Christian Ponder Should Start for Minnesota Vikings for Remainder of Season

On the first possession of the second half against the Detroit Lions last Sunday at Ford Field, Christian Ponder threw his worst pass as an NFL quarterback. Moving to his right on a bad hip, Ponder broke every rule in the "smart quarterback rule book" by throwing back across his body, trying to hit Percy Harvin, who was running in the opposite direction. Lions defensive back Eric Wright stepped in front of Harvin for what had to be the easiest of his four interceptions on the season.

For Minnesota Vikings fans, it was horribly reminiscent of the Brett Favre across-the-body pass against the Saints in the 2010 NFC Championship game that was picked off by Tracy Porter at his own 22-yard line and sent the Vikings organization skidding to its current state.

Obviously the Ponder pick wasn't as dramatic as Favre's, but it capped off the worst game of Ponder's rookie season and got him pulled in favor of Joe Webb, who led a spirited second-half comeback, only to come up a play short at the end of the game.

Webb set a Vikings franchise record, running for 109 yards from the quarterback position, including a 65-yard touchdown run that sparked the second-half comeback. He brought the Vikings all the way back from a 31-14 deficit, only to lose 34-28 on a controversial last play from the Lions' 1-yard line.

It was a very strange NFL game. The Vikings rushed for 269 yards (without Adrian Peterson) and lost—very hard to do. The Vikings had a minus-six turnover ratio and had a chance to win the game on the last play—nearly impossible to do.

In the simplest of explanations, the Vikings lost the game because Ponder played terribly and they got back into the game because Webb played very well. Having said that, there is absolutely no quarterback controversy in Minnesota, nor should there be. Barring injury, Ponder will be the quarterback for the remainder of the season and he should be. Webb will continue to be the "he sure seems to make things happen, we need to figure out how to get him the ball more" guy.

First and foremost, Webb is not a starting quarterback in the NFL. At 6'4" and 220 pounds, he's obviously a great athlete and he's provided a great spark in his mop-up duty. He's a very good runner who's tough to defend because he can keep defenses in no man's land as they wonder when Webb might take off and run. The problem for Webb is that he throws a weak, inaccurate ball. He's just not an NFL passer.

Where Webb fits in is still anybody's guess, but he's not a starting quarterback. He's done well as a backup, but he's not a guy you can't count on to be a long-term backup, meaning if you lose your starter for the year during Week 2, you need someone other than Webb to lead you the rest of the way.

The Vikings should give Webb an offseason to see if he can develop into another Brad Smith-type, a guy who was a great college quarterback, but mostly because of his legs rather than his arm. Webb has had to spend too much of his time with the Vikings as a quarterback to explore any potential he might have as a receiver.

More importantly for the Vikings, they have to move forward with Ponder as the starter because he's still shown more positives than negatives. He's made plenty of poor decisions and poor throws, which is normal for a rookie playing on a bad team. The key to that last sentence is that there is no argument that Ponder is playing on a bad team. He has limited protection and he's throwing to receivers who are not getting separation. 

All Vikings fans would have loved for Ponder to step into the starting role and never make any mistakes, never thrown into or misread coverage, and always had ball protection at the front of his mind. That's just not reality. 

The key for Ponder over the last three weeks of this season and then during his first offseason is to see how much he learns from his mistakes and how much he can apply this first season of learning into becoming a better quarterback in the future. Hopefully the Vikings will have a better offensive line and better receivers for Ponder to throw to beginning next season—and then a better evaluation of Ponder will be available.

It's been a very tough year to evaluate Ponder. Nobody who watches the Vikings closely is ready to say he is a lock to be the franchise leader for the next decade and nobody is ready to say he'll never be a top-flight NFL starter (although there are probably more in the second camp after last week).

One of the few luxuries of a lost season is that Ponder can learn on the fly and his growing pains aren't going to ruin a season that never had a chance anyway. What's crucial for the Vikings is that Ponder is indeed learning and that his first year of "baptism in fire" pays off and that it makes him a better quarterback in the future.

A year from now we'll all have a better handle on what kind of quarterback Christian Ponder can be, and that year starts with the last three games of this season.