EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said Teddy Bridgewater was ready to play in a game moments after he was activated to the 53-man roster on Wednesday.
That doesn't necessarily mean he will, at least in Week 10. Zimmer named Case Keenum the starter against the Washington Redskins and Bridgewater will serve as his backup. Minnesota is expected to only dress two quarterbacks on Sunday, which would put rookie Kyle Sloter among the team's inactives.
The Vikings' quarterback situation is back to where it was earlier this season, before Keenum became the de facto starter in Sam Bradford's prolonged absence. Going forward, Zimmer said Minnesota will approach its decision of who will start at quarterback on a "day-by-bay" basis, and if/when Bridgewater is ready to start, the Vikings will evaluate the situation further before handing over the reins of the offense.
"We'll just see how it goes," Zimmer said. "We'll see where we are at, where we're going. Case has done great. We'll just keep going from there and see how this thing all plays out."
Bridgewater returned to practice on Oct. 18 and impressed the coaching staff with how he ran the scout team offense. Balancing the workload between Keenum and Bridgewater will be similar to how the team has split up reps over the last three weeks.
"Just trying to get him up to speed as much as possible," Zimmer said. "He hasn't had training camp. He hasn't done anything. We're just trying to get him to where everybody feels comfortable with him."
Zimmer said Bridgewater is "doing excellent" in terms of his movement, arm strength and accuracy. One of the bigger challenges for the Vikings in practice is simulating a pass rush to assess how well he can evade defenders. But in that sense, Bridgewater is no different than any of Minnesota's quarterbacks. The ones wearing the red jerseys in practice don't often get hit.
"We had guys run at him," Zimmer said. "There's no tackling in training camp on the quarterbacks either. First time he's tackled will be in a game, just like it would be in the regular season."
Zimmer said he has 100 percent confidence that Bridgewater can function and perform at a high level should he need to relieve Keenum against Washington.
The reality for Keenum is that his role may soon change, but that doesn't change the way he'll prepare for the Redskins and possibility of other starts.
"We've done it week-by-week for the last couple weeks and it seemed to work OK," Keenum, said. "There's a lot of different ways of playing quarterback and there's a lot of different situations. That's why for me, if I can keep my mindset the same, if I can stay consistent in how I prepare, if I can not read your guys' stories and stay off of different things, then I'm good. I think that's how I prepare, how I operate. I just want to win ball games I don't care how we do it."
A life in limbo is something he's grown used to as a perennial NFL backup. He'll rely on his previous experiences to guide him through this next phase.
"I think a lot of things have prepared me in my life for future things," he said. "Last year every interview I did was about Jared (Goff). I've been prepared whether it's Sam or Teddy or whoever else, I've been prepared for these types of situations. (It's) just kind of water off my back."