The Vikings are the only team in the NFC North who don’t have a franchise quarterback. This is not a new situation, as the last player aside from Brett Favre in 2009 who fits that description was Daunte Culpepper. 1500ESPN‘s Phil Mackey says that Minnesota fans have become so inured to the Vikings’ quarterback woes that they no longer even recognize what a great quarterback can do:
The last time the Minnesota Vikings had a quarterback throw for 300 yards and zero interceptions was Week 17 of 2009 — nearly four years ago. There have been 41 such performances in the NFL this season alone.
Let that sink in.
We see Christian Ponder throw for 233 yards and a touchdown in a Week 12 game against Green Bay and we say, “Hey! That was pretty good! We want more of that!” We see Matt Cassel outperforming Ponder and say, “See? Look what this offense can do with Cassel at the helm!”
Meanwhile, 16 quarterbacks threw for more yards than Ponder that week. Nine threw multiple touchdowns with no interceptions. And, meanwhile, 23 quarterbacks have a higher passer rating than Cassel (84.9) this season, and 27 have a higher QBR.
I’m convinced our recent quarterback famine here in Minnesota has led us all to become football masochists.
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Now, I get it. The 2009 version of Brett Favre isn’t walking through that door. Josh Freeman probably won’t help either. The Vikings can only shuffle cards that are in the deck. Yet, in our world — a world filled over the past eight seasons with a chubby Donovan McNabb, a brittle Gus Frerotte, a nervous Tarvaris Jackson and a thankful Brooks Bollinger — 265 yards and two touchdowns from Cassel looks like Air Coryell.
Outside of Favre’s last hurrah in 2009, we’ve been entrenched in quarterback purgatory since Daunte Culpepper shredded his knee in 2005. Forget about the Tom Bradys and Peyton Mannings. We’ve become so far removed from what quality QB play looks like that we’ve lost track of what an average quarterbacking performance looks like on a weekly basis.
You need to look no further than Green Bay to see what happens when a team that’s used to consistent star performance at the quarterback position suddenly has to rely on backups, third-stringers, and waiver-wire pick-ups.
