sjm34 wrote:Why on earth would the vikings start Teddy when he hasn't shown to be any better than Keenum? The team is on a winning streak, keenum has been making solid decisions, and making more downfield passes than Teddy was capable of, and I believe there is something in Teddy's contract that if they don't play him this year, he has another year to go on his deal. Not sure exactly what the details are, but I sure wouldn't want to throw a new deal to Teddy next season.
Teddy looked composed right off as a rookie, but struggled with his arm strength and accuracy downfield. There is no reason to believe he will get substantially better than he was, and his mobility may be worse. Let's make decisions based on what's best for the Vikings, rather than Teddy being a nice guy.
I think we stay with Keenum unless something major happens.
I'm on board with your concerns but here are a few things that are real factors.
1. It sounds like from all the reports that Teddy is legitimately healthy enough to be active. I don't think it would be a good look or maybe even legit to put a healthy guy as our for the year espcially with that contract status. Unless Teddy has some setback it makes sense for them to activate him. That means he is gonna he a FA after this season.
2. Let's say they do activate him which sounds like is likely. They don't have to start him against a Washington. They could have him as a healthy scratch or as the backup. They have options. Now starting him after a bye with plenty of time to prepare him does make a lot of sense and if he struggles you can always go back to Keenum although that's not as easy as it sounds.
3. This isn't about being nice to Teddy and let him put on the field. If they do activate him and have him on the roster they wil have 1 QB signed for next year in Kyle Sloter. Keenum Bradford and Teddy are all FA next year and at this point I'm time all are going to get paid (Keenum is earning top backup money at least) or in Bradford's situation hardly any faith in him being a viable complete season option. Putting Teddy on the field this year gives the franchise some idea what the hell they want to do with the position going forward.
4. We get to the playoffs if Keenum is solid and the rest of the team does it's thing. Is that good enough to make a playoff run? Idk the defense would have to be really good and Keenum would have to perform well. Now if you look at Teddy's stats from his first 2 seasons there isn't a ton to go on there to make you think he is gonna he the guy either. This offensive line this year has been better than any Teddy has had to work with over his 2 seasons and there are some other factors that help around Keenum as well. This franchise probably wants to see what they should do a few months from now than just this season. It's incredibly tricky and fortunately Keenum has been good enough to make this a legit conversation instead of "PLAY TEDDY ASAP!!!!!" chants.
5. Let's say Bradford is done he won't play this year and maybe won't ever play again. We don't know but him being a viable option as the starter you can depend on this year seems very murky. Which option do you feel comfortable with Teddy backing up Keenum or Kyle Sloter? Teddy at least give you hope. Maybe Sloter is good (I don't think the Vikings are gonna want to let him go when they make a move with Teddy) but that seems a lot of ask for even if they like him a lot which i think they do. What's not to like he is tall, mobile, athletic and has a good arm.
Anyway that's a lot of stuff and I do not envy the people with the Vikings making the QB decisions right now. It seems they made the right move to add Keenum as the backup and it was a move I liked more than most Vikings fans. He could still self destruct and Forbath has gotten a lot of FG opportunities so that isn't the best reflection on Keenum but some of that is on the run game.