Playoffs: Minnesota Vikings (10-6) vs Green Bay Packers (11-5) Jan 5 8:00 PM ET

[100%CHEESE FREE]

You don't think in 3 plus years that the coaching staff would have thought of that? Do you not honestly believe he was tried out there in practices? If he wasn't, I agree it's a complete shame they didn't even try to utilize his athleticism. But, even if for a short period of time, he saw time at WR and they ultimately saw him as a QB. Isn't that kind of telling?

And, I don't mean to throw insults, but you've been on my sack since I started posting again. I don't know if you feel like you have some kind of "I'm the king around here" vibe on this site or what, but I could argue your complete assery towards me isn't "allowed", either.

What I believe is that you don't know enough about weather it was tried in practice, or if it was how well it went to say that Webb can't play the position. Neither do I, neither does anybody on here (unless WIPurplePride is actually Rick Spielman).

Right now we can't sit here and say "Well Webb doesn't know how to run routes, he's really sloppy." or "He dropped all of these passes, he's a miserable WR." or "He's too slow to get open." All we know is that he was drafted as a WR, moved to QB almost right away in mini-camp, got the majority of his practice time at QB while still receiving a bit at WR (and he was used for like 4 snaps as a WR in real games, and returned a kick). Subsequently (and for whatever reason) he was moved on to playing QB exclusively and became our #2 guy at that position.

This conversation would be much different if we had, you know, some actual evidence of Webb being horrible at WR, right now we don't, so I don't really agree with the notion that we should cut one of the best athletes in the NFL just because of what happened on Saterday, nor should we automatically limit the guy to strictly playing QB going forward (especially after Saterday).

I'm sorry that we don't seem to get along, but so far in almost every post I've seen from you, you consistently insult and disrespect other Vikings' fans, including myself. That's not why anyone comes here and not something that should have to go on. Also, no I'm not the king of anything around here, that would be V4LB.

[FrankieFreakout]

LOL.

You take this site too seriously.

[100%CHEESE FREE]

LOL.

You take this site too seriously.

LOL, you don't take it seriously enough. This is a really great board, best one I've found anyways.

[bigvikingfan]

Yep that's right, however its usually difficult in some cases to move guys past waivers, especially if they were a draft pick and did something notable. The other thing about the practice squad is that those guys are still free agents, so if any other team wanted to sign a guy off of our squad (it has to be to their full 53 man roster, and they can't cut him for 3 weeks or so) they can, however we would also have the option of a counter offer, either promoting that player ourselves, or paying him more to stay on our PS. Practice squad guys don't usually make a lot of money (somewhere in the $50,000 range, seems like a huge amount but really pennies compared to even the salary floor on the regular roster which is in the neighborhood of $300,000).

The year Webb was drafted he tore off that big 60 or 70 yard run in San Francisco (Brett Favre's first game back with the team in 2010, Week 2 of the pre-season I think) and that's one of the huge reasons that he didn't end up on the practice squad (that plus Chilly traded Rosenfels to the Giants for a bag of footballs that year and also had to give them Darius Reynaud just to keep them interested, horrible trade that left us without our best backup QB and punt returner, we were converting Reynaud to RB that year and we all saw how good he was in TEN, he had some bad years in New York though.) because it was a forgone conclusion that he wouldn't make it through waivers without getting picked up. This exact thing happened with Tyler Thigpen when we drafted him in 2007 and was also at least somewhat responsible for why we cut Sage Rosenfels before the start of this year, we didn't want to risk 3rd string McLeod Bethel-Thompson getting poached because reportedly we like his arm strength.

Anyways, the top and bottom with Webb is that if we continue to think that QB is the only position he can play (and we all saw how well he played it on Sunday) we're limiting ourselves and one of the most gifted athletes in the NFL. I was a big critic of his in the past, but one thing we all have to admit, even those who are really down on Webb is that he has played QB better in the past than he did against Green Bay. How much of that is Musgrave's fault for hamstringing him into plays designed for Christian Ponder (trying to make him stay in the pocket, which was just stupid considering what he's capable of on the run) we'll probably never know.

