Vikings QB Christian Ponder on the draft: 'This is my team'

[dead_poet]

Redoing 3 Christian Ponder gms now. Love his athleticism. Legit fast. Arm better than expected. Better intermediate velocity than Matt Ryan. (Lots of BUTs coming.)

Ponder almost never challenged deep (teammates fault?). Heavily reliant on checkdowns, Harvin. Some brutal, brutal decisions. Back breakers.

--- A contributing factor of his ack of challenge deep resulted in shotty offensive pass protection. Reliant on Harvin...well...duh. He was the best receiver on the roster by far. Probably not a bad idea to get the ball into his hands. Kind of like saying that Stafford was highly reliant on Calvin Johnson. Decision-making was highly questionable at times.

Also thought Ponder played small. Checkdown-reliant scrambler. Jeff Garcia-ish. Eyes not downfield. Think safe to say he has LONG way to go.

Evan Silva on Twitter

[PurpleMustReign]

--- A contributing factor of his ack of challenge deep resulted in shotty offensive pass protection. Reliant on Harvin...well...duh. He was the best receiver on the roster by far. Probably not a bad idea to get the ball into his hands. Kind of like saying that Stafford was highly reliant on Calvin Johnson. Decision-making was highly questionable at times. Evan Silva on Twitter

What does he mean "redoing 3 Christian Ponder games now"?

[dead_poet]

What does he mean "redoing 3 Christian Ponder games now"?

Re-watching three games. He's been doing it for a bunch of players.

[PurpleMustReign]

Re-watching three games. He's been doing it for a bunch of players.

Oh, I thought he was getting his info from mini camp or something.
Well then his analsyses (or whatever) don't really surprise me much, nor does it take a genius to figure them out.

[UltraNasty850]

It is Ponder's time to shine, if he can.

Last year he had a rusty O-line, 1 wr and a rookie TE to throw to. He had no offseason and took second string reps during camp. Not until week 6 did he participate as the starter and begin to establish relationships with teammates. The odds are not so good for your rookie QB being thrown into a locked-out broken season.

This off season has been great. The Vikes have addressed all of these issues (as well as issues on defense). Ponder should feel like this is his team. The vikes have built a team around Ponder this year. This year is a perfect year for Ponder to come out and show us what he has. We have some decent WRs, he will have a much better understanding off the offense, and personally I think Kyle Rudolf is going to go off this year.

The team is Ponders, if he can handle it.

Time will tell, just hope he wins us a few games this year.

[dead_poet]

Christian Ponder - QB - Vikings
Vikings QBs coach Craig Johnson believes Christian Ponder has advanced "light years" this offseason.

"(A lot) of the problems that you find out as a young player, that's when you get a chance to work on them is usually in the first offseason afterwards," Johnson said. "... The game is starting to slow down. That's what you look for."

Source: ESPN 1500 Twin Cities Jul 2 - 7:31 PM

[dead_poet]

Worth the read.

Re-Watch: Ponder

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/4 ... dhb-gettis

[HardcoreVikesFan]

Christian Ponder - QB - Vikings
Vikings QBs coach Craig Johnson believes Christian Ponder has advanced "light years" this offseason.

"(A lot) of the problems that you find out as a young player, that's when you get a chance to work on them is usually in the first offseason afterwards," Johnson said. "... The game is starting to slow down. That's what you look for."

Source: ESPN 1500 Twin Cities Jul 2 - 7:31 PM

While I fully support Ponder, I cannot buy into off season hype. While it is probably true that Ponder has a much better understanding of the offense we really won't be able to tell until the season starts. Still, it is somewhat encouraging to hear reports like this.

[MDviking]

(The one "wow" pass I alluded to previously.)

I don't know if it was just the games he watched, or my homerism, but I remember more than just one "wow" throw. IIRC, he was a machine on third down conversions, making something out of nothing more than a few times.

[VikingLord]

I think the biggest factor in Ponder's development is going to be how well he reads things pre-snap and reacts to the various twists and turns defenses throw at him, especially later in the season. The good and great QB's learn to recognize what a defense is doing before the ball is even snapped, so I'll be looking for evidence that Ponder is seeing that and adjusting where he's looking and what he's doing accordingly.

