Vikings Say “No Thanks” to Free Agent QB
The Minnesota Vikings have once again shuffled their quarterback position, with starter J.J. McCarthy expected to be sidelined for at least a couple of games. It’ll be Carson Wentz under center for the time being. The veteran will make his first start in a relevant game in nearly three years.
Vikings Say “No Thanks” to Free Agent QB
To still have three passers available on Sunday, the Vikings signed quarterback Desmond Ridder to the 53-man roster earlier this week, adding him to Wentz and new backup Max Brosmer. He’ll function as the emergency quarterback.
Ridder ultimately won the competition, but the Vikings also had another free agent in for workout purposes. Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a former draft pick of the Cleveland Browns, was in the building this week.
CBS NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported, “Before moving forward with Desmond Ridder, the Vikings also worked out former Browns QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson.”
The 25-year-old spent the offseason with the Philadelphia Eagles as a trade acquisition from the Cleveland Browns, but he was waived once the Eagles traded for Vikings passer Sam Howell. Thompson-Robinson also had a quick visit with the Green Bay Packers, but he’s still looking for a job.
“DTR” was a promising draft prospect in 2023 after throwing for 88 touchdowns and rushing for another 28 in his college career at UCLA. He was a fifth-round draft pick. The Vikings selected Jaren Hall in the same round.
In his first preseason, he beat out former Viking Kellen Mond and somehow even Joshua Dobbs for the backup job behind Deshaun Watson. Dobbs was traded to Arizona and, a couple of months later, to Minnesota.
With Watson suffering an injury, DTR quickly had to start football games, and that was quite the disaster. He has now appeared in 15 games (five starts), and his numbers are awful. The former fifth-rounder has thrown for only one touchdown but ten interceptions with a completion percentage of 52.6. His average yards per attempt was only 3.8.
Still, Thompson-Robinson brings some intriguing skills to the table, and it would’ve been fun to see him enter the Kevin O’Connell QB school. He ran a 4.56 40-yard dash in the draft process, and he looks every bit that fast on the football field. In addition to that, he has a strong arm. None of that matters, however, if he can’t do the fundamentals of quarterback play well, which Vikings fans saw in Weeks 1 and 2 when J.J. McCarthy was on the field and the offense stalled in part because of the QB’s inability to properly run the show.
Instead, it’ll be Ridder who’s on the roster for at least until McCarthy is back in the mix. Ridder’s numbers look like those of a backup, with 16 passing touchdowns (5 rushing) and 14 interceptions in 18 starts.
Head coach O’Connell said about Ridder’s addition, “With the rules being what they are with the emergency third quarterback, we wanted to have one. Based upon the early aspect of our season, we’re pretty deep into some position groupings as it is. We wanted to make sure we could get a guy that’s played before. Desmond had a great workout. … If we get to that scenario, we felt like it would be good to have a veteran guy that’s still young and growing as a player, but can step in and execute if called upon.”
Ridder is a more reliable option than Thompson-Robinson, which is why he won the match between the two. For him to see the field, it would require both Wentz and Brosmer to suffer an injury.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.