Thread: Vikings Must Stick With Ponder

Originally Posted by Chazz

No reason to make a change. Webb isn't the answer, so just stick with Ponder for the remainder of the year. Then at the end of the year evaluate him and decide if we need to target a QB in the draft. Putting him on the bench does nothing but leave unanswered questions.

Thank you. All you people who are saying Ponder sucks and is worse than t-Jack are completely out of your minds. Give the guy a break, FFS. Give him a full year+.

Originally Posted by NodakPaul

I think they did a decent job describing him (although I noticed you failed to quote the whole paragraph of POSITIVES there), but I would like to TRY and put all of this nonsense about draft projections to rest once and for all.

1) I don't know where you got your ProFootballWeekly scouting report from, but the one on their site doesn't say "Third to fourth round pick". It says "Top-50 pick". Here is the link: ProFootballWeekly.com - Vikings first-round scouting report: QB Christian Ponder, Florida State

I swear, every time someone brings up the draft the "projections" seem to be lower. Next someone is going to try and say he was a projected 6th rounder.

So to set the story straight - Ponder was projected as a mid second round pick. Let's at least start there.

2) That means that Ponder was still picked a full round higher than he was projected. Does that make him a reach? Probably. But both Ponder's and Dalton's stock was going up fairly rapidly in the week before the draft. Peter King expected that both would be picked in the first round.
Peter King: NFL sources say Ex-Florida State QB Christian Ponder is ‘red hot’ – Chopping Block – Seminoles Blog – Orlando Sentinel

3) There was a mini-run on QBs in the draft, and QB was easily the biggest position of need for us. Newton was obviously gone. But Locker and Gabbert went in the top 10 as well. Every single draft ranking I have ever been able to find had Ponder ranked as the the fourth or fifth highest ranked QB. Given what was happening in #2, I think there was a very real possibility of a QB not being there when the Vikings picked in round 2. And it turns out that this was indeed the case, with Dalton and Kaepernick going very high in round 2. Mallett was the only QB left for the Vikings had they waited.

What would you have done? Keep in mind this is without the benefit of hindsight. I would have preferred the Vikings trade down in the round and still go after Ponder or Dalton, but that requires someone willing to trade. And again, without hindsight, who knows how far down we could have safely traded?

So did the Vikings reach for Ponder? Well, yes. They did. He didn't necessarily warrant a #12 pick. But what was the alternative? TJack was already cut loose. Ponder may not have been the 12th best player in the draft, but he was a justifiable pick at #12.

Now he needs to play like a #12 pick, or next year we will be shopping again.

Paul, I left the positives out for time and space consideration plus they've been talked about many times. The summary pretty much spells out the positives- smart, tough, competitive, good leadership qualities, etc.-the "intangibles". The report I found was from FSU's website. Even I know that anything on the web needs to be taken with just a bit of salt. Maybe PFW edited the thing, I don't know. My point is that the negatives that have been described seem to hit the nail on the head, do they not?

Originally Posted by vikinggreg

Wow. He looks like a badass there. How can we lose?

Crazy the amount of people willing to defend Ponder, yet the same people were tearing Jackson to shreds and coming up with nicknames like "T-Joke" just a couple years ago... and Jackson was playing MUCH better than Ponder is now. The double-standard is blatant, there is no denying it.

Just sad to see the amount of venom directed at Jackson compared to the civilized discussion regarding Ponder. Accept it or don't, it's the truth.

A couple years ago TJ was in his fifth season as a pro, While right now Ponder is in his second as a pro. We have reason to be hopeful Ponder will turn into something servicable, while we saw the best TJ had to offer.

Originally Posted by i_bleed_purple

A couple years ago TJ was in his fifth season as a pro, While right now Ponder is in his second as a pro. We have reason to be hopeful Ponder will turn into something servicable, while we saw the best TJ had to offer.

People were spewing venom towards Jackson during his second year. Truth.

Originally Posted by C Mac D

People were spewing venom towards Jackson during his second year. Truth.

Sure, some were, but the majority weren't.

Myself, I was in the crowd of "lets see what he's got, but I"m not expecting alot"

When that mediocrity continued, and actually got worse is when I turned. After Favre, I wanted to see what he learned, gave him one final chance. He proved the doubters correct again and we shipped his ass to Seattle.

TRUE!! I agree.. ppl were ready for TJack's head in the second year, esp. bc he kept getting hurt...

Tjack played about on par or a little better than Ponder to this point.. although, I see better accuracy from Ponder...

With that said, we reached (I mean drafted) Ponder in the 1st round at No.12 overall for whatever reason. He was supposed to be the most NFL ready and mature qb coming out of that draft and he hasn't been anything close to looking like a quality starting caliber Qb... He will probably get better with time... but with that said, our best players are wasting their best years away while this putz tries to figure out how to play quarterback...

I've never really been a fan... I see his ceiling as an Alex Smith type qb.. regardless of how much better he gets... He's NOT a Franchise caliber QB who's going to put this team on his back and take us to a superbowl.. if we ever are good enough to win one.. it will be a Trent Dilfer situation where Ponder essentially "Does no Harm".... we will have to win with defense and elite playmakers on offense... We have way too many holes for that to happen.. we're better off trying to get the QB situation right...

Originally Posted by C Mac D

People were spewing venom towards Jackson during his second year. Truth.

There's plenty of venom being spewed towards Ponder, more negative than positive comments these days. Not sure why that doesn't satisfy you. Sounds like you still can't come to grips with your relentless support of Tarvaris.

And where the hell were you when the Vikings were playing well. Apparently this board is only entertaining for you when we are stinking up the joint.

If you come up with a nice nickname for Ponder, I'm sure many will be happy to use it. You have to admit though, Christian Ponder is a little harder name to work with. TJack was just too easy.