The Minnesota Vikings finally addressed their uncertain backup quarterback situation on Monday morning by trading a conditional 2024 seventh-round pick for Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Nick Mullens. The fifth-year quarterback out of Southern Miss isn’t necessarily the second coming of Brett Favre, but he has 17 starts under his belt and familiarity with the Vikings’ scheme.
Minnesota’s decision to trade for Mullens raises questions about Sean Mannion‘s and Kellen Mond‘s future on the team, though.
Mannion has been little more than a pseudo QB coach since being drafted in 2015, and he has shown that he doesn’t have the physical traits to win a ballgame in a pinch. He has struggled to move the ball downfield against backups this preseason. Mannion possesses no upside and has little to no chance of making the final 53-man roster.
Things get interesting when we look at what this means for Mond. He got a fresh start under Kevin O’Connell after a tumultuous rookie season where Mike Zimmer publicly ripped him following the Jan. 2 loss in Green Bay. Perhaps an offensive-minded coach could be less offensive to Mond’s development.
Mond put together a solid game in the Vikings’ first preseason game in Las Vegas. He wasn’t perfect, but he outplayed Mannion, finishing 9/14 for 119 yards and two touchdowns. If we only looked at this game in isolation, Mond was closing in on a roster spot. At worst, he’d be a QB3 as the team shopped for a more capable backup to replace Mannion.
However, many Vikings reporters who watched training camp still weren’t impressed. Mond consistently displayed slow decision-making throughout camp and was inaccurate when he decided to pull the trigger. The Vegas game was nice, but it appeared to be an outlier.
Last Saturday was all but a confirmation of that. Mond completed only 10/20 passes for 82 yards and two ugly interceptions. The performance garnered a Pro Football Focus grade of 40.5, far below Mannion’s 71.7. Minnesota knew they had a problem behind Kirk Cousins and traded for Mullens.
Now that Mullens is in the building, is it worth keeping Mond around? Advocates will point out that Mond was a third-round pick only a year ago. Giving up on Day 2 quarterbacks too early can be risky. Mond had some impressive physical traits coming out of Texas A&M. Would the team truly know what they have in him after only two preseason games under a new regime?
It’s unlikely that Mond becomes the quarterback who got away. He made some nice throws in the Raiders game, but did he do anything that stood out? Even if he reached his full potential, it doesn’t appear like that would be anything more than a mid-level backup. That likely isn’t worth even exploring now, as Mullens, 27, is at worst a mid-level backup who can adequately fill in for several games.
If Mond can’t threaten Mullens’ job, then there really isn’t a place for him on the roster. Cousins hasn’t missed a game due to injury since becoming a full-time starter in 2015. The Vikings don’t need to use up a third roster spot on a quarterback now that they have a knowledgeable and capable backup in Mullens. The chances the team even needs him to come off the bench are slim.
Some may be superstitious about the Vikings cutting a player too early, only to see him go to a new team and flourish. The Vikings selected Daniel Carlson in the fifth round of the 2018 draft. Then he missed three kicks in a 29-29 tie at Lambeau Field in Week 2, and they cut him. The Raiders picked him up, and he has become one of the best kickers in the league, even earning second-team All-Pro honors last year.
Carlson brushed up on his mechanics and re-tooled his entire kicking sequence, something that Zimmer wasn’t interested in developing. On the other hand, Mond has a former NFL quarterback as his head coach. It’d be difficult to believe that O’Connell is overlooking, or is disinterested in, something in Mond’s mechanics that is hampering his development.
As far as Mond’s third-round status goes, that shouldn’t make him immune to roster cuts. First, a different regime hired him, so his draft status doesn’t mean as much as it would if Rick Spielman was still the team’s general manager. Second, guard Wyatt Davis and linebacker Chazz Surratt likely aren’t making the team, and they were third-round picks in 2021 as well. If they aren’t safe from getting the axe, why should Mond be?
There is a possibility that Mond could be cut and then brought back onto the practice squad, but he’d have to agree to those terms and take a significant pay cut in the process. He’d also have to clear waivers before even being practice-squad eligible, and another team could still be enamored enough with his skillset to add him to their 53-man squad. It’s not worth sweating that he might get sniped by another team.
Finally, if anyone knows anything about how expendable a young third-round quarterback can be, it’s Kevin O’Connell. The New England Patriots took him in the third round of the 2008 draft, but they cut him only a few days after New England’s third preseason game in 2009. O’Connell would never play a snap in a regular season game again.
Minnesota fans were excited when Rick Spielman selected Mond in 2021. He may not have worked out, but it showed that the team was looking to invest in a young, developmental quarterback. Unfortunately, these prospects don’t always materialize the way teams envision. Knowing when to say “when” and cutting your losses is essential to building a team. Now, it appears that the Vikings are poised to do that with Mond.
