Vikings QB Position

Donovan McNabb is the Vikings starting QB, that was obvious from the day they traded for him.  I think it's the right move, there's no way that Christian Ponder or Joe Webb are ready to be starting NFL QB's (especially this year, with the NFL lockout eliminating all of the offseason OTA's & mini-camps).  After 3 pre-season games, I'm willing to write off last year's struggles for McNabb in Washington as an aberration.  He seemed to show up in Washington in not the greatest of shape, that then got him off on the wrong foot with the Shanahan's (Head Coach Mike Shanahan and Offensive Coordinator  Kyle Shanahan), he was also saddled with a team that didn't have much talent of an OL and virtually no running game, it was all just a recipe for disaster.  Anyways, he's still relatively young (34), he seems to have shown up at Vikings camp in much better shape and with a chip on his shoulder, he wants to prove the doubters wrong and I think he just may do that. 

The Vikes haven't declared who the back up QB is, if it was my call I'd go with Christian Ponder.  My reasoning?  First of all, they invested heavily in him (he was selected number 12 overall in the 2011 NFL Draft), you don't do that unless you think he is the QB of the future.  As the QB of the future he needs to be getting as many snaps as possible (whether it be practice or should McNabb go down to injury).  Secondly, I really haven't seen enough out of Webb as a QB to have confidence in him as a long term answer should McNabb go down, he is a tremendous athlete, no doubt about that, but I'm not seeing his ability to stay in the pocket when he needs to, to check off to his secondary receivers, to scan the field while scrambling, he's just much too quick to tuck the ball in and run with it, there really isn't a long history of successful QB's who fit that description.  

The other reason I think that Ponder should be running with the second team and Webb with the third team is that it would free Webb up to contribute in other ways, as previously mentioned, he is an incredible athlete, if Leslie Frazier is true to his word and wants to use all of his players to the best of their abilities, he'd realize that one way or another he needs to get Webb onto the field (think Brad Smith with the Jets last year), I can envision them splitting him out wide as a WR, in the shot gun in the Wildcat formation, maybe returning kicks or even lined up in the backfield as a RB.  He is a talent and they need to get him involved.