Minnesota Sports Forum

My issue with this is simply the guy never ever throws the ball downfield. Literally zero touchdowns last year over 20 yards? If your slinging it and lead the league in qbr is one thing, if your dumping it off to Harvin and letting him make people miss to get the majority of your yards is another. With them packing it on Peterson any other quarterback would have taken advantage of that.

A good running qb is good when that running qb is rushing for almost a thousand yards. Pulling down the ball and scrambling for 15 yards a game does nothing for me. In most cases you want your qb to be able to throw the ball.

As much as I love your optimism, the ship has sailed already on Ponder as far as I am concerned. I put him right up there with the worst starting qbs in the league right now. I would be willing to bet my years salary him not breaking out this year.....ohhh wait thats aaron rodgers. But in all seriousness, I hate his game, hate the way he plays, hate his ability to throw, and dont see anything positive about him.

Oh, and for comparisons sake, Ponder looks like he compares about on the same stick as one Colt McCoy.

My take is this, which was spoken perfectly when Chris Collinsworth said, "It looks like the Vikings offensive strategy is to lull the defense forward with all these short passes, which will eventually give the deep threat pass a higher chance." Well F that!

He was scouted out of college as a under rated athletic guy, good accuracy but lacked arm strength. Well, that doesn't help when we add route depth WR talent when we have a QB who is not accurate nor talented with deep passes. And it showed terribly in the 3rd Pre season game. When even our coaching staff is limiting his chances to chuck it deep and put the trust in the TALENT we acquired to go get it when passed deep, then its a FAIL. The Offensive staff needs to losen it up and if Ponder can't connect, then he needs to be gone.

Agree, and the place we will see if this happens is the regular season, not showcase it in meaningless pre season games. I mean it isn't like AP got snaps to open things up or had the box stacked to get those one on ones. Early to rush to judgement on this imo.

JDvikes wrote:Thank you for perspective lst, and this being the third year, it is totally make or break for him.

I agree with you, JD, that Ponder needs to prove himself this year. Normally I wouldn't be ready to write off a first round pick QB after just three years, especially if he is making progress every year. But the 2014 draft is going to be loaded with potential first round QBs, and I think Spielman will go in that direction if Ponder doesn't knock his socks off this year. The Vikes are going to be too good this year for us to have a chance at Teddy Bridgewater, but AJ McCarron and Tajh Boyd will go later in the first round, and I have even seen mocks that have us taking Johnny Manziel late in the first round.

My first hope is for Ponder to step up this year, so we can use our early picks on other needs. But if he doesn't, Boyd is the guy I have my eyes on. He looked really good beating a tough Georgia team last night, showing an excellent passing touch and gritty running ability. And then there's Johnny Football...

I hope Ponder has a good year and we STILL take one of the qb's in the draft lol.

My biggest frustrating involving the Ponder situation is the coaching staff. His first few games he showed some promise and was making some nice throws down field. He started getting banged up and eventually they cut those plays out entirely. We haven't seen the OC give him those same chances since.

When the staff can't even fully utilize a talent like Percy (slants.. seams.. WHERE DID THEY GO?) that tells you there is a big problem. They've failed to utilize Rudolph and even AD at times (poor run calls, little miss direction, not changing things up, lacking screens, etc). It's at least 50/50 Ponder & the staff imo.

Whether you think your QB can throw it down field or not, you MUST put them in position to do so. If they fail they fail, but then you know. Chilly did this same shit with TJax who ended up being a timid pansy on the field b/c of it. Always worrying about screwing up instead of just going out and slinging it.

Point is, greatly over restricting a young QB does nothing, but hurt their progression and growth. Ponder now will have plenty of players around him and it is the staffs job to give him the best chance to succeed. If they don't do so then he will fail regardless.

Lets not hang this one on Ponder right? I mean it is only the hapless Browns. So sick of excuses for this POS. Never seen a qb so incapable of throwing anything deeper than a screen pass. 20 seconds left, how many screen passes can we get in here to make my stats look better. What a complete JOKE!

No reason to hate Ponder, he is what he is and he isn't to blame for where he was drafted, nor for the complete lack of ingenuity at any point in the offensive coaching staff. There is a lot of young talent on this team, Ponder isn't one of them, but the team itself is being let down by coaching.

It is the coaching matching personnel on D too. You need pressure from the line in an effective cover 2 and we have not been getting that push this year. Williams ,Allen and even Greenway are basically done and shouldn't be brought back for anything but a minimum type salary. And we need to look back at the impact Winfield had on our D as a whole and spend some money on a FA in our secondary again. Our D is a ways away from even being competent right now. It is sad particularly when Frazier was so vital in improving our defense.

Your post is right on the money, doper. The difference in defensive line pressure yesterday was very noticeable, and Ponder just isn't good enough to handle any pressure and our D-backs and linebackers aren't good enough to cover anyone when there is no pressure on the QB.

You make an interesting point about the impact of losing Winfield on this year's defense. I actually thought we were pretty solid defensively last year, and since Winfield is the only significant loss, there has to be some connection. Interesting that he wasn't good enough to make the final cut with the Seahawks. I suspect we miss him more as a leader than a player.