Well, yeah, the Vikings signed a deposed former first-round quarterback in the middle of the season because theirs is a mess.
But they’re not desperate or anything.
Via Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said that either Christian Ponder or Matt Cassel would start this week against the Panthers, not newcomer Josh Freeman.
He also said that he talked to both his quarterbacks this morning about the move, didn’t think it would disrupt team chemistry, and said that Ponder had a bright future with the team.
Well, one of them better.
Freeman effectively lets them hedge their bets at the position for a year. If Ponder gets offended, plays like crazy and justifies his draft status, then they will have lost only money and the time they spent developing third-stringer McLeod Bethel-Thompson. If Ponder plays to the level where he can reasonably be replaced by a guy off the street, then the moving on was probably inevitable anyway, and Freeman gives them a guy who has shown talent at times in his career.