MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Rosenfels Speculation Continues

It’s official: On Monday, Quinn Gray inked a one-year contract with the Texans, which means that Houston now has three veteran quarterbacks on its roster. As we’ve been discussing quite a bit lately, this move is significant for the Vikings because it could be laying the groundwork for a Sage Rosenfels-to-Minnesota deal…the Texans now have someone who could replace Rosenfels as the backup to Matt Schaub, if they did indeed opt to trade Sage.

And with Gray now officially a member of the Texans, you’ve gotta believe there’s a strong chance of Rosenfels getting dealt. At this point, I definitely suspect the Houston front office would prefer having an extra third-rounder in this year’s draft over a backup quarterback, especially considering they’ve already signed a potential replacement for Rosenfels.

However, although Rosenfels just became trade bait for Houston, they ain’t gonna be getting a second-rounder for him (as we know, the Vikes had previously offered a third-rounder for Rosenfels, but the trade talks fell through because Houston demanded a second-round pick). No, the Gray signing decreases Houston’s leverage in the Rosenfels negotiations quite a bit; if the Texans do deal him, chances are they’ll be receiving a third-rounder.

If Houston does remain persistent in their demand for a second-round pick, Spielman should simply hang up the phone. You’ve gotta be nuts to trade a second-rounder for a backup quarterback, even if you’d be acquiring one of the better backups in the league. Depth at the quarterback position is a necessity, but then again, you shouldn’t pay ridiculous prices to add depth.

In the event that the two sides can’t reach agreement on a Rosenfels deal, our next target should be J.P. Losman.

Losman has actually put up fairly respectable numbers during his career, and his record as a starter should be sufficient evidence that he could be a serviceable backup here in Minny. He went 7-9 in 2006, and is still young (he’s only 26-years-old, so there could still be some untapped potential in his game). Let’s also remember that Buffalo certainly isn’t the ideal situation for a young quarterback to begin his career in, so Losman’s struggles in the first few seasons of his career aren’t entirely his fault.

His ability to be a serviceable starting quarterback in the NFL is questionable at best, but as a backup quarterback, I think Losman has considerable upside. Anyways, I’m hoping to get a quick scouting report on Losman from Dan Goldman, the Bills writer here at MVN — he’s seen Losman play a helluva lot more than I have, so it should be some insightful stuff.

*This story’s practically ancient history by now, but I’m just finally remembering to post it: Leslie Frazier was recently awarded a promotion, as he added “assistant head coach” to his job title. And in a little less than a year, he’ll probably be dropping the word “assistant” from that title — he interviewed for head coaching positions with the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons a couple months ago, and will probably receive a head coaching gig after this season (barring a terrible performance by the Vikings D in 2008).

For the most part, I liked what I saw from Frazier last season…after initially shying away from blitzing with any frequency, he made the proper adjustments and was soon putting increased pressure on opposing quarterbacks. I know he isn’t a big fan of sending extra rushers, yet he showed the willingness to adapt his defensive philosophy throughout the season — and he deserves tremendous respect for that.

Interesting tidbit: If Frazier had signed with the Dolphins or Falcons, the Vikings would have been seeking their eighth defensive coordinator in ten seasons…and that would have been a tough pill to swallow for some of our longtime defensive players. As it is, though, this defense can FINALLY retain some sense of coaching consistency, even if it only lasts for the 2008 season.

On that note, here’s what Ben Leber told Judd Zulgad this week about Frazier’s return:

“I think anytime you have a coaching staff and a system implemented for a long period of time it’s only beneficial,” Leber said. “You can really get into it more, you can break it down more. The players are more comfortable with the coaches, knowing where they come from. Knowing what to expect on Wednesday and Thursday and during the work week. It’s just going to benefit us as a team, and I think it’s going to help Leslie kind of know the players a little bit better. He’s going to adjust his coverages and his philosophy also.”

Sounds like a reasonable take to me — Leber’s on-target with his assessment of the benefits of having a coach stick around for an extended period of time. Simply put, replacing the defensive coordinator year after year has prevented this defense from maintaining a sense of consistency, so with the same regime returning this season, I’m quite optimistic about the possibilities for this unit in 2008.

If you have any takes on the backup quarterback drama/Leslie Frazier/the prospects for the Vikes D this season/anything else you want to talk about, just drop a comment!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.