Matt Rhule Responds to Teddy Bridgewater's Jab at Panthers' Practice Style
Earlier this week, former Carolina Panthers starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater expressed his feelings on how things were handled/ran during his time in Carolina on the All Things Covered podcast with Bryant McFadden and Patrick Peterson.
"The whole deal in Carolina, it is what it is," Bridgewater said. "I told them once the season ended that I wear big boy drawers and I understand the nature of the business and it's a performance-based business. Yeah, I could sit up here and say yeah, Christian [McCaffrey] got hurt or we didn't have this, we didn't have that but that's not me. I look in that mirror and say, 'Hey, you got to tighten up.' There's little things that I could have done better and there's things as an organization you can do better as well. But I'll just say this, for Joe Brady's growth and that organization, they just have to practice different things in different ways. Like one of the things, we didn't do much of when I was there was we didn't practice two-minute really, we didn't practice red zone. We didn't practice on Fridays there but you walked through the red zone stuff and then Saturday you come out and practice red zone but you only get like 15 live reps and some guys' reps were limited. But I'm a pro, I could sit here and throw all of that out there but at the end of the day, that won't get me nowhere man."
Of course, the ending to Teddy's quote was a little head-scratching saying that he wouldn't spill all that stuff out after he just did. However, it comes across as more of a surprise that Bridgewater made those comments in the first place. Matt Rhule is a very detail-oriented guy and to hear that he and his coaching staff didn't place enough focus on the two-minute drill or red zone offense just doesn't seem realistic. If you look at the Panthers' statistics in both of those areas, you'd have to believe Bridgewater is telling the truth to some extent. Carolina was 28th in the league in red zone offense and did not score a single touchdown in the final two minutes of a game this past season.
Wednesday night, head coach Matt Rhule had a chance to talk to the media about the team's newly released schedule but the topic of Teddy's comment was brought up and he gave his response.
"I'm never going to really say anything bad or talk badly about our players or contradict them and I think for me, that extends to former players. I'm on record of stating how I feel about Teddy. I expect him to do great things. I will always cheer for him. I'm sorry that maybe he doesn't feel the same way about some things but for me, I'm going to be the same guy. I'm going to always continue to support the guys that played for me. But I feel really good about what we do, I want to make sure I say that. I feel good about the way we practice and our process. I'm disappointed to hear that he didn't feel the same way."
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