04-16-2025, 12:02 PM
(04-16-2025, 11:41 AM)supafreak84 Wrote: That entire quarterback class that year was pure crap, but we really needed a quarterback and out of the options available I really liked Ponder. Smart, athletic, arm was live enough, and looked the part Senior Bowl week where he might have been the best player on the field. I think where things started to go wrong was the coaching staff that was in place at the time, especially Bill Musgrave who was so anal about not turning the ball over that it made Ponder gun shy and we did not have the best personnel on offense. You look at the Vikings coaching staff and roster that year and it was textbook 101 on "how to fail a young QB"I absolutely hated the Ponder pick before, during, and after. He was never a winner at Florida State and he was a false leader and laughed at by his teammates. For context, I was positive but worried about Culpepper, and middle of the road on Teddy. Culpepper also had a lot of tools and time to build up. I was definitely more confident with Bridgewater than Ponder, but I was worried about his arm. I felt confident in his decision making capabilities. With McCarthy I was and am very confident. It's probably the fact that he's a winner and has an awesome guy to coach him up. He just looks like a guy who's going to be quite good in this league for a long time. Let's hope I'm right.
I spammed the old Purple Thoughts board deriding that Ponder pick, and I think I hate it as much or more than any pick we ever made. That's all I have to say about that. That pick brings back nightmares.
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