Josh Freeman will be a healthy scratch today
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman (12) laughs during the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers at Mall of America Field at H.H.H. Metrodome. The Packers defeated the Vikings 44-31. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Could things get even more messy for the Minnesota Vikings? GM Rick Spielman recently stated that head coach Leslie Frazier isn’t on the hot seat, but his “assurances” should be met with more than a healthy does of skepticism/cynicism. Why? Well, for starters, Spielman is technically on the hot seat himself. This is a team that is broken down in the secondary, and their unwise decision to cut Antoine Winfield (probably their best player on defense) in the offseason definitely hurt. It was reported in the offseason that members of the Vikings front office were against the move to cut Winfield, whereas Spielman lead the other contingent who wanted to cut the costs.
But it’s the Vikings quarterback situation that has been the worst, and the three-man carousel of Christian Ponder, Josh Freeman, and Matt Cassel may have just settled on Ponder again. He received the start last week thanks to a concussion from Josh Freeman after his disappointing debut (this has been met with skepticism as well), and Ponder looked bad…again. It’s clear that Ponder isn’t the answer, and it’s even more clear that Cassel isn’t going to turn into a legitimate starter any time soon.
The Vikings signed Freeman to a $3 million contract following his release from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in the hopes that he could bounce back and be a franchise QB. He’s been beyond awful this season, but Freeman has had success in the past. Aside from issues with interceptions, he wasn’t bad last year.
The prevailing belief was that the Vikings signed Freeman for a reason, and that reason was to see if Freeman could potentially be their QB of the future. In order to figure that out, you kind of have to, you know, play him. Evidently, that’s not something the Vikings are willing to do, even though just about the only thing they can salvage at this point is a franchise QB. Ponder and Cassel? It’s safe to say that the Vikings know what they have in them, and only Ponder has a small shot at being a franchise QB.
However, I would think that most people believe Freeman has the better shot at it, and yet the Vikings aren’t going to play him this week. Pro Football Talk reports that Josh Freeman will be inactive today despite being fully recovered from a concussion, and you can almost chalk up a win for the Dallas Cowboys against the Vikings overmatched secondary now.
The question is, why on earth are the Vikings going with Ponder? There has to be some logic to it, right? Do they really believe that Ponder gives them the best chance at winning? Did they forget how much they paid Freeman?
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