Ponder looms

Christian Ponder as the starter would be bad news for the Vikings. (USATSI)

Great news, Vikings fans. When Minnesota plays the Packers on Thursday Night Football, a first-round pick will be the starting quarterback. It just probably isn't the one Vikings fans will want to see.

With Teddy Bridgewater suffering an ankle injury last Sunday, he hasn't practiced this week, leading to speculation, including that of ESPN's Chris Mortensen on Wednesday, that Christian Ponder will take over the starting role Thursday vs. the Packers.

Which means that we, once again, get to open the scab over the wound that has been Ponder's career since the Vikings drafted him No. 12 overall in 2011.

After a forgettable rookie season, Ponder led Minnesota to the playoffs in 2012, completing 62.5 percent of his passes for 1,935 yards, 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Ponder started all 16 games that year, but he never really grabbed the franchise quarterback title.

Even from the beginning, not unlike Jake Locker in Tennessee and Blaine Gabbert in Jacksonville, it seemed that his hold on the starting quarterback job for the future was always tenuous.

Especially since he always seemed to be battling injuries and since he rarely put together a stretch of consistent games.

Even in 2012, that was the case. Here's how he performed in the first six games of the season.

					Passing
Rk	G#	Date	Opp	Result	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate
1	1	2012-09-09	JAX	W 26-23	20	27	74.07%	270	0	0	105.5
2	2	2012-09-16	IND	L 20-23	27	35	77.14%	245	2	0	114.6
3	3	2012-09-23	SFO	W 24-13	21	35	60.00%	198	2	0	94.7
4	4	2012-09-30	DET	W 20-13	16	26	61.54%	111	0	0	71.2
5	5	2012-10-07	TEN	W 30-7	25	35	71.43%	258	2	2	87.6
6	6	2012-10-14	WAS	L 26-38	35	52	67.31%	352	2	2	83.2

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

Pretty good, right? At that point, the Vikings might have begun to believe that Ponder, at the beginning of his second season in the league, had figured out what it takes to be a successful NFL quarterback. Then came this stretch.

					Passing
Rk	G#	Date	Opp	Result	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Int	Rate
7	7	2012-10-21	ARI	W 21-14	8	17	47.06%	58	1	2	35.5
8	8	2012-10-25	TAM	L 17-36	19	35	54.29%	251	1	1	74.8
9	9	2012-11-04	SEA	L 20-30	11	22	50.00%	63	0	1	37.3
10	10	2012-11-11	DET	W 34-24	24	32	75.00%	221	2	0	114.2
11	11	2012-11-25	CHI	L 10-28	22	43	51.16%	159	1	1	58.2
12	12	2012-12-02	GNB	L 14-23	12	25	48.00%	119	1	2	41.9
		16 Games		10-6-0	300	483	62.11%	2935	18	12	81.2

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

Not quite as good, eh?

It's not likely that Bridgewater would be out for more than a game or two, but if he is and Ponder is elevated to the top of the depth chart full-time, you can probably forget about the Vikings having an outside chance of taking down the NFC North. The optimism that surrounds the organization after dispatching the Falcons behind Bridgewater's good work on Sunday quickly will fade.

Because after four years in the league, Ponder will not suddenly begin to play like the stud quarterback the team thought he was all along. He'll likely just remind us why he lost his starting quarterback job in the first place.

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