The Denver Broncos say Kyle Orton is their starting quarterback. The Minnesota Vikings don’t know who their starting quarterback is. But the Vikings reportedly considered trying to pry Orton away from the Broncos.
Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the Vikings considered trading for Orton, but have backed off those plans.
Of course, a trade wouldn’t happen until the league year starts anyway, so whatever plans the Vikings backed off from would have had to be very preliminary. But once the league year starts, if the Broncos back away from their stance that Orton is the starter and move toward Tim Tebow (or anyone else), perhaps the Vikings would revisit those plans.
Walters’ report is also interesting because of what it says about the quarterback who would be, by default, the Vikings’ starter if they were assembling a depth chart of the players they have right now: Walters quotes unnamed Vikings insiders as saying that Joe Webb is nowhere close to being an effective starter.
That would come as news to Webb, who said last month that he thinks he’s well-prepared to be the starting quarterback. But while Webb views himself as a starting quarterback, it seems more likely that the Vikings will bring in someone else to start. We just don’t know who that “someone” is.
Overall, the quarterback position for the Vikings in 2011 is anyone’s guess. Maybe we need to start the Brett Favre watch.