Teddy Bridgewater Ready To Compete Against Drew Lock, Help Broncos Anyway He Can

The Denver Broncos needed competition for third-year quarterback Drew Lock. Well, they got it by trading for veteran signal caller Teddy Bridgewater, who comes over from the Panthers after only one season in Carolina.

Bridgewater is now heading into his seventh season in the NFL, though during a couple of those years, the former first-round pick needed to recover from a gruesome, life-threatening knee injury he suffered with the Minnesota Vikings back in 2017.

Still, he's got plenty of experience, which is exactly what Denver needed for its looming quarterback battle. I'm sure winning the job is important to Bridgewater, but he's much more focused on helping his new team in any way possible.

"I'm here to play football and whatever happens, happens," Bridgewater said recently, via DenverBroncos.com. "I'm here to help this team become a better team. I'm here to help players become better football players and men become better men. Whatever happens, I'm here to play football and I'll take whatever comes with it."

That is exactly the sort of mentality this franchise needs right now.

Look, Lock still has a lot of promise. He's big, he's mobile, and he's got a great arm. The physical tools are there, so now now he needs to let the mental side catch up. There's no guarantee that ever happens, but at just 28 years old, he's still a project worth having.

The likely scenario is that Bridgewater becomes a valuable backup, hopefully one that can help Lock improve as a quarterback and provide a safety net to the organization. The fact that Bridgewater is willing to accept that role -- if it happens -- is huge.

The AFC West is expected to be a tough division. The Chargers are improving, the Raiders were a borderline playoff team last year, and the Chiefs just went to their second-consecutive Super Bowl. But there's still room for the Broncos to get into the mix.

Quarterback play will go a long way in making that hope a reality though.

Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.