As questions about future swirl, Teddy Bridgewater keeps focus on present

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Football players hire agents to focus on the business aspect of the gig. That frees the player to focus on everything tossed their way in regards to practice, game preparation, film study and, finally, the game itself.

So, when Teddy Bridgewater strode to the podium in the Broncos media room and answered a question regarding what he might want in a future contract, he gave exactly the answer one would expect.

In the wake of a report from KOA’s Benjamin Allbright on the Broncos pregame show Sunday, Bridgewater was asked Wednesday whether he was thinking about his contract situation — and what might be a target figure.

Bridgewater said what he was supposed to say. What he should say. Nothing more.

“You know, until it comes from me, it’s not true,” he said. “And I think that’s what happens during this time of year. You see numbers come out, and you try to put a value on a guy, so that if things don’t work out with the team that he’s playing on — ‘Oh, he wanted too much money,’ things like that.

“And I’ll tell you right now: I haven’t mentioned anything about a new deal, anything.

“My primary focus is trying to help this team win football games, trying to get into the playoffs. The rest will take care of itself, man. My job is to play football. All of the other stuff, that’s for my agent, my advisors. I’m here to help this team be a better football team every day.”

Indeed, that’s at the crux of this. No player wants to get into these matters on the record now.

Not with his team in the midst of a playoff race, with a realistic shot at stopping the franchise’s longest streak without postseason participation since the Broncos began their franchise history by missing the playoffs for 17 consecutive years — a five-year slump matching the 2006-10 skein.

When the offseason arrives, there will be plenty of time to discuss Bridgewater’s future and his market value, and perhaps the launching point is to look at how recent contracts have resulted in the vanishing of the quarterback middle class — at least when it comes to salary.

According to the figures compiled by OvertheCap.com, there is no quarterback who currently has a contract with an average annual value between $14 and $25 million. Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers contract checks in at $25 million per year, which is the 15th-highest average value.

And then there is nothing in between until you get to Ben Roethlisberger, currently playing on a $14-million-per-year salary. Bridgewater’s reworked contract has him next behind Roethlisberger at $11.5 million of average annual value, but the Broncos are on the hook for a cap charge of just $4.415 million.

For a quarterback whose across-the-board metrics place him firmly in the middle tier, the Broncos are getting a relative bargain.

But mid-tier will likely be enough for at least one team to give Bridgewater a deal that at least resembles the original terms of the Panthers contract he signed in March 2020, which had an annual value of $20 million a year.

That’s for the future — and a job for his agent.

For the present, it’s all about the Bengals and getting the Broncos two games above .500.

“I want to focus on trying to get to 8-6 and finishing strong,” he said.