Teddy Bridgewater steps away from Lions, leaving question at backup QB

(AP) — Veteran quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has stepped away from football. “His biggest worry was letting us down, that’s the type of guy he is,” Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said Sunday, when Bridgewater was placed on the reserve/retired list. The 33-year-old journeyman had signed a one-year deal with the Lions in March after spending 2025 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He also spent 2023 and part of 2024 with Detroit. As a human being he is unbelievable. Certainly as a player, everything that he’s about, the type of teammate he is, the way he prepares.

He always played the game up here,” an emotional Campbell said, pointing to his head. He’s going to be missed.” Campbell, who was assistant head coach with the New Orleans Saints when Bridgewater played there in 2018 and 2019, has maintained a close relationship with the quarterback. “I’ll never forget 2019 when Drew (Brees) got injured.

We’d just gone out to the Rams, got beat out there and Drew got his thumb and we lost him for five weeks,” Campbell said. “Teddy stepped in and we won five in a row. His time being with us meant a lot, and it meant a lot to our guys.

He’s going to be missed.” Bridgewater had been signed to back up Jared Goff. Undrafted rookie Luke Altmyer, the only other QB on the Lions roster, had been getting more reps in training camp earlier this week when Bridgewater was absent, and again on Sunday. “I thought he did some really good things,” Campbell said.

“He was put in some tough positions for a young player that you absolutely have to be put in, you just do, you’ve got to be thrust in, you need to fail, you need to make mistakes so you can grow and we thought he handled it really well.” Altmyer said he has learned so much from Bridgewater. “It was a joy to spend some time with him, but it brings about opportunity for myself, and the standard is to play good football no matter how many reps and or whatever my role is, I have a job to do and my job is to do that very, very well at a high level,” Altmyer said. I believe in my abilities and I’m going to go cut it loose whatever that looks like for me.’’ The Lions plan to sign a veteran quarterback as soon as Monday.