Veteran quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is retiring from football again, this time it appears to be for good.
Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell announced Bridgewater’s decision before practice Sunday, Aug. 9, in Allen Park.
Bridgewater did not take part in Lions’ practices Thursday and Friday, and the team was off Saturday.
“He’s going to step away,” Campbell said. “I’ve known Teddy a long time and, man, the human being is unbelievable. Certainly the player. Everything that he’s about, the type of teammate he is, the way he prepares, always played the game up here and had a huge heart and he’s going to be missed.”
Bridgewater spent the 2023 season with the Lions as Jared Goff’s backup, appearing in one regular-season game. He announced his retirement late in the year in an interview with the Free Press and spent most of the 2024 season coaching high school football at his alma matter, Miami Northwestern, in Florida.
Bridgewater returned as the Lions’ backup late in the 2024 season and completed his only pass in a playoff loss to the Washington Commanders. He spent last season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before re-signing with the Lions this spring. At the time, he said he felt he had “so much left in the tank.”
“The past couple years I was one foot in, one foot out, contemplating retirement, contemplating playing, coaching, doing all these different things,” Bridgewater said in March. “And now it’s like, ‘OK, I’ve coached, I know what that’s like. I’ve been retired, I know what that’s like. But I just want to keep playing ball.'”
Campbell, who was an assistant with the New Orleans Saints when Bridgewater was Drew Brees’ backup with the team in 2018-19, said he believes Bridgewater’s latest retirement is for good.
“I’ll never forget 2019 when Drew got injured,” Campbell said. “We had just gone out to the Rams, got beat out there, and Drew got his thumb [injury] and we lost him for five weeks and Teddy stepped in, we won five in a row, man. That was Teddy. And then just his time being with us meant a lot, and it meant a lot to our guys, so he’s going to be missed.”
Asked what Bridgewater meant to him on a personal level, Campbell choked up with emotion.
“He meant a lot,” Campbell said.
Lions QB depth chart
The Lions officially placed Bridgewater on the reserve/retired list before practice Sunday, leaving them with two quarterbacks on their roster: Goff and undrafted rookie free agent Luke Altmyer out of Illinois.
Campbell said the team plans to sign a veteran backup as early as Monday, and that player could play in the Lions’ preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night.
Altmyer took all the backup reps in practice during Bridgewater’s absence, and Campbell said the team likes his development.
[ Luke Altmyer: Going undrafted ‘painful,’ but fueling him with Lions ]
“Luke is growing, Luke is getting better, he just needs reps,” Campbell said. “I mean, he needs a million reps. But the reps that he has gotten to this point, he has improved and so we like him. But we are going to add somebody, and we’d like to add a veteran quarterback. We’re hoping maybe something happens tomorrow, we’ll see. But yeah, that’s the plan.”
The Lions also signed cornerback Ryan Cooper and linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga and waived tight end Nick Muse on Sunday.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Teddy Bridgewater retires from Lions, opens huge question at backup QB
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
