Evolution of the Starting quarterback: A Case study on Keenum

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.