On most NFL teams, the backup quarterback is the fanbase’s favorite player. I have fond memories as a child of chanting Tarvaris Jackson‘s name in 2006 as Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger floundered. Sean Mannion receives no such love. Kirk Cousins has plenty of good things to say about how Mannion affects his game-to-game preparation. But Mannion doesn’t inspire anyone, and alternative options are a popular talking point.
Mannion isn’t currently under contract, however. It’s been reported that he’s a likely option, but that was over a month ago. The draft is a lot closer, and the idea of signing Mannion right beforehand makes a lot less sense. Currently, Jake Browning and Nate Stanley would compete for the backup job, but that seems even less likely considering that neither has even made the team in three combined training camps.
We could turn to some free agents. Sam Ekstrom wrote about that earlier this offseason, and many of those players are still on the market. But most of the discontent surrounding Mannion is the dreary reality that he’ll never be more than he is. Maybe he’s a helpful whiteboard aide to Cousins, but he’ll never provide the Minnesota Vikings a future. And many don’t believe in him as an insurance policy either.
Those are the two things we typically want from a backup quarterback: a fill-in if Cousins has to miss some time and someone with the potential to become better than him. Mannion provides neither, but the Vikings seem more comfortable with him as a fill-in than most fans are. Most teams ask their backup quarterbacks to perform scouting and preparation duties over the course of the week. On those, Cousins and the team swear by him.
It would probably be worth it to sacrifice that last thing in favor of the first two. There could be opportunities for that in the draft. There are many developmental quarterbacks like Feleipe Franks from Arkansas or Northwestern’s Peyton Ramsey. But the Vikings would likely still need someone who could step in Week 1 if Cousins had to go into concussion protocol. Assuming the top five quarterbacks are long gone by the time the Vikings address this position, here are some names they could consider:
Kellen Mond
Mond has traits that NFL teams will lose their minds over. He has a good deep ball, can look off a deep safety, and throws well on the run. That makes him a good fit on a Kubiak offense that will ask for deep throws and lots of bootlegs. It’s the mental side of his game and a bit of a gawky frame that will sink his draft stock. He has trouble reading defenses quickly enough to react before defenders can read his eyes in turn. His accuracy is inconsistent, and he’s been tricked by one too many blitzes and ultimately will need some time before he’s ready to play NFL quarterback.
But as a backup, Mond doesn’t need to read NFL defenses like a pro on Day 1. If you need to give a quarterback blitz checks or other simplifying factors, you can limp through for a game or two. Because he’d be able to handle the throw-on-run elements the Kubiaks love to leverage, he’d be able to make the team at least.
Davis Mills
Depending on which plays you watch, Mills can trick you into thinking he’s the next big quarterback. With solid stature and a penchant for pretty touch throws, there’s a lot to like. Not unlike Kirk Cousins when he was coming out of Michigan State, Mills has a bad case of hero-ball. He’ll try to force too much to happen, even if it means bad footwork or dangerous, high misses. He’s also had chronic problems with his left knee.
Medicals notwithstanding, Mills could probably beat Stanley and Browning in a competition based on throwing talent alone. If he ever took the field, he could take a two-score loss and turn it into a four-score loss, but some situations are desperate enough to risk that. He has only started 11 games and has a lot to learn. The Vikings would be in a good position to nurture the next chapter of his career. They just have to bet that he’ll come along someday.
Ian Book
Often, the best kind of backup quarterback is the one that offers an entirely different style than your starter. If a defense prepares all week for Cousins, then Joe Webb trots out in the second quarter, you can subvert that preparation. Book offers a dynamic scrambling element. Cousins added a running element to his game last year, but it’s not natural for him.
Ian Book exists in an improvisational state.
In the fourth quarter of a disastrous Cousins meltdown game, that may be exactly what the doctor ordered. The problem is Book’s value as an on-script quarterback. Other prospects who offer much more with their arms will be available when Book is an option. As a starting quarterback, even for a game, there’s simply too much to work around. He gets jittery in the pocket, holds the ball too long, and misses too often. Drafting Book can’t be a bet that you can fix all that, but rather, a bet that you can win in the schoolyard.
Jamie Newman
Newman has more of the basics down than other quarterbacks mentioned here, but he still has a long way to go. He only has one year of starting experience and needs to speed up his game. Wake Forest runs a fairly unique version of a read-option offense that the Vikings wouldn’t want to adopt for their backup quarterback. But if you just need Newman to hit some back- shoulder go routes and basic curls, slants, and other vanilla concepts while Cousins sits out, he’ll oblige that.
Newman has a very even-keeled and cool demeanor that may inspire a team to make him their next project. If you want to run a Cam Newton-style read option with a 234 lb body, you could figure out a way to make Newman work. It would be difficult to install those concepts with no intention of Cousins running them. Newman offers that novel element, but in a way that requires more preparation than Ian Book’s run-around chaos.
There are plenty of other options to consider, but these four give a decent tour into a possible future without Sean Mannion. Some may end up better than Mannion, but the catch of the draft is that none of them will with certainty. But if the price is right, and the board dictates so, the Vikings may sink some early Day 3 draft capital into a possible improvement on the much-maligned Vikings backup quarterback.
