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Between grueling rehabilitations of their shredded knees, Dalvin Cook and Teddy Bridgewater sat inside the Winter Park training room last fall and talked about a day when they would both be healthy and scoring touchdowns for the Vikings.

What might have been.

There are plenty of story lines heading into Sunday’s NFC playoff rematch between the Saints and Vikings, but none altered the Vikings’ course more than the Aug. 30, 2016, practice where Bridgewater suffered a gruesome knee injury that he turned into an inspirational NFL comeback.

Bridgewater returns to U.S. Bank Stadium this weekend as the backup to future Hall of Famer Drew Brees. It’s the first time he will be an opponent of the franchise that drafted him to be a franchise quarterback.

Cook wonders about their dreams, the one where two Miami-born kids take the NFL by storm together.

“Because back in high school, we were rivals,” Cook said Thursday. “The best in the city, best to come out of Miami. So, just to put it all on one team — it was always a dream. Like, what could we do?”

They will never know.

Many in the Vikings organization still contend Bridgewater would have been the team’s long-term answer at quarterback if not for the freak dislocated left knee on a routine practice drill.

Instead, he left when his contract expired after last season, signing with the Jets before they traded him to New Orleans near the end of training camp.

“I thought he’d be the quarterback for the rest of my career,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “I love the kid. I love his nature, competitiveness, everything about him.”

Upward of five ligaments were damaged in Bridgewater’s knee, which is the extent Cook confirmed he heard about the injury.

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Comments from fans in the article may be revealing...

SmashMouth

Rugby Saint II

I really like this kid and hope he's willing to wait in line for the throne!