Plenty of fans are anxious to see Teddy Bridgewater pick up where he left off before a serious knee injury suffered in August 2016. But the Vikings have made the right decision to stick with unexpected star understudy Case Keenum against his most recent former team, the Rams.
Keenum first started in Pittsburgh more than eight weeks ago, losing a game that wasn’t a blowout only six days after Sam Bradford lit up the Saints -- and emerged with a knee injury that eventually resulted in his placement on IR. Since that day, Keenum has only one loss, racking up five wins as a starter and another in relief of Bradford, who tried to return for a Week Five Monday night game against the Bears.
Through it all, the one-year, $2 million backup has played like a borderline franchise quarterback, averaging 7.3 yards per attempt (a career high), completing 64.9 percent of his passes (a career high), throwing 11 touchdown passes (a career high), and ranking up a passer rating of 92.6 (another career high).
Bridgewater’s two-year numbers are comparable but not as good. More importantly, he hasn’t played in nearly two years, and he has no experience in offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur’s system.
And Keenum is winning, which isn’t a quarterback stat but which sure as hell is relevant to whether a guy should be on the field.
So Keenum continues, until he gives the Vikings a reason to make a change. It’s a cannon with only one ball, and they need to pick the right time to fire it. During a recent visit to PFT Live, Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy compared the situation to the ’72 Dolphins, who knew when to replace backup Earl Morrall with starter Bob Griese after Morrall won 11 straight games.
The Vikings, like the Dolphins 45 years ago, have a single shot to make the right call. If they go with Bridgewater and he struggles, it will be hard to go back to Keenum. So they’ll need to stick with Keenum until he struggles. If he ever does.
Whatever happens the rest of the way, things will get very interesting in 2018, when Keenum, Bridgewater, and Bradford each become free agents. With all presumably hoping to play, the Vikings ultimately may be able to keep only one of them.
