Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has been dealing with an injury after dislocating his left knee and tearing his ACL and other ligaments nearly 14 months ago. It was a horrific situation for both the franchise and young signal-caller.

Now, however, Teddy Bridgewater is claiming he will return to the Vikings before the 2017 NFL season is finished.

Bridgewater, who returned to practice this week, is looking for any potential sign that he is ready to go.

“It could be just completing a pass down the field or making a sudden movement in the pocket,” Bridgewater said. as written by ESPN. “Just going to look for little things each day to do whatever I can to get back to who I was before and even better.”

As for what a return to practice meant for the young man, Bridgewater is using it was a mini-milestone of sorts.

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“I used it as motivation,” Bridgewater said. “I use that to tell myself, ‘Hey, I'm one step closer.' Being out there, running out of that tunnel yesterday just did something to me, in a good way.”

Despite returning to the practice field, he does realize that playing it cautious is obviously the best route to go.

“I'm just waiting, actually,” he said. “We have to be smart with everything. The plan is to get to the race in order to run the race. If we're not being smart and I'm not doing whatever it takes to get to the race, I'll never be able to run the race.

“That being said, we're just going to go out there and hope those guys continue to compete at a high level when I'm in there and don't take anything and don't hold off. Eventually, when I get out there against an opponent, they're going to be coming after me. It's going to be fine. Those guys are pros, we're pros. We know how to practice. That's something Coach Zim mentioned since day one: Be a pro. Know how to practice.”

The Vikings have an incredibly interesting situation they will have to meet head on when Teddy Bridgewater returns. The franchise has done — relatively speaking, of course — well in his absence. This might end up being a Wally Pipp situation … to a far smaller degree.