After suffering through a nightmare quarterback triumvirate of Matt Cassel, Christian Ponder and Josh Freeman last season, the Minnesota Vikings are in a desperate search for somebody -- anybody -- to throw the ball.
Michael Vick to the Vikings? Adrian Peterson thinks so
AD took to Twitter to express interest in bringing the former Pro Bowl quarterback to Minnesota in 2014. Is an aging, turnover-prone Vick a viable solution to the Vikings’ quarterback woes? Considering the market, they could do worse.
If Adrian Peterson was the team's general manager in addition to its All-Pro running back, the Vikings would be turning to Michael Vick (as well as spending a A LOT of money on offensive linemen, I imagine).
@MikeVick would intently make the vikings a playoff team!
— Adrian Peterson (@AdrianPeterson) March 6, 2014 We already know this idea is misspelled, but is it off-base? Is Michael Vick -- who will hit free agency on March 11 -- a realistic option for the Vikings?
For starters, let’s take a look at the Vikings’ current quarterback situation, or lack thereof. Cassel was the only passer on the 2013 roster who wasn’t completely awful, but he voided a contract option for a second year and bolted last month. Freeman played in just one game after arriving from Tampa Bay midseason, and has virtually no chance of being brought back. That leaves Ponder, a former first-round pick who the Vikings seem eager to move on from.
The team will likely be grabbing a signal caller at some point during the upcoming draft (it owns the No. 8 overall pick) but will need a tested veteran to a) fill in while the younger player is groomed and b) provide insurance in case he falters.
So is Vick the answer? At 33 years old and hampered by chronic injury problems, there’s plenty of cause for concern. During his four years as a starter in Philadelphia, Vick never played in more than 13 games in a single season. A recurring hamstring issue sidelined him twice in 2013, eventually allowing Nick Foles to snatch the starting job away permanently. There’s no reason to think his durability will improve after he turns 34 this summer.
On top of that, Vick has been plagued by turnovers in recent years. Following his Pro Bowl 2010 season, he coughed up 24 picks and nine fumbles over the next two seasons, and had five turnovers in seven appearances in 2013.
With that being said, Vick has been productive when healthy, despite his turnover issues. He’s just two years removed from consecutive 3,000-yard seasons, and after a down year in 2012, looked as though he was bouncing back last season before going down with the injury. Through the first four games, he averaged 270 passing yards and 57 rushing yards per game and tallied seven total touchdowns.
The real factor working in Vick's favor is the utter dearth of quarterback talent in the 2014 free agent class. Outside of Cassel and Freeman, you're looking at a soon-to-be 35-year-old Josh McCown, an inconsistent Matt Flynn and Chad Henne, who's thrown more picks in his last two seasons in Jacksonville than he has touchdowns. It can be reasonably argued that Vick is the best of that group.
In the end, Vick is far from an ideal signing for the Vikings, but he could bring some playmaking and relative consistency to the team as Minnesota groom its quarterback of the future.
As for Peterson, he could have done worse than suggesting Vick. Maybe he wouldn’t make that awful of a GM after all.
Hell, he'd probably do better than anybody the Browns have hired in the last decade.
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