Kellen Mond Attempts to Rejuvenate His Career
The Minnesota Vikings had a really strange 2021 draft. Of course, Christian Darrisaw has emerged as a star player, and Cam Bynum had a nice stint with the Vikings before leaving for the Colts, but Rick Spielman’s third round in his last draft was quite unsuccessful.
Kellen Mond Attempts to Rejuvenate His Career
Third-round picks should at least contribute for a few years, and some of them should be starters. Spielman had four third-round picks in 2021, and the best one was Patrick Jones. The defender just signed a sweet deal with the Panthers after producing seven sacks last season, but his previous years were rocky.
However, his career has been way more successful than those of Wyatt Davis, Chazz Surratt, and Kellen Mond. None of that trio survived their second offseason on Minnesota’s roster. The regime change entering their sophomore season didn’t help, but third-rounders getting cut after a year and a half is unusual, let alone three of them.
Mond has not attempted a pass since his rookie season, when Kirk Cousins was out with COVID and Sean Mannion suffered a minor injury in the game at Lambeau Field.
His next pass will presumably be thrown in the UFL because the former Texas A&M passer has returned to Texas, being named QB1 for the San Antonio Brahmas.
The official UFL account posted on social media, “BREAKING: The San Antonio Brahmas have named Kellen Mond as their starting QB for the 2025 season.”
The Brahmas won the USFL conference in the inaugural UFL season but lost in the UFL title game to the Birmingham Stallions. Their quarterbacks were Quinten Dormady and Chase Garbers.
Now, they move forward with Mond. Their head coach is Wade Phillips, a longtime NFL coach and father of Vikings offensive coordinator Wes Phillips.
Wade Phillips said, “He’s earned it. He’s looked good really almost every day in practice. He just has such an advantage being able to scramble and run running plays with the quarterback that gives you an extra dimension that not everybody has.”
Indeed, Mond has the ability to run. In his four years at Texas A&M, he rushed for 1,608 yards and 22 touchdowns. It should be noted that the college numbers include the yardage lost via sacks. Without that, it would look even more impressive.
His NFL career, meanwhile, has been a big flop. Mike Zimmer pretty much ignored the rookie passer in what would be his final season as Minnesota’s head coach. His infamous answer about whether he wanted to see Mond in a meaningless Week 18 game, he just shrugged, saying he would see him every day.
Kevin O’Connell took over. Surely, the ex-QB could fix Mond’s issues. However, he also said goodbye to Mond after the preseason and traded for Nick Mullens instead.
Since then, Mond has spent time with the Browns, Colts, and Saints, but without appearing in a game.
Mond, a San Antonio native, will start for San Antonio when the UFL kicks off next week. By performing well, he can show the NFL teams that he’s worth an invite to training camp.
He will turn 26 in June.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt