Matt Dunham/Associated Press

A plague has fallen upon the NFL: an epidemic of mediocre-by-design quarterback play, an infestation of unwatchable backups and overpriced veteran stopgaps.

Save us, Teddy Bridgewater. You're our only hope.

The NFL is running short of both superstars and storylines. In a league with no Aaron Rodgers, no J.J. Watt or Deshaun Watson, no Andrew Luck, David Johnson or Odell Beckham Jr., the playoff race threatens to be a dreary slugfest. Top contenders like the Patriots, Steelers and Seahawks are going through the motions, while upstarts like the Rams, Eagles and Jaguars are climbing over the carcasses of eager-to-surrender opponents.

Save us, Teddy Bridgewater. You're our only hope.

Football fans can't have nice things anymore. Did Watson's emergence inspire you? Tough cookies. Were you anticipating a new era in Indy? That was all a big fib. Sorry, Broncos fans, your quarterbacks are so bad that they broke your defense's back.

Competitive games are on the decline, but shutouts, blowouts and brawls are on the uptick. And you can't even order a pizza for the big game without sociopolitical implications anymore.

Save us, Teddy Bridgewater. You're our only hope.

The Vikings activated Bridgewater from their PUP list Wednesday, more than 14 months after he tore an ACL and dislocated his kneecap in a gruesome noncontact practice injury and just two days before his 25th birthday. Bridgewater is not even two months older than Carson Wentz, which makes him young enough to reclaim his Franchise Quarterback of the Present and Future status but perhaps a little too young to bear the burden of saving the NFL from this season of injuries, unrest and strategic stagnation.

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press/Associated Press

Bridgewater has not played a real game since the 2015 playoffs. He has never thrown more than 14 touchdown passes in a season. Bridgewater wasn't Rodgers or Tom Brady when he suffered his cataclysmic knee injury in August 2016. He wasn't even Wentz or Dak Prescott. He was just a fine young quarterback, not a superstar or savior.

But he doesn't have to be.

Bridgewater's return offers hope. A spark to rejuvenate a languishing league lost in a swirl of negative headlines. A promise that things can get better, that the pox on the NFL's brightest stars won't last forever.

That promise couldn't come at a better time. Right now, on top of all the NFL's other problems, young quarterbacks are vanishing into the fog like supporting characters in an existential horror movie. Bridgewater's return reassures us that it's possible—and likely—we will see them again.

Watson's midweek ACL tear caused Bridgewater flashbacks last week: another young hero unceremoniously written out of the story, off-camera. It was a devastating blow for the Texans and for a league eager to introduce a new generation of stars.

But we can be almost certain that Watson will be back because Bridgewater was able to come back from an injury much more severe. He even offered Watson some social media encouragement:

The Andrew Luck saga rolled to a dead stop last week when the Colts finally stopped lying to themselves and placed their franchise quarterback on injured reserve. There's no reliable timeline for when we will see him again, though there are gloom-and-doom whispers that the answer is "never again."

But there's hope that Luck will be back because modern medicine was able to find a way to bring Bridgewater back. And the more young quarterbacks (and veteran stars) find their way back to the field, the better Sundays will be.

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Instead of Luck versus Watson last Sunday, we endured Jacoby Brissett versus Tom Savage. This Sunday will feature Brett Hundley versus Mitchell Trubisky (who only has his learner's permit) and Josh McCown versus Ryan Fitzpatrick because of the Jameis Winston injury.

Half the league appears to be running some scaled-back, perfunctory offense these days, even though the high-round rookies, slowly cultivated prospects and well-paid veterans taking the snaps should be capable of more. And part of the problem can be traced back to the series of events Bridgewater's injury set in motion.

The Vikings traded for Sam Bradford days after Bridgewater's knee was totaled. With his dedication to checkdown strategies that look great on the stat sheet but barely move an offense, Bradford ushered in a new era of dumping two-yard passes into the flat and writing it off as heady game management.

