But perhaps we can hope this is the dreaded “vote of confidence” in Christian Ponder:
“Christian is our quarterback,” Frazier said, via Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press. “We are going to do all we can to help him have a good game against Chicago and to help our team go out and get a win.”
Frazier said that the game needs to be a learning experience for the young quarterback, something that makes sense given the team’s commitment to Ponder if not the idea that Joe Webb might have been able to help them win on this Sunday. Powers wondered if the rest of the Vikings would be thrilled to hear the team was sticking with the long-term goal of developing Ponder even if it comes at the expense of winning games now.
Considering that Andrew Luck and RG3 are much better than Ponder without the extra season of development, I am dubious that Mr. Play-Action Roll-Out and his five-yard completions are going to significantly improve. Let him play out the rest of the season, fine. But then get a real quarterback. Wasting AD’s prime and his 200-yard games is borderline criminal.
To be honest, I’m increasingly of the opinion that both Ponder and Frazier are mediocre. Neither is actually terrible, which occasionally leads to false hope. But neither strike me as ever posing much of a threat to win a Super Bowl even if they weren’t Vikings.