In the whirlwind past few days that saw the Vikings trade Percy Harvin, cut Antoine Winfield, re-sign a bunch of their own guys and possibly flirt with the still-out-there Greg Jennings, one thing has been a little lost in the shuffle of our attention span: the pursuit of a backup QB.
It returned front and center last night, with Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports advancing the ball on a notion we had seen before: the Vikings "really like" Matt Cassel, who is technically still on the Chiefs but is slated to be released or traded for a marginal pick very soon.
UPDATE: Cassel was released later this morning.
We have to say this: Assuming the Vikings still consider Christian Ponder their incumbent starter and QB of the future, which they have given no indication is false, Cassel is about the perfect offseason pickup at QB if they can swing it. He's still reasonably young (he will turn 31 in May), he has made 62 career starts and he has shown that -- on a good team -- he can be effective. He helped the 2008 Patriots to an 11-5 season after Tom Brady went down in Week 1, completing 63 percent of his passes, throwing 21 TDs to just 11 INTs and putting up a rating near 90. The Chiefs then overpaid for him, but it's not like he was a complete bust. In fact, he had his best season there: 2010, when he was 10-5 as a starter, threw 27 TDs and just 7 INTs. While his accuracy has never been above 60 percent in Kansas City, he would be the kind of QB who could step in if Ponder was injured or ineffective and keep a team in the playoff chase.
In other words, we are on board with this if it happens.
Your thoughts, please, in the comments.
