Christian Ponder: Is He the End of the Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Carousel?

Christian Ponder is hoping to enter rarefied air as the current quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. Since the team's inception in 1961, only three quarterbacks, Fran Tarkenton, Tommy Kramer and Daunte Culpepper, have held the starting job for four seasons or more.

Ponder became just the third quarterback the Vikings have ever selected in the first round in 50 years of drafting (along with Kramer and Culpepper) when Minnesota took him with the 12th pick in last spring's draft.

The rookie out of Florida State has put together two fairly impressive starts since taking over the starting spot from Donovan McNabb two weeks ago.

Ponder's numbers have been decent, but it's the leadership and poise he's shown in fourth quarters—converting in crucial third down situations—that have Vikings coaches and fans hoping he is the long term answer at quarterback.

Vikings fans have been quick to praise the young quarterback, as he has infused life into an otherwise forgettable season. While there's a long way to go in the 2011 campaign, Ponder's play so far has at least given hope that better days are ahead.

The Vikings signed the six-time Pro-Bowler McNabb in the summer, hoping he could step in and lead a veteran offense while giving Ponder time to learn and acclimate himself to the pro level. But McNabb was a huge disappointment, and Ponder was given the reins far before anyone in the Vikings organization thought he would be.

McNabb was just another in a long line of veteran quarterbacks the Vikings have signed over the years. Some have been great, some average and some borderline disastrous. 

A team that avoids drafting top-level quarterbacks like the Vikings has had to rely too much on fill-in, stop-gap quarterback solutions. While some have worked out great (Brett Favre, Randall Cunningham and Warren Moon), most have been plodding at best (McNabb, Gus Frerotte and Brad Johnson's second stint with the club).

The team has rarely set itself up for long-term "franchise" quarterbacks.

Former head coach Brad Childress' entire stay in Minnesota ended up being defined by his drafting of a no-name quarterback out of Alabama State in the second round of the 2006 draft. Childress was convinced that Tarvaris Jackson was the perfect quarterback to run his West Coast Offense, and he banked his and the team's future on the pick.

Jackson was not the answer; in fact, he played like someone who never even knew the question. Quite frankly, he looked like someone who should be playing quarterback at Alabama State.

Childress' coaching fate was saved in 2009 when Brett Favre signed with the Vikings and had the best year of his career, leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship game.

But again, Favre was just a stop-gap solution. Sure, he gave the Vikings one of their best seasons ever, but he was not a long-term solution.

It was clear the Vikings needed to find a quarterback heading into the 2011 draft, and while the team had a terribly disappointing 2010 season, they still won enough games to be picking 12th in a draft where the top three quarterbacks were all expected to go in the first 10 picks.

Sure enough, the top three quarterback prospects, Cam Newton, Jake Locker and Blaine Gabbert, were all gone by the time the Vikings were picking. Minnesota then raised a lot of eyebrows by selecting Ponder 12th, when most experts had him going in the second round with the other "second tier" of quarterback prospects like Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick.

Fast forward to the beginning of the second half of the season, and Ponder has two starts under his belt and a franchise that is hoping he can provide long-term stability at a position where they've rarely had it.

Ponder has gotten nothing but thumbs-up reviews from his teammates and Minnesota fans to this point, but he still has a long way to go to match up to the starts that the three "franchise" quarterbacks for the Vikings had before him.

Fran Tarkenton was chosen in the third round of the Vikings' inaugural draft in 1961, and the Hall of Famer came off the bench in the expansion team's first-ever game, throwing four touchdowns and running for another while leading the upstart Vikings to a shocking 37-13 win over the Chicago Bears.

It was not until their 16th year as a franchise that Minnesota finally took a quarterback in the first round, selecting Tommy Kramer out of Rice with the 27th pick. Kramer's first significant action had him coming off the bench, down 24-7 to the San Francisco 49ers.

All Kramer did was throw three fourth quarter touchdown passes against the No. 1 pass defense in the NFL, the last being a 69-yard bomb to Sammy White with 1:38 remaining to cap off a miraculous 28-27 win.

It took 22 more years for the Vikings to again use a first-round pick on a quarterback, this time taking Daunte Culpepper out of Central Florida with the 11th pick in the 1999 draft. Culpepper learned for a season behind Jeff George and Randall Cunningham before taking over in 2000, when he won his first seven games as a starter and led the Vikings all the way to the NFC Championship game.

Another 12 years have passed and once again the purple faithful are hoping that a first-round draft pick at the most important position on the field can lead Minnesota back to the upper echelon of NFL teams. Christian Ponder has been given the reins, and Vikings fans everywhere are hoping that another stop-gap solution won't be needed for at least another decade.