Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner took his weekly turn at the podium to address the media on Thursday. Normally, coaches give a brief opening statement and then open things up for questions.

Turner, though, made it quite clear that he had an agenda — not in a bad way, but still in a clear way. Unprompted by any questions that day, but surely prompted by those who have questioned rookie QB Teddy Bridgewater and picked apart his performance this season (present company included, we imagine), Turner launched into what could be considered a speech about all the positives he sees in Teddy.

It measured in at 545 words, making it twice as long, plus one word, as the 272-word Gettysburg Address. (Seven years ago, by the way, the Vikings pinned their hopes for four scores every game on the likes of Tarvaris Jackson, Kelly Holcomb and Brooks Bollinger, all of whom started games at QB for the Vikings).

The first half of it went like this from Turner:

Over the last period of time since Teddy [Bridgewater] has been playing there have been a lot of people that weighed in in terms of their evaluation and where he is and what type of player he is and where we are at. Sometimes I see some of that stuff and I'm not sure who it is that's evaluating or what their background is, what their qualifications or even what their experience is. So, I thought I'd weigh in because I know my background, I know my qualifications and I do have a little bit of experience with this. I think this is, for a young guy and for a rookie put in the situation he's been put in in terms of we've started eight different offensive linemen, we've obviously started three different tight ends, we've started three different running backs, played five different running backs, over the last five weeks our leading wide receiver is a guy we signed in late September/early October off the Cleveland Browns practice squad and you throw a rookie quarterback into that, I've seen a bunch of guys really, really have a tough time with that and a bunch of guys that are good players. It's pretty incredible to me what he's done, how he's handled it, the things he's gotten done and what he's really done is made everyone around him better and that's a quality that you're looking for.

We weren't there, in person, to hear it. But the tone and timing seemed spot-on. While we don't think a person has to have played in the NFL or have coached a number of years to recognize there are throws Bridgewater struggles to make, it is Turner's right — and maybe even part of his job description — to not only defend his QB but remind everyone that there is a lot of good that has happened in his rookie season.

Words won't ultimately define what Bridgewater becomes, but we also doubt Turner would have gone on the record in such a clear way if he didn't believe fully in his young QB.