I'd also be interested to know to what degree Musgrave allows Ponder to audible. IIRC, Chilly was a stickler for having the QB run the play as called. However, a sign of trust between the HC/OC and the QB is allowing the QB to change the play or even encouraging him to do it if he sees the call isn't going to work or there is a better play to exploit what the defense is showing. If Musgrave is allowing Ponder to do that, it would demonstrate that Musgrave believes Ponder understands what he's seeing and sufficiently understands the Viking offense in order to make those calls.

We might not know how often Ponder gets to change the play, but I'm hopeful there is some evidence that he is doing that and is successful with it as the season wears on. That would be a really good sign that Ponder is "getting it", and that's the one thing a QB needs to demonstrate to be successful in the NFL.

[S197]

After recently re-watching 2011 game tape, NFL Films guru Greg Cosell found himself "more intrigued" with Christian Ponder's "pure throwing ability."

Rotoworld's Evan Silva separately came to the same conclusion. Both analysts noted better than advertised arm strength, pocket composure, athleticism, and confidence in challenging quality cornerbacks. Cosell believes Ponder's biggest improvement must come as a progression reader after honing in on his primary read regardless of the defense's alignment last year. Silva and Chris Wesseling believe Ponder's intriguing tools lend him top-20 Dynasty value among quarterbacks. There's QB1 potential if he can stay out of the trainers room.

Source: NFL.com

[Bigdaddy420]

we are the most under rated team in the nfl.carlson rudolph simpson harvin childs. we got weapons,ponder need this off season and we will see huge improvement hell have more time to throw with more weapons.Are backfield is improved.gearheart is a beast im not concerned at all with ad being out.gearheart had almost 5 yrd a carry. were healthy. we lost a lot of close games to good teams. we will win the division this year. experts are over paid yuppies. go vikings

[9man]

we are the most under rated team in the nfl.carlson rudolph simpson harvin childs. we got weapons,ponder need this off season and we will see huge improvement hell have more time to throw with more weapons.Are backfield is improved.gearheart is a beast im not concerned at all with ad being out.gearheart had almost 5 yrd a carry. were healthy. we lost a lot of close games to good teams. we will win the division this year. experts are over paid yuppies. go vikings

Although I hope you are right, they haven't played a down yet, nobody knows if the weapons we have are mass destruction or huge disapointment. I do think Ponder will be much improved this year, but will that be enough?

[mansquatch]

The reality is that if Ponder can cut his turnovers in half and everything else stays the same we probably win 4 more games than last year.

I'm sure this will get some jeers, but if the defensive backfield can stay healthy we might have the most talented defense in the NFC North. Our DL is on par with Detroit and might even be better, albeit older. Aside from issues at MLB our LB are solid. The question is the secondary, if Cook can get his head straight he is a legit rising star. Winfield is still solid for now. Does Carr pan out? Do our Safeties turn the corner? If yes, then our defense is very strong, you have literally 4 legit pro bowlers on the unit if Cook turns the corner, possibly 5 if Winfield can play like he did during the first half of last year before getting hurt. Things could certainly go the other way, but the potential is there.

Injuries and Ponder are the question. If we stay healthy and Ponder improves then we might be back on track. If not, well...

[Eli]

I'm sure this will get some jeers, but if the defensive backfield can stay healthy we might have the most talented defense in the NFC North.

I don't think health is the main issue in the secondary, although injuries certainly won't help.

At cornerback, Winfield is 102 years old, and may only play part time covering the slot receiver. Chris Cook shows talent, but hasn't put together anything even close to a full season. Josh Robinson is something of a crap shoot, and if he starts opposite Cook, would put two rookies in the secondary.

At safety, Harrison Smith is a rookie and totally untested in the NFL. The second starting safety position will bring back one of the bumblies from last year, probably Jamarca Sanford, unless rookie Robert Blanton is a very fast learner and can make the transition from cornerback to safety sometime this season. Which would put three rookies in the secondary.