Kiszla: After Teddy Bridgewater quit on the Broncos, team needs to find QB that will go down kicking and screaming

Wave bye-bye to Teddy B.

If kicking and screaming is the minimum standard for effort around here, he’s the wrong quarterback for Broncos Country.

OK, I get it. NFL quarterbacks aren’t paid to tackle.

But didn’t the Broncos bring in Teddy Bridgewater to lead?

On a disastrous play that flushed all hope from the stadium and doomed Denver to the stinkiest defeat of a season with too many putrid losses, Bridgewater stood there and waved bye-bye to Philadelphia cornerback Darius Slay as he returned a fumble 83 yards for a touchdown on the final snap of the third quarter.

After this humiliating 30-13 loss, there was only one question I wanted to ask. It was directed at Bridgewater.

Me:  “In a lot of years covering this league, I’ve been told that a quarterback’s job is not to tackle. Did you make a business decision not to try for that tackle on the fumble?”

“No,” Bridgewater replied.

Maybe his explanation will make more sense to you than it did to me.

“I just tried to force the ball back” to the middle of the field, Bridgewater said. “When you sit in a team meeting and watch Coach put up plays throughout the league and two-minute situations and different things, our defense has guys running toward the sideline. We always say: ‘The sideline is your friend.’ I tried to force the ball back. That’s all I tried to do right there.”

Sorry, Mr. Bridgewater. I ain’t buying it. I’m calling balderdash.

If the Broncos fail to make the playoffs, this one play will define Bridgewater’s time in Denver.

Bridgewater is the wrong guy for this job in this town. No offense.

And now that I mention it, Bridgewater hasn’t sparked nearly enough offense for a team averaging 20 points per game. He is not an improvement over the other imposters the Broncos have tried to prop up at QB since Peyton Manning retired.

Trailing by a touchdown in the second half, but with a chance to get even with a bad Philadelphia team, the Broncos went for it on fourth down, needing to gain only a yard to keep their drive alive within 25 yards of the end zone.

Bridgewater took the snap and handed the rock to Melvin Gordon, who fumbled it on a hit by linebacker Davion Taylor.

Then all heck broke loose. Slay picked up the ball inside the 20-yard line, dropped it, picked it back up, swerved toward the middle of the field, then spun outside, finding daylight near the Eagles sideline, eluded a tackle from Denver tight end Eric Saubert and was off to the races. As Slay approached midfield, he cut back inside. Bridgewater not only had Slay in his sights, at a good angle but was within a stride of him.

And what did Bridgewater do? He barely said boo.

Bridgewater dropped his shoulder and stopped in his tracks, letting the runaway Slay roll downhill, sledding untouched to the end zone to put Philadelphia ahead 27-13 and remind us all that these Broncos are made of more wannabe than grit. Even Ted Lasso would say Teddy B. failed to meet the standard of a lame soccer flop.

“I didn’t see it,” coach Vic Fangio said. “It was on the other sideline, so I didn’t see it.”

Well, I saw it, Uncle Vic. Through the miracle of videotape, I’ve watched the play at least a dozen times. Although it pains me, it’s hard to conclude anything except when given a chance to bring down Slay, Bridgewater quit on the play.

Russell Wilson would’ve tried to make the tackle. Maybe he never possessed half the QB skills that Bridgewater brings to the Denver huddle, but Tim Tebow would’ve never stood there and feigned effort as a game, and maybe a team’s season, started swirling down the drain. Heck, even 37-year-old Aaron Rodgers might’ve tried to get in Slay’s way, provided he got the OK from Joe Rogan.

This is what happens when rather than drafting and developing a quarterback, a team treats leadership as a position that can be out-sourced.

There is no questioning the toughness of Bridgewater. He has stood in the fight as his beloved mother battled cancer and has come back from a career-threatening leg injury suffered in 2016 that was so grotesque his surgeon likened it to a war wound.

But after acquiring him in a trade from Carolina, Bridgewater is working on a salary worth slightly more than $4 million for Denver, with no guarantee he will be employed here next season. He’s temporary help passing through town in a sport that treats almost every player like a disposable part.

So I get why Bridgewater didn’t make the tackle. But isn’t it also about time the Broncos at least consider giving Drew Lock a chance to play?

With a 5-5 record in a year when dominant NFL teams are harder to find than a $3 gallon of gasoline, Denver remains mathematically alive in the playoff race as the Broncos head into a bye week that gives us a break from feeling like fools for trusting this team.

“Everybody needs to be all-in,” safety Justin Simmons said. “No if’s, and’s or but’s.”

How can anybody in Broncos Country look at the way Bridgewater waved at Slay and believe this journeyman QB is really and truly all-in with this Denver team?

Don’t know about you, but he’s Teddy Bye-Bye to me.