6 Reasons the Vikings Should Have Passed on Donovan McNabb

The latest buzz is that the Minnesota Vikings are talking to the Washington Redskins in an attempt to make a trade for veteran quarterback Donovan McNabb. This would be a bad idea.

Sure McNabb, a 12-year NFL veteran, is a proven winner. He has a 97-57-1 record as a starter in 11 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and one season in Washington, with 230 touchdowns and an 85.7 career passer rating.

And yes, he led the Eagles to the playoffs in eight seasons and played in five NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl and is a six-time Pro Bowl player.

Part of the justification is that there is not enough time for their first-round draft pick, Christian Ponder, to be ready when the season opens on September 11th in San Diego. Too many OTA's and mini camps have been cancelled due to the recently settled lockout.

Despite all of this, the Minnesota Vikings would be better off passing on McNabb and look to develop Ponder.

Sign a Veteran QB—Been There and Done That

It started in 1993 when the Minnesota Vikings signed another former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback in Jim McMahon.

While McMahon is better known for his days with the Chicago Bears, he spent three seasons starting 12 games for the Eagles before playing the 1993 season with Vikings.  McMahon would go 8-4 in 12 starts leading the Vikings into the playoffs as a Wild Card team.

The next season the Vikings would sign another veteran in Warren Moon. That would follow with Randall Cunningham in 1998, Jeff George in 1999, the return of Brad Johnson in 2005, Gus Frerrotte's second stint with the Vikings in 2008, and Brett Favre in 2009.

Since the signing of McMahon in 1993 there has only been one quarterback to start five consecutive seasons for the Purple—Daunte Culpepper from 2000 to 2004.  

The plan is to bring in Donovan McNabb under the premise to turn over the reins of the Vikings offense as soon as possible.

With a whole new coaching staff, any quarterback the Vikings bring will have to learn a different system with new nomenclature. That being the case it might as well be Christian Ponder.

The Vikings Are Already over the Salary Cap

Donovan McNabb may not want to play for back-up money. After signing a five-year extension with the Redskin last season for $78 million, he is set to make $12.5 million in 2011. He would have to be willing to restructure his contract in order to be traded to Minnesota.

There is no way the Vikings are looking to sign McNabb for the long term in order to defer enough of the money to make it worth while for McNabb.

With the Vikings already over the NFL salary cap in 2011, they need to find ways to get under the cap to sign players with a longer term impact on the team than what McNabb would be able to provide.

With All of the Needs the Vikings Have, McNabb Is Not Enough

The best the Vikings could hope for in signing the 34-year-old Donovan McNabb, would be no more than two extra wins in 2011.

The Vikings need help in so many areas, including offensive and defensive lines, wide receiver and the defensive backfield, that adding McNabb, who will have to learn his third new offense in three years, would do little to change the fate of the Minnesota Vikings in 2011.

After finishing in last place with a 6-10 record, the Vikings are nowhere near being in contention for the playoffs.

Things will get worse before they get better. Every other team in the division is on the rise, while the Vikings have taken a huge step backwards.

It will take more than one veteran quarterback to turn that around.

There's Nothing in It for Donovan McNabb

At this stage in his career Donovan McNabb must be thinking about a shot at the Super Bowl—if that's the case, the Vikings, who finished last in the NFC North last season, would not be a good fit.

Over the last two seasons McNabb has been sacked a total of 72 times. In 2010 he had the lowest passer rating in his career since becoming a starter in 2000. If the two are at all connected then the last place he might want to play would be in Minnesota where Vikings quarterbacks were sacked a total of 36 times last season.

Donovan McNabb Is Just Another Brett Favre

This looks a lot like the route Brett Favre took to get to the Vikings.

Play most of your career with a team in green. Sign with a team on the East coast and then make the move to Minnesota. All right, that's a very liberal interpretation of the two quarterbacks' careers.

Favre has a career 62.4 winning percentage and an 86.0 passer rating.

Donovan McNabb's winning percentage is 62.5 with an 85.7 career passer rating.

Favre has a 11-9 record in the playoffs including the only Super Bowl loss in Green Bay history. (Yes, I know he also has a Super Bowl victory for the Packers!)  

McNabb has a 10-8 record in the playoffs including a Super Bowl loss.

The differences are that McNabb would be five years younger than Favre, and the Vikings were in much better shape when Favre joined the team in 2009 than it is today.

Yeah, McNabb's number look an awful lot like those of Favre's, and we all know how that went in 2010.  

Donovan McNabb's Best Days Are Behind Him

Donovan McNabb's 77.1 passer rating was the worst in his career since taking over as the starter for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2000. He finished the season with a  5-8 record for the last place Redskins, who finished with the same 6-10 record as the Vikings last season.

McNabb's season was so bad that he was benched by head coach Mike Shanahan in favor of Rex Grossman.

Unless the plan is to throw McNabb out there to take the heat, saving Christian Ponder from taking a beating until the Vikings offensive line has time to gel, then perhaps it's not a bad deal.

But then again, couldn't Tarvaris Jackson serve the same purpose?