Teddy Bridgewater retires again: Lions suddenly need a new backup QB behind Jared Goff

The Detroit Lions will search for a new backup quarterback behind five-time Pro Bowler Jared Goff after announcing that Pro Bowl backup QB Teddy Bridgewater is retiring from football at age 33 after 11 NFL seasons. Detroit placed him on the reserve/retired list Sunday.

“Teddy Bridgewater is going to step away,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell announced on Sunday. “I’ve known Teddy a long time. Man, the human being is unbelievable. Certainly the player: everything that he is about, the type of teammate that he is, the way he prepares. Always played the game up here [in his mind] and had a huge heart. He is going to be missed.”

Bridgewater, a first-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in the 2014 NFL Draft, overcame a horrendous knee injury after dislocating his knee and tearing his ACL in practice before the start of the 2016 season. The injury derailed his tenure as Minnesota’s franchise quarterback, but he rebounded with the New Orleans Saints as a fill-in for Pro Football Hall of Famer Drew Brees in 2019, when Campbell was the Saints’ tight ends coach and assistant head coach.

When Brees went down with a thumb injury that sidelined him for five games, Bridgewater balled out from Weeks 3-7, throwing for 1,205 yards, nine touchdowns and just two interceptions while completing 69.7% of his passes. New Orleans won all five games during that stretch. The Saints finished the regular season 13-3 and won the NFC South in part because of Bridgewater’s heroics.

That stretch propelled Bridgewater back into the ranks of full-time NFL starting quarterbacks, as he signed a three-year, $63 million contract with the Carolina Panthers in the 2020 offseason. Carolina traded him to the Denver Broncos in 2021.

He eventually reunited with Campbell on the Lions on a one-year, $3 million contract in 2023 to serve as Goff’s backup. Bridgewater retired for the first time at the end of that season before unretiring to rejoin the Lions in 2024. He left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2025 before returning to Detroit this offseason.

Just a few weeks into training camp, Bridgewater decided to call it quits for good. He finishes his career with 15,182 passing yards, 75 touchdowns and 47 interceptions while completing 66.3% of his passes for a 90.3 passer rating in 83 games with 65 starts.

“I’ll never forget 2019 when Drew [Brees] got injured, and we had just gone out to the Rams and got beat out there. Drew had his thumb [injury], and we lost him for five weeks. Teddy stepped in, and we won five in a row, man,” Campbell said. “That was Teddy. His time being with us [in Detroit] meant a lot, and it meant a lot to our guys. He’s going to be missed.”