Aug. 22—Mike Zimmer historically has preferred having a veteran backup quarterback. After all, one might have saved his job in 2017.
The Vikings were coming off an 8-8 mark in 2016 when starter Sam Bradford suffered a knee injury in the 2017 opener. It looked as though another season might be kaput. Instead, Case Keenum saved the day by leading Minnesota to the NFC Championship Game.
The Vikings head coach finds himself on the hot seat again after a 7-9 season in 2020, and this time Zimmer doesn’t have an experienced reserve quarterback. If anything were to happen to starter Kirk Cousins in 2021, it could be a disaster.
That’s why the Vikings need to bring in a veteran backup. Soon.
As has been seen in two preseason games, Jake Browning is not an NFL-caliber backup, and rookie Kellen Mond is far from ready. The latest evidence of that came in Saturday’s 12-10 loss to Indianapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Browning relieved Cousins midway through the second quarter and failed to conjure any Kyle Sloter-like preseason excitement. Playing the rest of the half, he completed 6 of 15 passes for 32 yards with a number of errant throws. Counting his showing as a starter in a 33-6 loss to Denver in the Aug. 14 opener, Browning is 11 of 25 for 63 yards in the preseason with an interception that was run back for a touchdown.
Mond played the second half Saturday and was 6 of 12 for 61 yards. He fumbled his first snap before recovering it, was hesitant at times and made some bad throws. Overall in the preseason, the third-round pick is 12 of 28 for 113 yards.
After Saturday’s game, Zimmer didn’t rule out the possibility that a veteran backup could be brought in.
“We’ll talk more about it this week,” said Zimmer, whose Vikings close the preseason Friday at Kansas City. “You know, with the monetary situation we have to be careful of that, as well.”
According to the NFL Players Association, the Vikings have $10.15 million of salary cap space. They’re saving some of that money for possible contract extensions for tackle Brian O’Neill and safety Harrison Smith, but it’s not as if the Wilf ownership group would need to hold a garage sale to scrounge up extra money for a veteran backup quarterback.
The best two free agents available are Blake Bortles and Josh Rosen, and either could probably be had for the minimum. Those names might not elicit handstands from fans, but either would provide more security than Browning or Mond. The Vikings also could trade for a quarterback, or sign one who is released when teams trim their rosters to 53.
Other than Cousins, the Vikings don’t have a quarterback on the roster who has taken an NFL regular-season snap. Browning spent the past two years on the Vikings’ practice squad. They also have Nate Stanley, who spent last year on Minnesota’s practice squad and is now injured, and Danny Etling, a former practice-squad player in New England, Atlanta and Seattle who has not played this preseason.
Unless the Vikings make a move before the Sept. 12 opener at Cincinnati, it would mark the first time since Zimmer arrived in 2014 that they have started a campaign without an experienced backup quarterback.
In 2014, rookie Teddy Bridgewater opened as the backup, but he was a first-round pick and the Vikings also had veteran Christian Ponder. In 2015 and 2016, the backup was Shaun Hill. In 2017, it was Keenum. In 2018, it was Trevor Siemian. The past two years, it was Sean Mannion.
Maybe the Seahawks, who signed Mannion on Aug. 1, would be willing to send him back to the Vikings for a seventh-round pick, or at least some fresh Minnesota walleye.
As for Hill, after Bridgewater was injured in a 2015 game against the St. Louis Rams, he came in and helped lead the Vikings to a 21-18 overtime win during a playoff-bound season. Hill also directed Minnesota in a 25-16 win in the 2016 opener at Tennessee when Bradford wasn’t yet ready after being acquired to replace an injured Bridgewater.
Cousins has been extremely durable since becoming a regular starting quarterback for Washington in 2015, starting 95 of 96 possible games. The only one he missed was when he was rested in the 2019 finale because Minnesota had a playoff berth locked up.
But Cousins, who is not vaccinated, already has been on the COVID-19 reserve list recently for five days. If something were to happen to him this season from a COVID or an injury standpoint, the Vikings might have to scramble to find a veteran.
With the regular-season opener rapidly approaching, it would make sense to find one now.