It appears Teddy Bridgewater will not be serving as Jared Goff‘s backup this season. Lions head coach Dan Campbell told reporters, including Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network, that Bridgewater is stepping away from the team. Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports Bridgewater is likely to retire, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter says Detroit has placed him on the reserve/retired list.
Of course, this will not be the first time Bridgewater has retired. He hung up the cleats at the end of the 2023 season – his first in Detroit – and took the head coaching job at Miami Northwestern Senior High School, his alma mater. He led the team to a state championship in his first season, and after the high school schedule concluded, he rejoined the Lions late in the 2024 campaign to provide experienced QB depth to a club that was eyeing a Super Bowl run.
He hoped to take a similar path in 2025, but a confusing suspension from the high school coaching ranks led him back to the pros sooner than expected. He signed with the Bucs a little over a year ago and spent the ‘25 slate as Baker Mayfield’s backup in Tampa Bay, appearing in four games and completing eight of 15 passes for 62 yards.
Bridgewater, 33, came back to the Lions in March of this year, with the expectation that he would be Goff’s QB2. Goff has not missed a game since 2021, but Detroit obviously has designs on a return to the playoffs, so having a signal-caller with 83 appearances and 65 starts on his resume would have been a welcome insurance policy if Goff were to run into health concerns. Instead, the Lions will be forced to look elsewhere.
Other than Goff, the only QB on the Lions’ depth chart following Bridgewater’s departure is UDFA rookie Luke Altmyer. As Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reports, the club likes Altmeyer, but he needs significantly more reps to be a reliable backup option. Per Birkett, the Lions will add a veteran passer, perhaps as soon as Monday. Unless they can coax Russell Wilson out of his own retirement, Jimmy Garoppolo stands as the most accomplished QB still on the market.
Bridgewater was the 32nd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft and earned a starting job with the Vikings as a rookie. He led the team to an 11-5 record in 2015, earning Pro Bowl honors along the way. He suffered a brutal knee injury during training camp in 2016, resulting in a 19-month recovery period with one final appearance for Minnesota in Week 15 of the 2017 season.
The Vikings let Bridgewater walk in free agency, which triggered something of a nomadic existence. He first signed with the Jets, who traded him to the Saints. Bridgewater stayed in New Orleans for two seasons before stints with the Panthers, Broncos, Dolphins, Lions, and Bucs. He last operated as a full-time starter in 2021, when he was with Denver. He has amassed over $66MM in career earnings.
If this is truly it for Bridgewater, we at PFR congratulate him on a fine career and wish him well in whatever comes next. It would not be terribly surprising to see him back on an NFL sideline in a coaching capacity in the near future.
