Vikings Fans Know How Important a Backup QB Can Be
Case Keenum did remarkably well in 2017. Sam Bradford, a former first overall pick, was supposed to be the team’s starter. Unfortunately, a knee injury kept Bradford on the sidelines. The Vikings – a team that believed it had a legit shot at the Super Bowl – thus had to turn to its backup QB.
The defense, of course, was sensational. Mike Zimmer turned his side of the ball into the best in the NFL. Their ability to stifle opposing offenses on third and long was incredible. Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph, Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter, and Everson Griffen were just a handful of the great players on that defense.
The offense, to their credit, was far from average. In fact, it was a strong group.
Pat Shurmur helped his side to an average of 23.9 points per game. That was 10th in the league. The defense was 1st overall with an average of just 15.8 points against.
Of course, a large part of what made it all work was the play of the Vikings backup QB, Case Keenum.
He finished the season with a 67.6 completion percentage to go alongside his 22 TDs and 7 INTs. In one of the more critical moments in franchise history, Keenum tossed a touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs to take down the Saints as time expired.
Once again, Minnesota finds itself with Super Bowl aspirations. The plan is for this team to compete in the NFC. There is a lot of veteran talent and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has his team close to the salary cap. Another move or two would bring the 2022 budget very near its max.
It’s this context that makes the Nick Mullens trade even more notable. Without Mullens, the Vikings would have needed to turn to Kellen Mond and/or Sean Mannion to be their backup QB. For whatever it’s worth, Mond has improved, and he likely would have been the favorite to snag the QB2 job without the trade.
Bringing Mullens to Minnesota, though, was not without reason. Clearly, the team felt it was in their best interest to increase the competition for backup duties.
Kirk Cousins is still this team’s starter, and the hope is still that he starts all 17 games (and hopefully several more in the playoffs). If he does need to miss time, though, then perhaps Mullens could keep the ship afloat.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1080998″ player=”26281″ title=”WATCH%205%20ideal%20Mason%20Rudolph%20trade%20destinations%20from%20the%20Pittsburgh%20Steelers” duration=”142″ description=”By the looks of it, Mason Rudolph could break Pittsburgh Steelers training camp as the team’s No. 3 quarterback. Rookie Kenny Pickett saw the field before Rudolph in Pittsburgh’s most-recent preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The first-round pick continued to play stellar football.There’s also rumblings that Pickett could potentially unseat starter Mitchell Trubisky at some point early in the regular season.” uploaddate=”2022-08-22″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/snapshot/1080830_sd_1661190655.jpg” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/streaming/1080830/1080830.m3u8″ width=”16″ height=”9″]