Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Teddy Bridgewater On What Makes The Team’s Culture Stand Out: ‘The Leadership’

Teddy Bridgewater speaks highly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ culture and locker room. The former Pro Bowl QB is in his first season in Tampa Bay and is backing up Baker Mayfield. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

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Teddy Bridgewater is having the time of his life as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The former Pro Bowl quarterback — who was temporarily retired at one point to coach high school football — is back in the NFL as a backup to Baker Mayfield for one of the best teams in the NFL. The 32-year-old quarterback is currently on his eighth NFL team after making a comeback at the end of the 2024 season with the Detroit Lions.

“What makes this culture so special, it’s really the leadership starts at the top with Jason and Todd, and then if you look at that locker room, it’s a special locker room,” says Bridgewater in a one-on-one interview. “It’s a group of men who established themselves in this league as superstars, a group of men who have who have success in this league, but they don’t carry themselves as their superstars.

Bridgewater goes into further detail of what separates the Bucs’ culture from other NFL teams. The journeyman quarterback says it’s a great mix of veteran superstars with younger stars and they all get along well.

Tampa Bay is well-known for keeping their greats in uniform for many years, with Pro Football Hall of Famers such as Derrick Brooks and Ronde Barber spending their entire NFL careers with the Buccaneers. Meanwhile, Lavonte David and Mike Evans are well on their way to doing so.

“They show up to work every day with their the hard hat on,” Bridgewater continues to say. “That’s one of the most humble locker rooms that I’ve been a part of, to have so many superstars, and you get a mix of the superstars, and then these young talent first on the scene in year one, two and three. They just mesh so well, the young guys fall in line with the older guys.”

Teddy Bridgwater Compliments Baker Mayfield And Buccaneers Locker Room

Bridgewater in particular gives major credit to Mayfield, who he’s backing up. The former No. 1 overall pick has experienced his greatest success in Tampa Bay, going to the Pro Bowl in back-to-back-years. Mayfield threw 41 touchdown passes last season, the second-highest mark in the NFL. So far this season, Mayfield has six touchdowns against zero interceptions.

“It’s not a look at me type of team,” says Bridgewater of the Buccaneers. “Just a group of men who just put their hard hat on every day, and it starts with Baker. Just his mentality, the way he plays with this chip on his on his shoulder. He plays with that fire that you see it in his eyes every day. It’s a great locker room.”

While Bridgewater does mention having the desire to being a starting quarterback again — he has 65 starts under his belt — he says he’s embracing his role as a backup in Tampa Bay.

“Whatever God has for me — I just look at life that way,” says Bridgewater if he has the desire to be a starter again. “Right now, I’m in a position to be a servant, a humble servant, servant to the Buccaneers, servant to Baker Mayfield. To those who need me, if the opportunity presents itself, who wouldn’t. But right now, I’m living where my feet are. Right now it’s making sure that anything Baker Mayfield needs, I make sure that I’m able to be a humble servant for him.”

The Buccaneers will obviously have a huge game this week against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. If Tampa Bay defeats Philadelphia, observers will start taking notice of the Buccaneers as an elite team.

When asked what makes this the Buccaneers’ year, Bridgewater points towards the experience of the team, especially guys who were around for the Super Bowl run five years prior.

“In my brief time here, just watching the way things unfold with how everyone is aligned, from ownership to GM to head coach to the locker room,” says Bridgewater. “When you have that alignment, only good things that can come from this. And just the guys, Lavonte David in Year 14, Mike Evans in Year 12, some of these guys who have been a part of the organization during the hard times. Some of them experienced the Super Bowl a couple years ago.

“Just to continue to watch these guys be true pros and lead this next generation of Bucs, with first-year guys like Tez Johnson and Emeka Egbuka, to see them pass it down and pass it forward,” says Bridgewater. “It’s only right because you know they’re paying it forward to the game, and you know that they’re leaving their mark on the game. So why not go out with a bang?”

Teddy Bridgewater Partners With Progressive For Backup QB Campaign

Bridgewater is enjoying his new stint as a backup with the Buccaneers. He’s enjoying it so much that he’s partnering with Progressive for their “Backup” campaign. The “Backup” campaign has previously featured quarterbacks such as Jacoby Brissett and Tommy DeVito and it has fans calling in a “professional backup” to give them help with life takes an unexpected turn.

He says he filmed the commercial back in June. While Bridgewater has previously filmed a few commercials in the past, it’s been years since he was featured in a national spot. He details how it takes multiple takes and he was on set for 10 hours to film his television spot.

“We filmed it back in June,” says Bridgewater. “I’m closer to Jacoby Brissett, he also was a quarterback for the campaign last year. If you saw the commercials last year, you saw how creative they were. I love being a part of that. Fortunately, I’m in the backup role at Tampa Bay. It just happened to work out that I was chosen for the campaign. It was a fun day, shooting out there in California. Took about 10 hours, but it was great. It was a great set, the crew, the members on set, everyone involved. It was a great experience.

The veteran quarterback says he’s open to doing more commercials with Progressive in the future.

“Everyone on set said, ‘I did great,’” says Bridgewater. “My energy was good, remembering the script, the lines and everything was on point. But it’s tough. There’s a lot of time that goes by, you could be filming one scene and then they want to shoot that entire scene all over again and just change the different angle. They want to get a close-up on different things. This is what Denzel (Washington) and all these actors go through.”