalizing his career and realizing his potential? Touchdown Teddy has all the talent and intelligence necessary to thrive in a versatile, star-studded Saints' offense that suits him perfectly. With the scarcity of quality starting quarterbacks in the NFL and the lottery-esque luck required to stumble upon one at the right time, a 3rd rounder isn't all that huge a price to pay in hopes that he'll recognize that when it comes to negotiating a contract beyond this season. "Worst" case scenario, the Saints try to split the difference in flipping Tom Savage, solidify their special teams with the full-time return of Taysom Hill, and - if only for a year - are no longer one injury away from having an auspicious season flushed down the toilet while time is of the essence. Best case scenario, they just swapped mid-round picks to make sure time is no longer of the essence with the likelihood of continuing their contention well past 2020 on the arm of someone who already has no business being a back-up. Either way, it's a better day to be a Saints' fan than it was yesterday, even if we are a long way off from finding out if the gamble pays off and the true goal of a ballsy, forward thinking trade gets achieved.
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