Things are far different for the Vikings since Sam Bradford was placed on injured reserve.
Now they’re clearly Case Keenum‘s team, so Bradford can just get in line with the other former first-rounder as a backup.
According to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said he expected Bradford to return to practice next week after missing a couple of months with a knee injury.
He could still be activated for the playoffs, but Zimmer was less certain if that would happen.
Bradford was placed on IR on Nov. 8, the same day they activated Teddy Bridgewater following last year’s knee injury. But while all the speculation then was based on when (not if) Bridgewater would reclaim his old role, Keenum has played well enough to make that conversation moot.
Activating Bradford for the postseason if he’s well would seem to be be an easy call for the Vikings (no offense to third quarterback Kyle Sloter, who is probably offended anyway because that’s how “no offense” works), since there are other NFC teams who don’t have that kind of depth at the position.