Teddy Bridgewater

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater enjoyed a strong rookie season.

(Jim Mone, Associated Press)

INDIANAPOLIS -- General Manager Rick Spielman and the Vikings trusted the tape when it came to Teddy Bridgewater a year ago.

They also placed lots of faith in a pair of former Browns assistants who had been released only months prior to the 2014 NFL Draft.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said Thursday that former Browns offensive coordinator Norv Turner and receivers coach Scott Turner were important in helping the club zero in on Bridgewater during their quarterback search. The Vikings (7-9) selected the Louisville product with the No. 32 overall pick.

Norv and Scott Turner serve Minnesota as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, respectively. They had worked under former Browns coach Rob Chudzinski the previous season before he was fired.

"You know we worked so hard in trying to find a quarterback," said Zimmer, the Bengals former defensive coordinator. "And Norv Turner and Scott and those guys did a great job and not only Rick (Spielman) but all the scouts."

It's believed Browns GM Ray Farmer had serious interest in taking Bridgewater, but ultimately traded up to No. 22 to select Johnny Manziel. Since then, coach Mike Pettine has said Manziel was the top quarterback on the Browns' draft board.

Bridgewater completed 64.4 percent of his attempts -- third highest in NFL history for a rookie making at least 10 starts -- and earned an 85.2 passer rating in 13 games. Meanwhile, Manziel endured a dreadful rookie season, making just two starts and recently checking himself into rehab.

Under former team CEO Joe Banner, the Browns had commissioned a $100,000 analytical study to determine the best quarterback in the draft. The results favored Bridgewater. The Vikings quarterback has said he did not want to play for the Browns and sources recently told cleveland.com it's because he knew some in the organization weren't in favor of drafting him.

The Vikings had a consensus opinion on Bridgewater and they weren't scared off by a poor pro-day showing, which contributed to his draft stock plummeting.

"We spent six different occasions with Teddy last year," Spielman said. "One thing we try to do with our process is we had our draft meetings before we came down here and graded them purely what we saw on tape and what we saw live as football players.

"All of the other stuff we accumulate here and over the next couple of months we'll add into it but it's not something where you see a guy go from the sixth or seventh round goes all the way up to the first round because the way he runs in shorts ... And just because a guy has a bad pro day we're not going to forget the 47 games he was productive on tape."

While the Browns are back at the combine looking for a quarterback, Minnesota is excited to be heading into the second year of the Bridgewater era.

Zimmer sent Bridgewater a congratulatory text after the quarterback won the Pepsi Rookie of the Year award. "I (wrote), 'Hey, Teddy, congratulations ... now let's go win a championship unless you just want to be a celebrity quarterback. He texted me back and he said, 'Thanks coach ... I've never been about individual awards. All I care about is winning as a team and getting better every day and that's all I want to do.''