Evolution of the Starting quarterback: A Case study on Keenum

Its Spring 2017, the opening day of the Free agency with Jared Goff set as their starting quarterback and former third-round pick Sean Mannion as his backup, the Los Angeles Rams have decided not to resign their 2016 starter Case Keenum. Keenum ended his Rams tenure with a respectable 7-7 record under the head coach Jeff Fisher, who was presumed as a quarterback killer.

After starting his career 0-8 for Houston Texans in their atrocious 2013 season, Case Keenum compiled a 9-7 record in his next 16 games with the Texans and Rams. Even then there were no takers for Case Keenum in 2017 free agency. Nearly after a month into the free agency, Keenum is still available for the teams to sign, no team wanted him. Cut to 2018 Free agency, Keenum became the first free agent quarterback to sign a two year 36 million dollar contract with almost 25 million of it is guaranteed.

2017 was the kind of season Keenum has been waiting for since he entered the league in 2012. He put the entire league on notice by showing he can be the guy for the right team. IN the words of Keenum, instead of proving the doubters wrong, he proved his believer correct.

Keenum's rise is one of the best stories in NFL in last year. Let's take a look at how Keenum's play has evolved over the years and why 2017 is not a fluke.

Tenuous Texans Tenure

Coming out of the University of Houston after breaking all kinds of NCAA passing records it was surprising to see that Case Keenum went undrafted. Gary Kubiak, then Houston Texans Head Coach gave Keenum the shot. He redshirted his rookie season on the practice squad.

But in 2013, due to an injury to the starting quarterback Matt Schaub and as Texans are looking for a spark on a disappointing season, Kubiak promoted Keenum to the starting role ahead of the backup TJ Yates. Keenum had an unfortunate way to start his career in one of the loudest stadiums, the Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Keenum was decent in his debut, not turning over the ball and kept the Texans in the game. But it was in his second start at home against Indianapolis Colts that Case Keenum let his guns loose. The first half show by Keenum is probably still his best performance. Andre Johnson was the happiest of the bunch in the Texans locker room reeling in three Touchdown passes in the first half alone. Johnson, who was having a down year suddenly got back to an amazing form, thanks most part to Keenum's YOLO type of throws.

Case Keenum was significantly better than Matt Schaub that season but still couldn't record a single win, part of it due to injuries and defense not being up to their dominance. Keenum didn't have Arian Foster during his starts. He almost had zero running game. That is not the kind of pressure you want your young QB playing his first season to face. Yet, Keenum kept Texans in the games. The matchups against Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, and New England Patriots are the best examples. Keenum would put the Texans in the winning position but the defense would end up leaking points on the other end.

During the final weeks, Texans have fired the head coach Gary Kubiak and hired Bill O'Brien to succeed him. O'Brien understandably brought his own quarterbacks by cutting loose all three 2013 Texans QBS including Keenum. Keenum then signed with the St. Louis Rams Practice squad.

But the injury bug bit the Texans big in the position in 2014 forcing them to sign Keenum off the Rams Practice Squad. With Playoff berth on the line Keenum, who got the call from the Texans while deer hunting, played brilliantly helping them win both the games. By not signing Keenum right after the starter Ryan Fitzpatrick got injured was one of the big mistakes Bill O'Brien might have made. If the Texans had Keenum for their week 15 loss against Indianapolis Colts, they probably would have won it and made the playoffs, instead, they had to depend on other results, which didn't work out well.

Wretched Rams Stint

After the 2014 stint with the Texans, Keenum was traded back to Rams in 2015 offseason. But, Rams surprised by also making a deal for Nick Foles from Philadelphia Eagles on the same day making him the starter and Keenum the backup.

But, now what evidenced to be a bad coaching job with the Rams, Foles had a bad 2015 season paving way for the Keenum halfway through the season. Keenum's debut with the Rams though was not memorable, which led to him being continued to play when he was clearly concussed, which led to a new rule for the concussions where a doctor from the booth can call off a player if they think he is not able to continue.

Keenum came back from the concussion to play the final 3 games, winning all three including the one against one of the best defenses in Seattle. His best game though came in a Thursday night Matchup against Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are 0-3 against Keenum, where he had a near perfect game with a 153 rating.

After a third straight 7-9 season, then Rams head coach Jeff Fisher named Keenum the incumbent starter for 2016 season. But, a few days before the draft Rams are traded for the number one overall pick in 2016 draft and eventually picking Jared Goff as their future franchise quarterback.

Keenum did start the 2016 week 1 as the starter, which also is the first season back for the team in Los Angeles, but had a forgetful start with a shutout loss to a bad San Fransico 49ers team. But the next three games Keenum committed fewer mistakes and helping them win all the three games racing off to a 3-1 start on the top of NFC West.

But things went downhill from there for Keenum and the Rams, they would go on to lose the next four games with a combination of bad coaching and bad execution by the players. Keenum did not have a good offensive line or a running game from Todd Gurley, who had a sensational rookie season in 2015. With pressure on all his shoulders and having a sub-par receiver didn't help Keenum and Rams' chances.

Rams lost all the other games under Jared Goff which led to the firing of Head Coach Jeff Fisher. Rams decided not to resign Case Keenum in 2017 offseason, leading him to sign to a veteran minimum with Minnesota Vikings as an insurance who have quarterbacks with injury histories.

Despite having a disappointing end to his Rams tenure, Keenum boasts a .500 tenure with a terrible Rams team with which former first-round picks, Sam Bradford, Jared Goff and future Superbowl MVP Nick Foles couldn't win games.

