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Man, I don't understand why anyone could mad with this move. I have had with that bum #### Christian Ponder at QB and I am GLAD his days are over. I really liked what Matt Cassel did against Pittsburgh, but, at the end of the day, it is still Matt Cassel.

With Josh, we get a QB with a rocket arm (and someone who isn't a 'midget' right Demi? ) and a guy who is still just 25. Freeman still has upside. Tampa Bay seems like a toxic situation for every player. Sure, they look pretty with all of their free agent signings. And sure they have Doug Martin, Lavonte David, Gerald McCoy, Mark Barron, and other young talent. However, something within that team's culture isn't right. With all that talent that team should be in playoff contention every year, but they haven't been there since Jeff Garcia was the QB and John Gruden was still coaching. While one may be quick to point to Freeman as the reason for their struggles, I think coaching and management are the bigger issues.


Ultimately, what will piss me off to no end is if this team plays Ponder as the starter the rest of the season after this signing. Ponder should be benched indefinitely or just cut out right. Start Cassel this week against Carolina and then give the keys to Josh and don't look back.

[/quote]There's no way he's going to start on Sunday.[/quote]

I wouldn't bet the farm on that

The only ones with zero chance of starting Sunday are Ponder and MBT. I think that they almost have to start Josh right away because if they start Cassel and if he plays well in a victory, they will be forced to start him again the following week. That trend could force them to leave their new $3,000,000 prospect on the bench for the duration of his tenure. That is not what anybody hand in mind when they signed him.

The only chance we have for a playoff run this year is to throw Freeman in there and hope he catches fire. Neither Cassel nor Ponder are going to take us to the promised land and I think even they know that.

HardcoreVikesFan wrote:Ponder should be... just cut out right.

I posted this here after the Browns game and everybody laughed. They said that it could never happen. Not only could it happen, if they can't trade him for something shortly, it very well may happen. Or they may stick him on IR which would be essentially the same thing.

TheFoxInDetox wrote: I posted this here after the Browns game and everybody laughed. They said that it could never happen. Not only could it happen, if they can't trade him for something shortly, it very well may happen. Or they may stick him on IR which would be essentially the same thing.

If people laughed, it was only because of the situation at the time. Fans had had enough of Ponder, but Frazier was still calling him the starter. The only other option was Cassel.

Now with Freeman, things have changed.

Ponder's days may well be numbered, although his 4-year, $11 million rookie contract with all money guaranteed may prevent that. I can't find the details of his contract (how much was signing bonus, what he's owed for the last two years, etc.) so it's somewhat hard to speculate. But it's clear the Vikings no longer consider Ponder the future franchise QB.


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Demi wrote:Upgrade over everyone on the roster...which isn't saying much. And young enough to buy us a few years and at least let us be competitive in the mean time. And hopefully keep the front office from reaching for a QB just because Cassel and Ponder are the only ones on the roster. Good short term and possibly longer term signing.

That's my feeling as well. Things are an absolute madhouse in Tampa Bay, and Freeman is a good young prospect who already has had success.

J. Kapp 11 wrote: If people laughed, it was only because of the situation at the time. Fans had had enough of Ponder, but Frazier was still calling him the starter. The only other option was Cassel.

Now with Freeman, things have changed.

Ponder's days may well be numbered, although his 4-year, $11 million rookie contract with all money guaranteed may prevent that. I can't find the details of his contract (how much was signing bonus, what he's owed for the last two years, etc.) so it's somewhat hard to speculate. But it's clear the Vikings no longer consider Ponder the future franchise QB.

7/31/2011: Signed a four-year, $10.15 million contract. The deal is fully guaranteed, including a $5,888,144 signing bonus. 2013: $1,298,518, 2014: $1,760,277, 2015: Free Agent

psjordan wrote:It is very rare that a starting NFL QB becomes available in his mid-20’s, even one with about a 79 lifetime QB rating and more INT’s than TD’s.

Which isn't the kind of starting caliber NFL QB that any team is looking for. That's not to say he wouldn't start for a lot of teams desperate for a QB (a group that the Vikings are now clearly a part of), but if teams had known what Freeman's career path would look like back on draft day in 2009, do you think he'd have been a 1st round pick? Not likely.

Ponder was heading towards a 3 win season at most. So Freeman either continues the failure, or turns the season around, the only loss is cash in Wilf's wallet. No reason for any fan of this team to pretend to be pissed. We had a problem, the team tried to fix it with the best player available that didn't us anything in the future.

joe h wrote:Ponder was heading towards a 3 win season at most. So Freeman either continues the failure, or turns the season around, the only loss is cash in Wilf's wallet. No reason for any fan of this team to pretend to be pissed. We had a problem, the team tried to fix it with the best player available that didn't us anything in the future.

