Jake Plummer wonders what Teddy Bridgewater was thinking
Nov 18, 2021, 1:52 PM
When it comes to Teddy Bridgewater’s non-tackle last Sunday against the Eagles, there is no shortage of opinions. Everyone seems to have a take on the Broncos quarterback’s failure to make an attempt to halt Philadelphia’s Darius Slay in his tracks during what turned out to be a back-breaking, 83-yard fumble return.
Some of the best perspectives, however, have come from people who have actually been in that situation. They know what’s going through a QB’s mind in that moment, as well as what they should do under those circumstances.
To shed some light on these topics, Jake Plummer joined “Chad and Nate” on Thursday morning. The former Broncos quarterback, who was known for being a player who would do anything he could to try to help his team win, had some interesting thought’s on the Bridgewater situation.
“At any moment, at any time, in any game, we all have a responsibility as a teammate to each other to do our part, to play our role,” Plummer said when asked about a quarterback’s job on any given play. “I never had that gear in me to think of the situation, ‘Oh wait, I better save myself.'”
Instead, there was only one thing on the quarterback’s mind.
“If a guy is trying to return a fumble in the third quarter and you’re trying to win the ballgame, you don’t think about getting hurt,” Plummer added. “You don’t think about anything other than, ‘How do I get this dude down?’ That’s what your team needs, so that’s what any player has to do, especially a quarterback.”
The former QB knows that all eyes are on that position. Everyone is taking their cue from the most-important player on the field.
“We get put on a pedestal,” he said about the life of a quarterback. “We get all of the attention. We get a lot of money. We get a lot of the praise. When you get a chance to show courage, other than standing in the pocket and getting hit, you have to show it to your teammates. Defenders are sacrificing their body for the team constantly. When a QB gets a chance to do that and they back down, you know what those defensive guys are saying.”
As a team leader, it’s vital that the quarterback shows that he’s willing to make the same sacrifice as his teammates. That’s part of the job.
“Lead with courage; lead with heart,” Plummer said when asked about leadership. “Lead with the idea that the only thing that matters is to try to win.”
That’s what was so disappointing about what happened on Sunday.
“I just wonder what was going through Teddy’s mind,” Plummer added. “All he had to do was dive on the ground and make (Slay) jump over him. Or anything other than what he did. What he did seemed to be like a rehearsal or a walkthrough.”
It demonstrated that Bridgewater was thinking about the wrong things in the moment.
“Mainly, it comes down to caring about what’s happening and being so into it that there’s no thought process,” Plummer explained. “To not do anything is a bad decision.”
One that created a bad image in the minds of teammates, coaches, fans and anyone else who saw it.
“I feel bad for him because now he has to live with that,” Plummer said. “It’s a really bad situation for Teddy.”
Which begs one question: Can he do anything to overcome it?
“The only thing he can do is go out there and let it go behind him; he has to go play the best he can,” Plummer said. “If he gets a chance to make a tackle or make a block, the young man better lay his (butt) on the line. That’ll tell everyone on the team, ‘Hey, I made a mistake, but I’m not that person.'”