Keenum, even though didn't score too many touchdowns, didn't commit too many mistakes either. Most of the interceptions weren't his fault either. This interception against the Giants in London is the best example. Keenum clearly signals to the receiver to go to the end zone but the receiver stops short to the end zone while Keenum throws to the end zone expecting to see his receiver to be in there. When you do not have the players you can depend on there isn't much as a quarterback you can do.

Victorious Vikings

For the second time in his career, Keenum was neglected by almost every NFL team. Vikings, who were thin at the quarterback room with Sam Bradford, who is injury prone, Teddy Bridgewater was still in rehab and Taylor Heinicke is the only other quarterback in the roster. Vikings signed Keenum to a veteran minimum as an insurance to Bradford, thinking they didn't have to use him.

Since Vikings signed Keenum, he never got any kind of respect a player would expect. Keenum, who had 24 starts under his belt and going 9-7 in his last 6 games, was made to compete against Heinicke for the backup job. Unfortunately for Vikings, Sam Bradford got injured after Game 1, and Keenum was thrust into the starter role just minutes before the start of week 2 matchup against Pittsburgh Steelers.

Keenum had a terrible start to his Vikings career, which was expected due to lack of starter reps prior to the match. But Keenum came back big in Week 3 against his favorite opponent in Tampa Bay Buccaneers earning the game ball from the head coach Mike Zimmer. Vikings lost their next week matchup against Detroit Lions but since then Vikings would go on to win 11 of their 12 matchups.

During all those 12 regular season games Keenum has shown what he can do when he is surrounded by the talented skill position players. When Dalvin Cook got injured in Week 4, the running game was a suspect but Jerick Mckinnon and Latavius Murray stepped up brilliantly in his absence, which in turn helped Keenum to execute the Run-Pass Option plays to a tee.

As much as Thielen, Diggs, and Rudolph has helped Keenum winning games, it was Keenum's ability to avoid defenders and get the ball out quickly has helped them gain a lot of yards. Even though Keenum took only 11 sacks in 2017, the offensive line is ranked 22 by Pro Football Focus, which shows how good Keenum was at avoiding the sacks.

The best one came against his previous team the Los Angeles Rams, where Keenum avoids multiple defenders and throw a ridiculous first down completion to Adam Thielen as he was being hit. It is this kind of plays that made a subpar offensive line look like a Top 10 line. There are plenty of plays like these in Vikings 2017 film which helped Vikings to reach the NFC championship. If it weren't for Keenum's athleticism I doubt Vikings would have made that far into Playoffs.

The best moments of his Vikings tenure came at the divisional matchup while tossing a game-winning Touchdown during the final seconds to Stephon Diggs. Under pressure with defenders closing in Keenum threw the ball up to the sideline where only Stephon Diggs could make a play on the ball. The play which now deemed to be Minneapolis Miracle has christened the name of Case Keenum in the Vikings history.

Keenum who arguably had the best QB performances in franchise's history since 2009 Brett Favre's had to look over his shoulder the whole season without getting a clean bill from his head coach. Since Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford came back from injury the status of the starting QB has been week to week. Zimmer was reluctant to name Keenum the starter until the very end of the regular season,

Even after the season, Vikings brass and coach Zimmer did not show the vote of confidence on the man who got them to the NFC CHampionship game. Zimmer even said that "We don't know which Case will show up, the one who played for us or the one who played for Rams". The catch is that it was the same Case Keenum, that has played for Texans, Rams, and Vikings. The difference was the quality of the team that was around him. Vikings were and still are by far the best team he had played with in his NFL career.

Denver Dreams

The Denver Broncos were the first team to sign a quarterback in 2018 offseason. They put all their faith in Keenum and signed him for much less than what Kirk Cousins was looking for and for a similar quarterback play. Keenum and Cousins are both similar kind of players who can thrive with best players and coaches around them.

2018 Denver Broncos will be the best team Keenum has played with after the 2017 Vikings. Broncos have one of the Top defenses led by Von Miller and they bolstered their pass rush by adding Bradley Chubb who fell for them at #5 in 2018 draft.

The Wide Receiver duo of Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, albeit old are really good and a sub-par quarterback play limited their numbers in the past two seasons. With Keenum under center, those two numbers should go up in 2018. Addition of rookie Courtland Sutton out of SMU also helps to have a deep threat for Keenum.

The Running game and offensive line of Broncos are both lingering issues for Broncos, but they have made some necessary additions in both to bolster it from what they had in 2017.

With Bills Musgrave calling the plays, who called for 2016 Oakland Raiders while developing Derek Carr to MVP candidate, should help the Broncos offense. If the running game gets going Keenum with his ability to avoid defenders should be able to find Thomas and Sanders for touchdowns.

The journey of Case Keenum should be a lesson to all the players, coaches, general managers who just give up after one or two bad seasons. If you keep practicing and keep yourself available, you will always get the chance eventually.

With the successes of players like Kurt Warner, Tony Romo, Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins, the evaluation of the QB prospects remains to be a mystery. The teams still like to gauge quarterbacks solely based on physical straits than game acumen.

Will Keenum be the second coming of Kurt Warner? Can Case Keenum continue his 2017 form? Time will tell the answers to these questions. But he most certainly proved that he is here to stay for years to come in NFL as a starter or in the worst case a premier backup, which is turning out to be the most important position in NFL right now.