Donovan McNabb Trade: How New Minnesota Vikings QB Can Help Christian Ponder

The Minnesota Vikings acquiring veteran quarterback Donovan McNabb from the Washington Redskins could be a move that proves to be very beneficial to not only the organization, but more importantly rookie quarterback Christian Ponder.

Although Viking coaches and football experts alike believed that the Vikings may go with Ponder as the starter off-the-bat, with the absence of mini camps and OTA’s due to the lockout the coaches have had no time to work with or season their rookie.   

With the McNabb acquisition, Ponder will now have more time to learn the Vikings system as well as the  in’s and out’s of being a starting quarterback in the NFL without having to be tossed out to the shark’s as bait from day one. 

This may be the biggest benefit of having a veteran quarterback to begin the season with, because although there is a chance that Ponder could go out and be the next Matt Ryan, there is also a chance that the rookie could initially struggle, which runs the risk of damaging his psyche for the entire season, or worse, the first few years of his young career.  We have seen this happen before.

A six-time Pro Bowler, there may not be a better veteran quarterback available than McNabb for the Vikings’ to pick up to help teach Ponder and assist him with the transition from college to the NFL.  Entering his 13th year in the league, McNabb has overall enjoyed a very successful career, leading the Eagles to one Super Bowl, five NFC Championship games, and four consecutive NFC East division championships in 2001-2004.

With that said, although Minnesota may have signed McNabb so that they had a starting quarterback come week one, both quarterbacks have a brand new system to learn and a lot of work to do before Minnesota kicks off with San Diego on September 11. According to a tweet sent out via Twitter by Ponder yesterday, he is looking forward to McNabb as a teacher, but his goal is still to earn the start for week one.

“cponder7:  Excited to have McNabb join.  Will learn a lot from a Pro Bowler.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not still fight to start week1”