The Minnesota Vikings held a press conference Wednesday morning, where head coach Leslie Frazier, among other things, confirmed that rookie quarterback Christian Ponder would start on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. According to a tweet from Tom Pelissero, Frazier expects Ponder to start the remainder of the season, for better or for worse:
Frazier says expectation is Ponder will start the rest of the season. Informed both QBs yesterday. "Donovan was terrific."
Then it truly is a look to the future and not a means to go after more wins for the 2011 season, considering most coaches wouldn't make a season-long commitment during quarterback controversy. In calling Donovan McNabb "terrific", he's a little far off, but not entirely - especially in the game McNabb was actually pulled, where McNabb didn't have any interceptions and had a good completion percentage.
Either way, it's now the Christian Ponder show, whether that ends up being entirely promising or pathetically bad. In the press conference, Frazier also said that he expects McNabb on the roster, via Pelissero again:
Frazier says he expects McNabb on roster rest of year. Says McNabb expressed he wants to help Ponder as Doug Pederson did for him.
A bit of good news here, as a veteran like McNabb can do nothing but help Ponder, even if he's not as good as he once was.