Vikings Message Board.Com

Ha, how convenient. Well lets see what Cassel can do!

I think this is good news for fans and Fraizer. Its kind of the wimpy way out, but the fans get what they want, and Fraizer gets a few weeks more to find out how to deal with the QB situation. He has to know his job is probably on the line over it.

dead_poet wrote: https://twitter.com/1500ESPNJudd/status ... 6559638529

And
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 89302.html

And yet Frazier is out there talking about "seeing what he can do"? And they were still having him practice? Why do we always get stuck with pathetic situations like this from our teams?

ProFootballTalk suggested (I think it was Mike Florio) putting Ponder on short term IR.

NextQuestion wrote:ProFootballTalk suggested (I think it was Mike Florio) putting Ponder on short term IR.

I thought only one player per team per year could do that? Don't the Vikings have someone already on that list?

I'm not sure, but if no... why not?

PurpleMustReign wrote: I thought only one player per team per year could do that? Don't the Vikings have someone already on that list?

Nah there's at least a few, Felder, Reed, and Line off the top of my head. I think you're thinking of the recent rule where a team can bring back one player from IR to the active roster.

PurpleMustReign wrote: I thought only one player per team per year could do that? Don't the Vikings have someone already on that list?

No, they don't. However, the rule allowing a player to be designated for return from IR reads that it must be "an injury that renders the player unable to practice or play football for at least six weeks (42 calendar days) from the date of injury". With the Vikings talking about Ponder possibly returning to play against Carolina after just three weeks, it would seem to preclude using this designation.

Eli wrote: No, they don't. However, the rule allowing a player to be designated for return from IR reads that it must be "an injury that renders the player unable to practice or play football for at least six weeks (42 calendar days) from the date of injury". With the Vikings talking about Ponder possibly returning to play against Carolina after just three weeks, it would seem to preclude using this designation.

Not like they couldn't say it flared up, chance of rib to heart death...shutting him down.

Not that they would. The minute Cassel struggles back to Ponder they go.

Demi wrote:The minute Cassel struggles back to Ponder they go.

They're not going to play Cassel ahead of Ponder. If Ponder can play against Carolina, he will. And if not, as soon as he's healthy, he plays again. I don't care if Cassel wins four games in a row and throws for 1200 yards and 10 TDs in the process.

Eli wrote: They're not going to play Cassel ahead of Ponder. If Ponder can play against Carolina, he will. And if not, as soon as he's healthy, he plays again. I don't care if Cassel wins four games in a row and throws for 1200 yards and 10 TDs in the process.

Well, lets be a bit more realistic about.

Lets say Cassel, in his next 3 games, has a series of good games, the same kinda games he had against Pittsburgh
and finishes something like...

750 yards
6 touchdowns
5 turnovers or less
2-1 record

For overall, in 4 games, 1000 total yards, 8 touchdowns, 5 turnovers, 3-1 record.

How could you justify starting Ponder? Ponder's our guy? If he has 1000 yards and 8 touchdowns and a 3-1 record, the fans will lose their motherlovin' minds
and Frazier will at a minimum lose the locker room if not his job.

"Ponder is our guy" is the justification in that potential scenario? Could Frazier and Musgrave and Spielman really be that dumb?
Wait. Don't answer that.

If the Vikes sign Freeman, then yes, Ponder's done. A quarterback with more wins, better numbers, and almost the same age? Yep. Ponder would have to really, really hope that Schiano wasn't the real problem with Freeman...

...and that's not likely. Greg Schiano is a terrible coach. To put it in perspective, Brad Childress is a better coach in every conceivable way. Just google the guy's name. Everyone knows that he's a big part of the problem along with his terrible, outdated system (at least on offense). His system forces Freeman to make twice as many deep throws vs. the league average for a quarterback. That leads to interceptions. You think Musgrave's system is bad, Dominik's system is practically designed to cause turnovers. Freeman would have way more weapons in the Vikings offense to work with.

Ponder might yet become a good coach in the NFL. The quarterbacks that I compare him to, Chandler (first few years in the league, his numbers look a LOT like Ponder's), Gannon...they took a few years and the right situation to become good quarterbacks. They were both smart guys who brought the intangibles but didn't seem to know how to put it together for several years. But Adrian Peterson doesn't have that kind of time and I suspect Freeman is closer to being good, even after the debacle he went through this season, than Ponder. And they get a potential franchise quarterback for a reasonable price (considering the going rate on quarterbacks in the NFL with multi-year starter's experience) which is something you rarely have a shot at.

Anyway, I just read that the Vikings have been in touch with Freeman's agent. That's what prompted that. But starting Cassel over Ponder? Okay, some days I'd prefer a bowl of rice to a bowl of oatmeal, but neither are pizza. Cassel beat an 0-3 team on the back of a running game that suddenly reappeared and everyone suddenly wants to give him the keys to the city simply because he did his job and didn't make as many mistakes as a younger quarterback. Generally when you play against tougher competition, tougher competition causes your players to make more mistakes because your players are being outplayed.

It would be nice to sign Freeman AND Winfield

But I hope they are able to get Freeman. I like what I see from him, and from what I hear, the Bucs coaching staff is worse than ours, which I didn't think was possible.

Dead_Poet, where are your "The Vikings have signed Freeman and Winfield" posts?

I'm interested in this concept of the coach (especially our coach) "losing the locker room" but how much does it matter to the coach? My current supervisor has lost me for months at a time, but every time I look she still has a job. What's worse is, if I want to keep mine I still have to do what she says. Is it different in the job of professional football?

Welcome to the Vikings, Josh Freeman. Can you throw a damn football and hit the guy in the purple helmet?