I'll also defend what the coaches saw in him though, I'd take Webb in a foot race over RG3, Cam Newton, Terelle Pryor or even Colin Kaepernick. Also he's got a cannon for an arm, IF he threw an accurate football he'd be an unholy terror on the field and would have had a bigger impact than Daunte Culpepper had in 2000. You can't at all blame someone for trying to cultivate that (if it had of worked we would have steamrolled Green Bay and be headed to Atlanta right now) but you sort of can when you look at what it cost us as a team (a decent backup QB who may not have lit the world on fire but almost certainly would have performed much better than Webb did under center). Hopefully this serves as an eye-opener, we go and get ourselves the best backup QB we can find and free up Webb so he can be used in a way that is productive and helps our team.

I agree.


I like Webb and I think he is a true team player that will do anything his coaches ask of him, but he is not worthy to be backup qb.

Would be nice to get a veteran qb as a backup to be both a reliable backup and competition for Ponder. Think Alex Smith might be available?

[iowavike]

It's nice to read others on here locking horns for a change. It's heathy.
We're all so fickle. One bad game fire everybody. One good game give em all a raise and extend their contracts. I admit I'm as guity as the rest on here.
I'm mad we lost too. But what did you all really expect of a #199 pick that was drafted as a potential WR. And hasn't had hardly any experience, none really this year. He didn't even know he was starting for sure until 90 mins. before the game.
Nervious, I'd been petrafied. In Green Bay no less.
That said he did end up with 180 yrds. passing and a TD. And some good runs. His 4th. qt. wasn't bad. Maybe if he could've played in a few games this year who knows.
OK Ponder had a good last game at home, but I wouldn't say that he has all of a sudden turned a magic corner and became the next Payton Manning game in and game out. If Ponder played even as good as his last game (HIS BEST OF THE YEAR IMO) we'd still would've most likely lost.

[bigvikingfan]

He threw the ball for 3 quarters and won the game for us to get us into the playoffs right after the injury....He was shown throwing the ball with zip on it before the playoff game....his arm wasn't 100%, but we had a way better chance at winning that game with an 85% Ponder than a 120% Webb....It wasn't Ponders choice to play or not, and i'm saying this because i'm reading people say that Ponder's a pu$$y and yadayadayada for not playing....Coach Leslie felt that Webb at 100% was better than a banged up Ponder, and boy was he wrong

I'm not going to put that all on Webb, nor am i going to put that all on Frazier either....We threw the ball with Webb over 30 times (that's an instaloss)...our read option game was killing them, FOR THE FIRST DRIVE, then we abandoned it...Play calling was idiotic throughout



I fully expect Bill Musgrave to be unemployed next year and us to have a new o-coordinator

I have heard all sorts of reasons as to why Ponder did not play, from it was Frazier's call all the way to Ponder was so hurt he could not put on his own t-shirt on. I do not know what to believe anymore.

I do know this, the Vikes did a much better job this year than expected. In fact, they may have surprised themselves. However, as well as they have played this year I do not believe they could have gotten far in the playoffs even if they did beat Green Bay.

So in reality, if either Ponder or Webb played it could have been a lost cause.



I do know this, after the year the Vikes had this season they are preparing early to get back to the playoffs.

[bigvikingfan]

percy to arizona for fitz

what does everyone think????

Seems like a good trade to me buddy?


Love Fitz, but MONEY talks.

[bigvikingfan]

Don't you think that it might be worth giving Webb an expanded number of snaps at WR in training camp, just to, I dunno, see if the 6'4" guy who runs a 4.43 40, can jump 42.5 inches and has gigantic hands can really play the position. We bring guys who are much worse to camp all the time.

As dumb as you think the idea is, you can't say why Webb is a bad WR, just that he must be because he was kept at QB.

Webb is going to be on this team at least until final cuts in August and he'll get his chance to make a place for himself in camp. Weather that's at QB, WR, returning kicks, who knows.

How about corner? Cook's back-up.

[Bob_at_york]

I probably should delete more posts but I really don't want to have to continue policing this thread. I am closing this thread down. Feel free to debate Joe Webb in a different/new thread.