Except the chance to be possibly even more publicly humilated and ridiculed than we already are. let's hope not. Hopefully we tell Cassel the job is his to lose. To put JF in right away and have him play the way he has played so far this year would be a disaster and ruin the nice step forward we made a week ago.

Turns out the deal is for 2 million, not 3. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... 2-million/

Eli wrote: Which isn't the kind of starting caliber NFL QB that any team is looking for. That's not to say he wouldn't start for a lot of teams desperate for a QB (a group that the Vikings are now clearly a part of), but if teams had known what Freeman's career path would look like back on draft day in 2009, do you think he'd have been a 1st round pick? Not likely.

True, true and probably not.

First let me state that I am truly, truly surprised that our GM and HC made this move. To ME it's an easy decision to take a roll on Freeman, as I (as an idiot fan who knows very little) had given up on Ponder. But for those two to apparently give up on Ponder? I am surprised is all I can say. I chalked all the "Ponder sucks" talk up to forum chatter that I mostly agreed with and not much else. Ponder did have some flashes, but I wonder if tape review did not lead them to believe in the kid. Perhaps they gave Ponder a certain timeline to improve and he didn't make it? Could Ponder be a lot more hurt than anyone is saying?

Other than the apparent jettison of Ponder, it seems to me that this all really falls into the category of the GM/HC trying to save the season. Does that mean they are trying to save their jobs? Not sure that was the motivation but it sure seems like this move will have a decent-sized effect on their job performance sit-down with Zig at the end of the season.

Ah, the life of a Vikings fan.

808vikingsfan wrote:Something interesting I found. With all the recent postings, it may have been mentioned already.

Bucs moved up to steal Freeman from Vikings

Very interesting. Who did (do?) we have on board among our coaches that was previously w/ K-State?

One of the most interesting parts of this signing is Frazier's answer to the question: "Did you have to convince Freeman to choose the Vikings?"

Answer (paraphrased): no, not at all. He is friends w/ some our guys and apparently talking to them convinced him. Anyone know whom these players might be? We've got AD and Load from OU... they likely knew one another from competing in the Big 12. This raises the question of what, exactly, they told him ... probably they gave him the lay of the land as far as where the Vikes are at w/ their QB situation and what the locker room is feeling.

Or who knows? Maybe not, maybe they just told him how Frazier is as coach, what things are like to play for the Vikes...

Texas Vike wrote:
Very interesting. Who did (do?) we have on board among our coaches that was previously w/ K-State?

One of the most interesting parts of this signing is Frazier's answer to the question: "Did you have to convince Freeman to choose the Vikings?"

Answer (paraphrased): no, not at all. He is friends w/ some our guys and apparently talking to them convinced him. Anyone know whom these players might be? We've got AD and Load from OU... they likely knew one another from competing in the Big 12. This raises the question of what, exactly, they told him ... probably they gave him the lay of the land as far as where the Vikes are at w/ their QB situation and what the locker room is feeling.

Or who knows? Maybe not, maybe they just told him how Frazier is as coach, what things are like to play for the Vikes...

The nice thing about spielman and frazier so far is that they've created a respectable scene here in minny. The players really like it here and so it's no surprise to me that freeman would want to come here compared to the hard #### he was dealing with in TB.

Mothman you have been conspicuously inconspicuous in this thread..... ....am curious to know your thoughts.

I am really hoping that his issues were just from personality conflicts with schiano. Maybe with more of a player's coach he can return to the promise he showed just a couple of years ago. Of course you don't exactly want to build around a QB who folds when he doesn't like his HC but hopefully he can at least help put a good product on the field while the Vikings continue their search for that elusive franchise QB......

Upon first hearing that the Vikes had acquired a new QB my first reaction was "Hell yeah! Finally!".

Then I found out that the QB's name wasn't Manning, Brady, Brees, or Rodgers. At that point my reaction was "WTF? What a terrible move! Why bring someone in here who isn't the franchise QB? This is just a waste of time and money better spent elsewhere! Now those morons won't ever try to get a really good QB ever because they think they have their guy. This is the worst trade in years!"

After having that reaction, I decided to stick with it regardless of the facts that came in. So it wasn't really a trade. So they really didn't throw all that much money at him, and it's not money we could have carried over to next year anyway. So they only committed to a 1 year deal. None of that changes the fact that he's not named Manning, Brady, Brees, or Rodgers! Blargh!