Shaun or Sam, Sam or Shaun … who will start for the Vikings at quarterback in their regular season opener against the Titans Sunday?
“That’s the goal, is to progress to that point to where I feel comfortable enough to get out there and play if I’m needed to,” Sam Bradford said Monday, two days after being acquired by the Vikings for a 1st-round pick. “I can’t tell you if that’s going to be the case or not.”
The man who will make that decision, head coach Mike Zimmer, isn’t saying.
It’s “possible” Bradford will play, Zimmer told reporters. When asked if the plan was to start veteran Shaun Hill, the coach responded: “I don’t know yet. We’ll see how it goes.”
So there you go – expect one of them to start, but right now we don’t know who.
If Bradford starts, he’ll be jumping into the fray eight days after coming to Minnesota. That’s five days less than Josh Freeman had before being thrust into the starting gig on Monday Night Football three years ago. And that went so great it gave birth to this GIF.
Anyway, Zimmer said Bradford throws the ball great, acknowledged both he and Hill are getting reps with the first team right now, and had this to say when asked how he’ll know when Bradford is ready.
“It’s hard to explain exactly but it would be, command of the offense, understand what we’re doing, know where to go with the ball, know the checks.”
The quarterback meanwhile said he felt better Monday than he did during his first run with the team Sunday. But also doesn’t have an exact answer on how long until he’s comfortable and knows the offense.
“I think it just takes time, it takes reps,” he said. “Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of either of those. I’ve had to learn new offenses in the past – I don’t know if I’ve ever had to learn one quite this fast or in this much of a hurry.”
But even if Hill starts the opener, or the first couple weeks, is Zimmer’s plan to have Bradford be the starting quarterback at some point this season?
“Things change. It’s hard to say,” Zimmer said. “I didn’t think my quarterback was gonna hurt his knee on a non-contact drill on Tuesday. Things change. We’ll just see how it goes.”
