“It Feels Like Home”
August 6th, 2025
New Bucs backup QB Teddy Bridgewater.
Former Pro Bowl quarterback and Vikings first-round draft pick Teddy Bridgewater sounds darn happy to be a new Buccaneer.
“Man, it feels like I’m home,” Bridgewater said today, his first day practicing with Tampa Bay.
Bridgewater wasn’t just blowing smoke. Not only is he close with Lavonte David, the two are from the same area in South Florida, Bridgewater has his old college head coach on staff: Bucs defensive line coach Charlie Strong.
In fact, the pair had a reunion night Tuesday at the Bucs’ team hotel.
“Coach Strong, he was doing room check last night in the hotel and he knocked on the door. I’m like, ‘man, what the hell?,'” Bridgewater said. “I said, man, this feels like the University of Louisville all over again. I thought I was an 18-year-old freshman again. We laughed and we were like, man, we just rewound the clock.”
Bridgewater, 32, also talked about seeing former University of Miami head coach Randy Shannon hanging around One Buc Palace, and Bucs offensive assistant, who he knows from his Vikings days.
Bridgewater added that Bucs QB coach Thad Lewis “is a South Florida legend.”
Joe’s glad the Bucs have a happy new backup QB, a guy with 33 career wins and plenty of knowledge to share with Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield.
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