Teddy Bridgewater is back.
The veteran quarterback came out of retirement on Thursday to sign to the Detriot Lions’ active roster, the team announced.
NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero and Mike Garafolo first reported the news.
Bridgewater retired from the NFL in February, fulfilling plans he initially had revealed late in the 2023 regular season. He started his next chapter as a coach, taking over at his alma mater Miami Northwestern High School and promptly leading them to a Division 3A Florida High School Athletic Association championship in mid-December.
With the job finished for 2024, Bridgewater decided it was the right time to return to the NFL if a team would have him. He found a suitor in a coach he’s known well from his stops in New Orleans and Detroit: Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
“I’ve been in contact with Teddy for a while. It was something that was always potentially a possibility,” Campbell told reporters Thursday, confirming the news. “We all know what Teddy’s been doing down there and giving back to his community. They won a championship down there, so his debut as coaching worked out pretty dang good. But to be able to somebody back here that’s got experience — he’s staying in shape, he’s been throwing, just get him worked back in here a little bit — it just brings a level of professionalism, veteran presence, somebody that’s great for our team, great for the position.”
Bridgewater brings plenty of experience to the Lions, the last team he was on before he decided to retire. A former first-round pick of the Vikings, the Louisville star spent three seasons over four years in Minnesota, a place he left only after suffering an incredibly significant knee injury that cost him all of the 2016 season and only allowed him to return late in the 2017 campaign, his last in Minnesota.
The seriousness of his injury and very long road back to the field relegated him to journeyman status over the next few years. From 2018-2022, Bridgewater made stops with the Jets, Saints, Panthers, Broncos and Dolphins before landing in Detroit in 2023.
Some might see Bridgewater’s signing as an indictment of second-year backup Hendon Hooker‘s viability as a legitimate option behind Jared Goff. Campbell downplayed that narrative Thursday.
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