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The Return Of Gus Frerotte?

Well, looks like the rumors of the Vikings and Texans resuming Rosenfels talks at the owners’ meetings turned out to be completely inaccurate. Texans coach Gary Kubiak gave every indication that Rosenfels will return with Houston for the 2008 season, and the Vikings have seemed to give up on a potential Sage swap — rather than continuing to pursue the Texans backup QB, it looks like the Purple will instead ink Gus Frerotte within the next few days.

Frerotte spent the 2003 and 2004 seasons in a purple and gold uniform, and made two starts for the Vikings in 2003 when Daunte Culpepper went down with an injury. Frerotte started three games in the 2007 season for St. Louis, compiling seven touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and 1,014 passing yards during the year.

Gus is 36-years-old and he’s certainly not the same quarterback he was when he backed up Daunte. I feel slightly more comfortable with Frerotte as the backup quarterback than Holcomb or Bollinger, but I still see the potential for disaster if Gus does indeed enter the season as the sole insurance policy for Tarvaris.

We know that Jackson has questionable durability (I’d stop short of calling him “injury prone,” but if last season was any indication, the kid has some trouble staying healthy). We also know that Jackson could play poorly next year, to the point that Chilly needs to bench him. Those two factors necessitate a strong backup quarterback, and Frerotte just doesn’t fit the bill. I would LOVE to have the Gus Frerotte of 2003 on the sidelines for the Vikings this season; however, the Gus Frerotte of 2008 is a completely different story.

If Jackson gets hurt and misses a game or two, it certainly won’t be the end of the world. I think Gus could enter the starting role on a short-term basis and give the Vikes a decent chance to win. Problem is, we needed someone who provides A LOT more insurance than Gus does — in other words, a backup quarterback who could start five or six games this season, if called upon to do so.

Gus would be a perfect fit on a team like Dallas or Seattle…those are both situations where he would receive limited playing time, but could nevertheless provide an occasional competent performance if needed.

But in Minnesota, the backup quarterback has the opportunity to see the field quite often, and I shudder to imagine Frerotte getting a bunch of playing time this season. Based on his performance last season, such a situation could be quite rough for the Vikings. Again, I’m not suggesting that Frerotte can’t be a capable backup quarterback in this league; I’m just saying that giving him extended playing time is simply asking for trouble.

With the Vikings seemingly rolling into draft day with Jackson, Frerotte and Bollinger as their three quarterbacks on the roster, it’s a safe bet that Spielman and Chilly will use a mid-round draft pick on a quarterback. I haven’t been taking the quarterback draft speculation too seriously until today, but if I had to make a prediction, I’d say they’ll likely spend a fourth- or fifth-rounder on a quarterback.

That’s just a wild guess, and I’ll certainly take the time to closely examine the QB draft class before draft day…but if they do ink Frerotte, you can expect to see a rookie quarterback on the sidelines next season.

So, Gus Frerotte: Thumbs up or down? As always, the comments section is open for business.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 5:15 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.