Did the Vikings Settle?

How difficult was it to watch RG3 run through and pass around the Vikings exhausted defense last week?

And how difficult is it to watch Christian Ponder attempt to be a pro quarterback every Sunday? I'm not saying Ponder won't be good at some future moment in time, but bad CURRENT passing might not ever earn him the opportunity. A couple of more bad games and we may seem him relegated to backup duty. I'm not suggesting Joe Webb be our starter either. IF he was a good passer, he'd probably be playing right now. The coaches see him every day in practice and they know that the kid can't throw accurately.

But those two facts, along with the wealth of QB talent that entered the league in the last two seasons makes you kind of wonder if the Vikings were so desperate for a QB last season that they merely settled for Ponder. Sam Bradford and Cam Newton were the top two QB selections last year and they look on course to be great NFL quarterbacks. Ponder was an "iffy" third choice at the time he was selected, but the Vikings wanted a quarteback no matter what.

And that's the problem. Instead of being content last year with Joe Webb who admittedly needed experience, they went with a worthless cast-off veteran named Donovan McNabb last season while drafting Ponder as their QB of the future. Most thought the Vikings were going to be awful last season anyway (and most people were right) so I'm not sure why the Vikes drafted Ponder LAST season to be their QB THIS year,

How much SMARTER would they have been to wait for the more talented group of QBs this season? RG3 looks to be great. But rookies Andrew Luck (for the Colts), Ryan Tannehill (Dolphins), Russel Wilson (Seahawks),  and Brandon Weeden (Browns) didn't just come out of nowhere this season, either. They ALL came super highly regarded and were on the scouts radar last season as well.  The Vikings were so deperate to "fix" their bad QB problem last year that they are now stuck with a very average Ponder for now and the future. THREE of the QBs I just mentioned were available for the Vikes to draft this year if they had waited. Since they made the mediocre Ponder choice last year, they didn't even think about getting perhaps a better QB this year.

The Vikings settled, and now instead of having a really good QB with lots of future potential we get stuck with Ponder until that failed experiment ends.  And we'll get to see RG3's touchdown run against the Vikings on highlight reels over and over again for at least the next decade. Just like we saw the Tony Dorsett 99 yard TD run against the Vikings over and over again, or the Steve Young touchdown run against the Vikings over and over again for at least a decade.

Washington has hope for the future because they were patient and got THEIR guy. What'd we get? Something to Ponder.