Teddy Bridgewater and Tyrod Taylor know each other.
Not just personally, and not just through the fraternity of Black NFL quarterbacks. Their shared journeys are as unique as can be, yet still strikingly similar.
More than that, they’re unlike the vast majority of their fellow Black quarterbacks, past and present.
Together, they might be proof that the full arrival of them and their brethren on this stage is tantalizingly near. More proof than even, say, the epic Lamar Jackson-Patrick Mahomes prime-time faceoff this past Sunday night in Baltimore.
Black excellence? That’s increasingly becoming the rule.
Yet Teddy and Tyrod represent the exception: the Black journeyman.
The survivor. The seasoned, trusted, respected veteran every team welcomes and appreciates, even if only as a bridge to the future.
The Andy Daltons and Ryan Fitzpatricks of the league keep getting chances. Now, so do the Bridgewaters and Taylors, as well as the Jacoby Brissetts and Geno Smiths.
This development is more significant than many realize.
The Broncos trusted Bridgewater this season, signing him as a free agent and making him the starter over the young incumbent, Drew Lock. He’s rewarded them with two straight wins to start the season.
Bridgewater completed 77 percent of his passes for 592 yards, 4 TDs, and zero interceptions. The Broncos are averaging 25 points and 409 yards of offense a game and only have one turnover.
The Texans trusted Taylor under vastly different circumstances.
For now, until there is some legal resolution, the less revealed about why Deshaun Watson is not playing right now the better.
Taylor was signed in free agency to hold down the fort for a franchise in dramatic turmoil. Their front office has been scrutinized and they’re tremendously unsettled at the most important position in the sport. So, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect that the Texans would wind up with the worst record in the NFL at season’s end.
Yet Taylor led them to an opening-day 37-21 win over the Jaguars, throwing for 291 yards and 2 TDs. He also ran for 40 yards and engineered an offense that gained 449 yards. It was a statement for Taylor and first-time head coach, David Culley, against another first-time head coach (Urban Meyer) and his No. 1 overall pick at quarterback (Trevor Lawrence).
This past weekend, Taylor had the Texans in front 14-7 midway through the second quarter after he raced around the corner and down the sidelines for a 15-yard touchdown run.
But then Taylor was forced out of the game due to a hamstring injury. Without him, the Texans lost their momentum and fell to the Browns. Now he now will miss Thursday night’s game against Carolina.
That’s Taylor’s career in a nutshell, something Teddy Bridgewater can relate to.
Injuries – nagging, serious, freakish, and devastating – derailed the careers of both Bridgewater and Taylor at various times.
Yet they still made it to 2021, and named starters, demonstrating the resilience and resourcefulness that sold their new employers on them. That’s no small feat for a quarterback even in the best of times with the smoothest of paths and the luckiest of breaks.
These two quarterbacks have had neither.
Taylor, remember, might very well still be in Los Angeles with the Chargers – and, by extension, Anthony Lynn might still be head coach there (that’s another story though)– had a team doctor not punctured his lung while trying to give him a painkiller injection before the second game of last season.
That setback enabled rookie Justin Herbert to step in and entrench himself as their star quarterback.
Two years before that, Taylor had the Browns – torn down and rebuilding from the ground up under Hue Jackson – at 0-1-1 going into an early-season Thursday night game against the Jets.
He took a vicious first-half beating and suffered a concussion, allowing No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield to take over for good.
A year before that (2017), Taylor had the Bills at an inconsistent 5-4 and in playoff contention when then-new coach Sean McDermott made the fateful and infamous decision to bench him, thinking it would both add juice to the offense and give a nice long look to the young backup.
That backup was Nathan Peterman.
Peterman’s debut was comical, throwing five interceptions en route to a 30-point loss.
Taylor was given his job back the next week and the Bills broke their 18-year playoff drought that season. Yet the sun set on his time in Buffalo as the team drafted Josh Allen the following spring.
In 2015, Taylor and Bridgewater were both Pro Bowlers. They were two of the four Black quarterbacks that helmed the six spots at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii that year.
This was the same year that Cam Newton won NFL MVP, went 15-1 with the Panthers and went to the Super Bowl.
If that wasn’t Black Quarterback Nirvana at the time, it was the closest thing to it.
Considering where Bridgewater’s and Taylor’s careers have gone since then, it seems like much longer ago than six seasons.
In 2016, Bridgewater, sadly, never made it to the start of the season.
During training camp, he suffered one of the most devastating knee injuries in recent memory. It has defined his career ever since. He made it back on the field in late2017, but the Vikings had moved on to Case Keenum, who threw the Minneapolis Miracle to beat the Saints.
Bridgewater wound up generating his own miracles from then on.
He hooked on with the Jets in 2018 training camp and played so well that the Saints traded for him to back up Drew Brees, which he did for two seasons.
The Panthers then made him the immediate replacement to Newton when they released him after the 2019 season. A year later, the Panthers traded for Sam Darnold and Bridgewater headed to Denver.
Bridgewater stayed healthy, remained on his game and made himself a viable option for a team that recognized what he could do and who he had become. He’s now done it for four years and four teams since the inevitable post-injury end arrived in Minnesota.
Taylor has done the same for four years and three teams since the Peterman Experiment signaled the beginning of the end in Buffalo.
Early in the 2021 season, their teams are reaping the benefits, as they always have, even under the worst of circumstances. In a way, it’s a testament to their belief in the qualities those two tried-and-tested quarterbacks bring.
But it’s a bigger testament to those two quarterbacks who are proving that quarterbacks who look like them don’t need to be all-universe to have value in the NFL world.