Veteran backups have used ineffective short passes to make offenses look busy for decades. But Bradford set the all-time completion percentage record last year while leading a team with a great defense to 22-16, 16-13 and 17-15 losses. It was a triumph of low-protein, high-cholesterol stat compilation over common sense, and it proved contagious.

Coaches around the league have become addicted to play-it-safe tactics, rationalizing that dump-offs and screens give them the "best chance to win" when they really just make losses closer and easier to blame on injuries. For example:

The Packers spend three years "grooming" Brett Hundley, but they recoil in fear at the thought of trusting him to throw forward passes. They are 0-3 and noncompetitive without Rodgers.

The Texans spend three years "grooming" Tom Savage and gift-wrap a starting job for him, but they are now condemned to spend Sundays hoping he can hold it under two strip-sacks. They've scored seven points in his six quarters as a starter.

The Dolphins took the Bradford route, luring Jay Cutler out of the broadcast booth so they could waste this year letting opponents build up big leads before they decide if they are motivated enough to mount a comeback.

The Colts…the Colts just deluded themselves.

Adam Bettcher/Getty Images

Oddly enough, the Vikings escaped the worst of the backup quarterback plague when Bradford himself succumbed to injury. (Bradford was placed on IR just as Bridgewater was activated Wednesday; sometimes symbolism and symmetry can be a little too neat). Third-stringer Case Keenum does many of the things that modern backups are afraid to do, like throw more than 10 yards downfield.

Thanks to Keenum, the Vikings aren't choking on their own offensive system, waiting for someone who can do more than say, "Yes, Coach," and throw screens on 3 rd -and-23. They are 6-2, well-positioned for a playoff run.

Still, he's just a plucky third-stringer, and though Keenum will start this week, he's ultimately the kind of QB who will wilt once good teams get enough film on him. The last thing this year's playoff race needs is an also-ran like the Keenum-led Vikings lingering on the scene, playing spoiler without adding any sizzle or star power.

Save us, Teddy Bridgewater. You're our only hope.

When Bridgewater reclaims the starting job, which will happen sooner than later, he will make the Vikings a little more competitive and a lot more watchable. He may lack a bazooka arm or Russell Wilson-caliber scrambling ability. But Bridgewater has what the NFL needs right now: the ability to both operate within a system and color outside the lines a little.

He has the potential to be a Watson-Wentz-Prescott-Goff, more than a Savage-Bradford-Whoever. (The jury is out on Hundley and Trubisky until the helicopter parenting ends.)

If Bridgewater, who has a 17-11 mark as a starter, returns to play soon, the Week 11 Rams-Vikings game becomes destination television. Goff versus Bridgewater with the playoffs on the line in the home of this year's Super Bowl—let's see what type of ratings that generates.

Then comes Bridgewater versus Mathew Stafford for leadership of the NFC North. Then Bridgewater versus Matt Ryan: a ceremonial changing of the guard among conference leaders, perhaps? And how does Bridgewater versus Cam Newton strike you? Or Bridgewater versus Andy Dalt...OK, not all of the matchups are great.

Jim Mone/Associated Press

But look what happens once Bridgewater leads the Vikings to the playoffs: Bridgewater-Wentz, or Bridgewater-Goff again, or Bridgewater-Prescott or a postseason rematch of Bridgewater against Wilson, except that this one won't be played at an Arctic substation.

These are the storylines the NFL needs. They are also matchups we thought we would never see because Bridgewater was gone so long that it was tempting to write him off forever.

All it takes is one bright young star arriving at just the right moment. He energizes a team, reinvigorates a playoff race, recalibrates our expectations of what an afternoon of football is supposed to look like, throws our fantasy leagues into chaos, inspires bored casual fans to tune back in and gives us all a comeback story to root for that transcends loyalties.

Bridgewater doesn't even have to be spectacular for now. He just needs to take the field. Hope will do the rest.

Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. He is also a co-author of Football Outsiders Almanac and teaches a football analytics course for Sports Management Worldwide. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeTanier.