MINNEAPOLIS
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier and his offensive assistant coaches met Monday and decided to bench Donovan McNabb and replace the 13-year veteran quarterback with rookie first-round draft choice Christian Ponder.
Even though McNabb had perhaps his best game against the Bears on Sunday, when he received poor pass protection and had a lot of receivers drop passes, the coaches studied film of the Bears loss and decided they might be better off with a young quarterback who can scramble better and make a play when the protection breaks down.
Frazier has enough problems and doesn't need me to second-guess him, but I do believe a more appropriate debut for Ponder would have been Oct. 30 at Carolina rather than face the Packers and defensive coordinator Dom Capers, who last week blitzed 55 percent of the time against the Rams. This is after the Bears totaled 17 pressures, four hits and five sacks of McNabb.
Sure, the boo birds at the Metrodome will be happier with Ponder in the lineup. McNabb wished the best for Ponder and will continue to help him any way he can.
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Speaking about Ponder, McNabb said: "He's a smart kid. He's a kid who has continued to progress since we went to training camp. ... He listens, and we've been really working with each other as well as Joe Webb. We have a great group here. I think he's going to have a lot of success. I've been a part of the whole deal of having a young quarterback in the room and making sure that he was getting prepared and ready and this was no different."
McNabb recalled his first start as a quarterback when he said: "You want to be perfect. You have to be patient, that's the most important thing going in as a rookie. You're going to see a lot of different things, but just kind of go with what you know and have fun."
McNabb said he will be helping Ponder on the sidelines.
"I've been mentoring while I was out there playing," he said. "The thing about it is when he's out there, you're seeing things from the sideline. [I will] just continue to help him so he would know and be aware the next time he goes out. Just try to make his job easier."
McNabb said he's ready to play again when needed.
"The good thing about it here is I know that I have a lot of football left in me," McNabb said. "I look forward to preparing hard and going out to practice and working on my craft and again, when called upon, be ready to go. But in this position, we get too much credit at times, but we definitely get too much criticism. At the end of the year, obviously that will be something that I'll look at and see what's next. But the focus is now, on what I can do to prepare myself and get ready, as well as continue to get better."
To make it clear, I believe Ponder should get the chance to start this year so the Vikings know where they stand at quarterback in the future. But making your debut against the Packers, who won here last year 31-3 and went on to win the Super Bowl, is a tough start for a young quarterback.
Distributed by MCT Information Services
