The Vikings have taken a different path at quarterback this year, slotting inexperienced passers behind starter Kirk Cousins. Third-round rookie Kellen Mond and practice squad veteran Jake Browning are competing to be Minnesota’s backup. Thus far, the results have not impressed.
While Minnesota also has 2020 seventh-round pick Nate Stanley and well-traveled former UDFA Danny Etling on the roster, Mond and Browning appear to be vying for the gig. Following the team’s second preseason game, Mike Zimmer described his QB2 situation as a work in progress said the team will discuss bringing in an outside option this week, via the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Chris Tomasson.
Mond, who missed time due to a COVID-19 contraction earlier in camp, has not progressed to the point he can be relied upon as a backup, per Tomasson. Browning, Stanley and Etling have also not taken any NFL regular-season snaps. Browning has spent the past two seasons on the Vikings’ practice squad. The Vikes did not re-sign two-year backup Sean Mannion, and their hopes of trading up for Justin Fields did not produce the desired result. Although Cousins has proven durable (zero missed games due to injury), the team may be vulnerable if its starter suffers an injury or lands on the reserve/COVID-19 list again.
Under Zimmer, the Vikings have used several veterans as backups. Matt Cassel, Shaun Hill, Case Keenum, Trevor Siemian and Mannion have been in these roles at various points over the past seven seasons. The Vikings’ 2017 Keenum addition proved rather important, with Sam Bradford going down early and Keenum delivering by far the best season of his career to steer the team to the NFC championship game.
Zimmer cited a need to be careful financially, despite the team holding more than $13MM in cap space and a QB2 signing unlikely to cost much at this point. Available options include Blake Bortles, new ESPN analyst Robert Griffin III and Josh Rosen. The latter, however, has not been viewed by his past two teams as a backup-caliber passer. Minnesota could look to the trade market as well. With Falcons backup A.J. McCarron going down with an ACL tear and the Jets also having no experience behind their starter, there figures to be competition on the trade front.
The Vikings hopes of trading up for Justin Fields were dashed but just so there are no hard feelings here, the Bears should pass along a number where Mike Glennon can be reached.
Might be a guy named Dalton available at half time after week 1.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the Vikings get a packaged deal that also included Pace and Nagy. It’s time to do some house cleaning in Chicago.
Lol nah, he’s gonna stay on the Bears’ roster after they try Fields out for a game or two and then realize they made a huge, huge mistake. Fields will be the one to go at halftime or if the Bears is dumb — even though they already are with the Fields pick, they’d trade him away midseason.
I was hoping for the Vikes to actually pull off with drafting Fields cuz the Vikes is one of the worst teams in the NFL and they would go well with a busted QB in Fields, but alas, it didn’t happen.
Now through a trade, I hope this will happen for the Bears to trade away Fields for tons of picks if they find a team stupider than the Bears.
The Vikings need to be worried. Their quarterbacks – including Cousins – have looked like absolute crap in the pre-season.
Still don’t understand why anybody without a veteran backup QB would trade for one now? (Barring injury)
I really don’t know why so many people were so high on Mond’s NFL prospects. I dislike saying that someone just looks like they don’t have significant potential, but I just never saw it. He struggled at A&M hitting basic concepts that pro teams use, he would often get flustered by a decent pass rush (even against far inferior teams), and struggled reading defenses. Mond was athletic, and had a good arm and quick release, but he just would stick on his first read-even as he was being rushed-and just threw away too many easy balls to defenders because he did not recognize his open receivers.
This is just my view, of course, but other than his athleticism and release, I did not see much that made me think that he’d be an NFL caliber quarterback, less so a starter.
Agreed, the same can be true about Fields — don’t get the hype about him. He’s already a proven bust so why the hell did the Bears trade up to get him?
After people lambasting the Bears for trading up to get Mitch (which was a good move), they’re actually celebrating with yet another trade up to get a busted QB this time around? They’re gonna regret letting Mitch walk big time.