Teddy Bridgewater is a Miami native who has spent almost all of the past three seasons — prime years of a young quarterback's career — either rehabbing or holding a clipboard because of a gruesome knee injury suffered during the 2016 preseason with the Vikings. He's a free agent on the open market, and in his last season as a starter in 2015 he helped Minnesota to an 11-5 record and a playoff berth.

The Miami Dolphins are an NFL team in desperate need of a starting quarterback. They seem to have finally reached the conclusion that one pretty good year from Ryan Tannehill doesn't outweigh five mediocre years.

It seemed to be an obvious match — if not forever, then at least for now. But when money and a salary cap are involved, nothing is that simple.

So instead, we learned Thursday that Teddy is signing up for another year as Drew Brees' backup in New Orleans. Maybe someday he'll play again.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.