Vikings Message Board.Com

cstelter wrote: How about Yards/Attempt, or Fumbles lost, or passes beyond 20 or 40 yards, or TD%? He has gone backwards in all of those. 6.4 YPA to 6.1YPA. 4 Fum/Lost vs 2 Fum/Lost. 23 20+ passes down to 20 20+passes. 4 40+ passes down to 2. 4.46 TD/attempt down to 3.62%.

Troubling is is number of 20+ passes per attempt-- 7.9% down to 5.6%. 5.6% is dead last in the league for QB's with more than 100 attempts. Even if he had stayed flat, there would still be 25 QB's in the league with better 20+ yard per attempt ratios.

Even more troubling is the Yards per attempt average of 6.1 this year. Only 2 QB's with more than 100 attempts are below him (Gabbert and Skelton).

His critics have a point.

And that is all true information as well. His 20+ yard passes have gone down, as have 40+ yards. I wasn't aware of how low the percentage was compared to other quarterbacks. Thank you for pointing it out to me. He has lost more fumbles but he has had fewer of them, which is why I over looked this stat and didn't include it. His critics do have a point (or several). He is not an elite quarterback. Far from it. But I believe he has made enough progress to justify giving him more time. Do I ever expect him to be an elite quarterback? Probably not. However, I do feel that he can develop into an above average quarterback who won't lose games. I do not expect everyone to see eye to eye with me on this issue. I just wanted to throw out some stats showing he has made progress since a lot of fans tend to only look at it game by game, not the season as a whole or in comparison to previous data.

I'll take Alex Smith as long as the franchise doesn't treat him like 'THE ANSWER' or the 5-6 year future of the franchise.

I do think we could be successful in the next 2-3 years with Alex Smith at the helm. He is at least a real quarterback, and knows how to play the position. And he proved with San Francisco that he can win big games. No, he was never the REASON for the big wins, but he did enough to help his team win. In other words, he wasn't so totally and utterly incompetent so as to ruin his team's chances to win the games (looking at you, Tarvaris, and you, Christian).

He is good enough that if teams stack up on Adrian and make us win through the air, he could probably do it most of the time. I'd give up a mid round pick for Alex Smith.

He's not a bad idea given that we need someone now and for the short term while drafting or signing a better QB in the future.

I would rather get Joe Flacco or Philip Rivers but I don't know their contractual situations

Not only did we waste two years trying to develop noodle arm, it will take another two years to develop his successor. Same story when we finally let Frazier go. It will take the new guy several years to put together his team. That is why I have no problems cutting a guy loose immediately. Both denver and san fran found immediate success with regime change, and neither of their staffs had any contact with players until a few weeks before the start of the 2011 season. Frazier had 4 games to evaluate his roster. Now we are looking at another 2 to 3 years before we are a playoff team again. Regardless of who we draft as QB, we need a FA that can win today, way too many holes to be wasting a first or second round pick on a position that should have been solid 3 years ago.

If smith is available and ponder doesnt show improvement, I say we should pick up smith and draft a WR

80 PurplePride 84 wrote: Well for starters he went undrafted and in his 2 year career his been with 3 NFL teams and in the UFL. So pretty much every NFL talent evaluator says he isn't.

John-David Booty never played a regular season snap for us either. Should we bring him back and give him a chance?

MBT's ceiling is probably a decent backup, if that.

So is Ponders, yet we keep playing him. He has no type of deep ball, at all, and with PH gone to pad his stats, no ball at all.

MBT may be ready now. Or mabye now. I know Ponder isnt.

PurpleKoolaid wrote: So is Ponders, yet we keep playing him. He has no type of deep ball, at all, and with PH gone to pad his stats, no ball at all.

Ponder threw 24/32 for 221 yards and 2 TDs in Harvin's first game away ...

As much as I respect and like Alex Smith, I don't see management targeting him. I think he goes somewhere like New York, where I think he would fit nicely.

HardcoreVikesFan wrote:As much as I respect and like Alex Smith, I don't see management targeting him. I think he goes somewhere like New York, where I think he would fit nicely.

Ponder is going to have to have a complete melt down for management to ditch him before next season.

Cliff wrote: Ponder is going to have to have a complete melt down for management to ditch him before next season.

Right. Like I said, managment will not target Alex Smith should he become available. I don't expect anyone other than Christian Ponder to be our starter next year. This of course is barring some miraculous trade, a catastrophic injury to Ponder, or Ponder goes out and throws three picks a game for the next five games.

No way Ponder isn't the starter next September unless something turns for the worse in the next 5 guys. Reality is there is a lot more wrong with the passing game than just Ponder.

Defense needs to get back in the habit of getting teams off the field on 3rd and long... but I digress.

Infinity wrote:If smith is available and ponder doesnt show improvement, I say we should pick up smith and draft a WR

The Vikings need to acquire two WRs, maybe more, no matter who the QB is. Harvin and Wright are the only two that should remain on the team.

losperros wrote:
The Vikings need to acquire two WRs, maybe more, no matter who the QB is. Harvin and Wright are the only two that should remain on the team.

I said before that I would keep Aromashadu, but as a #5 or #6. Unless they really draft well again and get a bunch of them. The rest of the WRs are really.. bad.