Rules in the Collective Bargaining Agreement of 2011 prevent coaches from working with players from the season's end until the next offseason workout program escalates to Phase 2.
That prohibition, however, doesn't mean Teddy Bridgewater didn't feel the influence of Vikings Offensive Coordinator Norv Turner and quarterbacks coach Scott Turner.
The Star Tribune's Matt Vensel wrote about how Bridgewater met with the Turners to **guide his plans** for the lull and how doing so is helping Bridgewater during organized team activity practices that started this week as part of Phase 3. Vensel wrote:
They didn't want to micromanage, but the father-son duo made it clear they didn't want him to work with a quarterbacks coach who would tweak the technique they had spent the previous eight months drilling into him.
Vensel noted that Bridgewater worked with former NFL quarterback Chris Weinke in the lead up to the 2014 draft. Weinke is now QBs coach for the Rams, but other partnerships are forming away from team facilities, Vensel wrote, noting among others, Steve Clarkson's work with Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart and former Vikings QB Matt Cassel.
But the Turners believe that they know best when it comes to Bridgewater.
*"I'm never going to say anything negative about anybody who creates a market for themselves," Scott Turner said this winter. "I think quarterbacks need work, and if you're showing a guy a new idea, I think it can help. I just think the only thing that worries me is that if you work with a guy who already has a set of coaches, you can be doing things that are counterproductive." *
Bridgewater understood. He worked some with a quarterbacks coach in Florida, Ken Mastrole, but the goal was to reinforce what the Turners had taught him, not deconstruct it.
"I know that sometimes you get with those passing coaches and they try and change your techniques," Bridgewater said. "But they don't know our system, so I just continue to do the things that are within our system and it's been helping thus far."
Quick Hitters:
We wrote about a **bromance** budding between Matt Kalil and Brandon Fusco, who has moved from right guard to left guard, and Viking Update's John Holler took a look at the insertion of rookie T.J. Clemmings at **right guard**.
Rochelle Olson of the Star Tribune highlighted some of the engraved messages that Vikings **fans have selected** for pavers that will be on a plaza on the west side of the new Vikings stadium. Olson reported Head Coach Mike Zimmer also has selected an engraving.
