Turner saw promise in Bridgewater's debut, says Cassel will get more snaps against the Cardinals

Over the past two and a half weeks, we have heard the word "evaluating" a lot. George Edwards has been evaluating his unsettled safety and linebacker positions in camp. Norv Turner has been evaluating his offensive linemen. Mike Zimmer has been evaluating everyone — including himself.

But there's one player Turner has no interest in evaluating: rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

"I'm not interested in evaluating Teddy," he said. "I'm interested in coaching him and continuing to help him get better. We evaluated him before the draft and we know what he is capable of doing."

Turner did say that for the most part, he liked what he saw from Bridgewater in Friday night's 10-6 win over the Raiders. Bridgewater completed six of his 13 attempts for 49 yards, took a couple of sacks and fumbled in the red zone, only to have left tackle Matt Kalil dive on the ball to bail him out.

"The thing I [saw was] that he has all the things that he needs to be a quarterback in this league," Turner said. "When he did things right, he was quick with the ball and made good decisions. For the most part, he got the ball out quick. He's very elusive. It shows offs his athleticism. He's going to have great escapability and I think it's hard for a guy to rush you when that's the case."

Turner acknowledged that there were "a couple of times" when Bridgewater was pressured by the Raiders, took too long to process the play and didn't get the ball out fast enough. He thinks it was a good experience for Bridgewater and that he will make quicker decisions the more snaps he gets.

So how many snaps will Bridgewater get Saturday against the Cardinals? Zimmer and Turner haven't said, but reading between the lines it looks like Cassel will get another start, and Turner said today that Cassel is going to play more snaps than he did in the preseason opener.

Besides, Turner said evaluating players based on which teammates are on the field is "overrated," though it must be noted that last week he said he wanted to see Bridgewater play behind the starting offensive line in the preseason. Still, his point was that quarterbacks have to make the right decisions regardless of who is blocking for them or trying to catch their passes.