Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater purchased insurance that would pay him $5 million if he falls out of the top 10 * and* the fall can be proved to have been caused by injury or illness.
Bridgewater purchased a $5 million loss-of-value insurance policy after the 2013 season, ESPN.com reported. That came on top of his $10 million total disability injury policy. Disability insurance has become common among top prospects, but ESPN.com reported that, "It is believed that no player who has bought loss-of-value insurance for the NFL draft has actually collected."
Bridgewater seems increasingly likely to go outside the top 10, but there have been no injury or illness concerns that have been made public. Instead, Bridgewater critics point to his relatively mediocre pro-day workout as a reason he is dropping on draft boards.
NFL Media draft analyst Mike Mayock recently explained his reasoning for dropping Bridgewater: "I saw about four of his tapes prior to the combine, and I really liked him. I thought he had a chance to be a franchise quarterback from what I saw on the tape. ... Except you've got to see the quarterbacks throw the ball live. I've never seen a top-level quarterback in the last 10 years have a bad pro day, until Teddy Bridgewater. He had no accuracy, the ball came out funny, the arm strength wasn't there, and it made me question everything I saw on tape because this was live. I went back and watched a bunch more tape and compared him to the rest of the guys in the draft. And like it or not, I've come to a conclusion -- if I was a GM in the NFL, I would not take him in the first round of the draft."
But it's not just his bad pro-day workout. In mid-January -- more than three months ago and about three weeks after Louisville's season ended -- NFL Media draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah tweeted that "I know several teams that don't view him as a 1st-round player."
In his most recent mock draft, Jeremiah has Bridgewater going 26th to the Cleveland Browns. Fellow analysts Bucky Brooks and Charles Davis, in their most recent mocks, also have Bridgewater going 26th, while NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger doesn't have Bridgewater going in the first round.
It's to the point now that NFL Network analyst Curtis Conway says that if Bridgewater falls into the second round, "He will definitely be the best bargain in this draft."
It was reported that the loss-of-value policy cost less than $20,000. Again, though, the only way for Bridgewater to collect is to prove illness or injury caused the loss of value.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
