Denver Broncos Reportedly Signing Case Keenum

  |  
Mar 13, 2018
(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

Jenga.

In a move that will surely anger those that are in the anti-Kirk Cousins camp, Case Keenum, the quarterback who was at the helm of the Vikings quarterback position last season and who was the man that most of the anti-Kirk Cousins train were pointing to as the QB the Vikings should retain, is reportedly signing with the Denver Broncos when Free Agency officially starts. That’s a huge nugget of news (a pun!) for a few reasons; the first of which is the most obvious, that the Vikings clearly weren’t actively trying to resign Keenum, despite the fact that he leads the team to the NFC Championship a few weeks ago. Like Kirk Cousins’ availability, that’s nearly unheard of in the NFL, a league that treats quarterbacks like the Florida Keys treat Manatees (Which means that coach Zimmer and Rick Spielman were the speedboat drivers?). This move also proves some of the rumors/lines of reasoning surrounding Keenum during the 2017-18 season true, namely the one(s) that said that the Vikings were never genuinely sold on Keenum and that the fact that they took so long to anoint him the starter meant that the team wasn’t trying to simply motivate him by keeping him “on edge”, but rather that head coach Mike Zimmer (and company) never actually thought that Keenum was the long-term answer at the quarterback position. This move also helps bolster the Vikings chances of landing the quarterback they apparently do believe is the answer, Kirk Cousins, as the Broncos were considered one of the two other teams that were a potential landing spot for Cousins.

Beyond that, the Keenum news also (possibly) proves that the Broncos were in fact afraid that Kirk Cousins had made up his mind about joining the Vikings and so instead of attempting to pitch some sort of late-game Hail Mary deal for Cousins, the Broncos decided to just go for the QB that Cousins is about to replace in Minnesota (knock on Teddy’s wooden leg). Sure, the Jets still have a chance (and a ton of money), but as the Washington Post has said, Cousins mantra isn’t about making the most money; and after spending the first six seasons of his career with a team in perpetual disarray, it looks like Cousins would rather join a winning team and make $27 million than join another team in disarray and make > $30 million. Beyond Keenum, it also looks like Sam Bradford will be joining another team as it was reported yesterday that the Buffalo Bills, who recently lost their quarterback Tyrod Taylor to free agency, are interested in the oft-injured Bradford. That leaves Teddy Bridgewater as the other quarterback the Vikings could end up within 2018 and beyond and it appears that the Vikings are using Bridgewater as a backup plan should Cousins have a change of heart once he arrives in Minnesota and sees all the snow/ice/Swedes.

It appears that the Broncos are giving Keenum a two-year deal at around $19 million. Should Cousins sign for the rumored $27, it falls right within my original argument for signing Cousins back when it was simply a pipe dream, that argument being that a quarterback with Cousins’ output was definitely worth about $5-$8 million more than what the team had at quarterback the past few years. I’d extend that argument to over $10 million more, as the team has enough cap space to handle that and this team needed to improve on what they had in 2017 as the Eagles were getting their MVP-caliber QB back in Carson Wentz and that means that the 2017 Vikings wouldn’t stand a chance against an Eagles team that was even better than the one that blew out the Vikings in the NFC ‘ship.

If you’d like to know how the fans in Denver feel about that move check out the sub-Reddit dedicated to John Elway’s squad. While those fans don’t represent all Broncos fans, all NFL-team related subs are a decent barometer in terms of how the fanbase feels (with a margin of error of one or two edibles), and this is the top post in that sub right now, with the title: ‘Broncos Fans After Hearing Keenum Intends to Sign with us’:

The press in Denver isn’t as harsh but doesn’t seem to be much more excited, as there are titles like “Denver Broncos: In Free Agent QB Race, Losing May be Winning” and also an article that implies that Keenum is simply a fill-in QB until whomever they end up drafting in April is ready to go. Luckily for Keenum, he’s used to that dynamic and seemed to thrive in it last season, but at the same time, it does make you wonder why Vikings fans were so adamant that Cousins wasn’t much of an improvement (if at all) over Keenum. That’s sort of a rhetorical question, as I understand that Keenum did “get” the team to the NFC Championship (I use quotes as he didn’t single-handedly do that, or really perform that well as the season went on (he wasn’t terrible, but he was never as great as he started out as earlier in the season)). Sure, you could say that the fact the Broncos took Keenum as the first QB move in free agency could or does mean that he’s clearly highly coveted, but that’s something that ignores the reality surrounding how he ended up there.

The Vikings are a team that’s been looking for a franchise quarterback since Fran Tarkenton retired. From 1978-9 until now the Vikings have literally not had a quarterback play in full back-to-back seasons. You read that right. The Vikings haven’t had a quarterback play all 16 games in back-to-back seasons in most of our lifetimes. That’s what made this off-season situation so amazing, as the Vikings basically had their pick of what appeared to be three different franchise quality quarterbacks. I hate to brag, but it does appear that my preferred quarterback, Sam Bradford, was the TYPE of quarterback the Vikings want(ed). If Bradford could stay healthy I do believe that they’d have kept him this off-season. That’s why they rushed him back against the Bears despite Keenum’s good play last season. That’s why he was the back-up in the playoffs over Bridgewater and that’s why the team is going after Cousins, who is the same age as Bradford and has a similar style of play (although Cousins is much more mobile).
So, stay tuned to both purplePTSD.com and it’s sister-site www.VikingsTerritory.com, as today is going to be a big day for news!

Share: