Ladies And Gentlemen...Your Minnesota Vikings

For those that know me, you know how much of a Vikings fan I am not.  There's not a single thing I like about the home town football team, so much so that I think the Los Angeles Vikings sounds like a terrific name for an NFL franchise.  I've never lived anywhere other than Minnesota, so I must preface this by saying...this very well could be the case in other cities, but, I don't know that any other fan base in America drinks its team's Kool-Aid more than the Minnesota Vikings' fans.  With the 2011-2012 NFL season upon us after a long lockout, the talk locally has begun again about the local gridiron club, and, as always, it's far more optimistic than it is realistic.

Without Brett Favre heading up the offense this season, the Vikings were left with a huge question mark at quarterback.  A year ago, there were many people locally that thought bringing Favre back for a second season would've been a mistake, and that the Vikings should've made a play for then Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb.  It was known that the Eagles were interested in unloading the aging McNabb to make room for the younger Kevin Kolb, but the Vikings instead opted to send a couple of guys down to Mississippi to bring Favre back up to Minnesota.

Philly dealt McNabb to the Washington Redskins for the 2010 season, and, for a short time during the season, it seemed to be a decent fit.  That all changed toward the end of the season, when McNabb was benched in favor of Chicago Bears cast-off Rex Grossman.  Anyone with a working set of eyes and a reasonable amount of intelligence could tell that the overall situation in Washington wasn't favorable to McNabb.  There was no question his style clashed with that of head coach Mike Shanahan.  McNabb may have been getting older, but there was really no logical reason to move him out of the starting position, especially after signing him to a five-year, $78 million contract extension in November.

With the Vikings in need of a quarterback, knowing they wouldn't be bringing back the aging texter Favre, they drafted Christian Ponder out of Florida State in the first round of the NFL Draft, pegged by many knowledgeable NFL minds as the most overrated quarterback in the 2011 Draft.  They seemed somewhat confident that he was going to be "the guy" for them in the 2011 season, and those going forward.  They weren't comfortable with Joe Webb leading this team at the QB position, clearly, which explained the draft choice.  It was clear, however, that what the Vikings needed to do was sign a veteran quarterback to mentor the young rookie.

Instead, what the Vikings decided to do has left a few people very puzzled.  Instead of signing a veteran, they ended up trading for one.  That veteran was the one-year older Donovan McNabb.  Yes, the same McNabb that only a year earlier many Vikings fans clamored for, only now, he's "too old" and this move "makes no sense".  Then, you have those who actually believe that McNabb agreed to the trade so he could actually become Ponder's mentor at the QB position, and actually just turn the starting spot over to Ponder somewhere near the mid-point of the season.

All I can do is laugh.  I talked earlier about those with a working set of eyes and reasonable intelligence. Those same people are looking at this deal the way it should be viewed.  Sadly, those people aren't most of Viking Nation.  For Vikings fans thinking that McNabb accepted a trade to the Vikings in order to become a back-up quarterback and a mentor to Alex Smith, Part Two (Ponder), you're clearly the same delusional fans that believe this 2011 version of the Purple has substantially improved itself over it's 2010 predecessor.

After the most disappointing season of his career, if you think that the fire doesn't still burn inside McNabb to be a starting quarterback for the next three seasons, then you are sadly mistaken.  McNabb is an incredible competitor, and has been one of the most successful quarterbacks in the NFC over the last 10 seasons.  With that being said, and again, coming off such a horrendous season in Washington, there is no question in my mind that McNabb wants to prove to all the naysayers out there that he isn't washed up, and that last season wasn't the McNabb we can expect to see for the rest of his career.  This is a proud man that won't just fade into the background for a rookie quarterback to take his place half-way through a season.  It would probably be even more of a blow to his ego to be relegated to the back-up role in favor of Ponder than it was for him to sit back while Grossman lead the Redskins for their final three games last season.

I'm not saying that Christian Ponder won't make a good NFL quarterback.  He's not the type of guy, like a Peyton Manning, who you just know as soon as he leaves college that he's a game-changer.  When you look at the quarterbacks taken in the first round of the three previous drafts, only one currently isn't starting for his team, and that's Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.  Otherwise, Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, Sam Bradford, Joe Flacco, Josh Freeman are all starting, with Ryan and Flacco starting right away their rookie seasons.  All signs point to these guys being the elite quarterbacks of their generation.  Will Ponder be in that category?  My guess is that he won't, but it's way too early to tell.  What I can tell you though is, if he will be one of the QB's in that category, he'll have to probably wait his turn for at least a full season.