Picture courtesy of NFLFreaks.com
The Vikings brought Kelly Holcomb in yesterday to be the backup to Tarvaris Jackson. He was acquired by sending a 6th round pick in either 2008 or 2009 (and I believe it's 2009, because I'm pretty sure we already dealt our 6th in 2008) to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Holcomb, an undrafted free agent from Middle Tennessee State Univerisity, is pretty much the definition of a "journeyman" quarterback. The Vikings are his fifth NFL team (sixth, if you count the time he spent on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad as a rookie). Holcomb has made stops in Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Philadelphia before making his way to the beloved Purple. For his career, he's completed a shade under 65% of his pass attempts, and has 37 touchdowns to go with 37 interceptions.
While his career has been a bit non-descript to this point, it hasn't been entirely without its highlights. The best game of Holcomb's career, statistically speaking, came on 28 November 2004 as he led the Browns against their rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals. In that game, Holcomb went 30-for-39 for 413 yards with five touchdown passes and two interceptions. Unfortunately, even that wasn't enough for the Browns on that day, as they lost to the Bengals by the final score of 58-48. (Yes. . .fifty-eight to forty-eight. . .that's a whole lotta points.)
You can take a look at that game on NFL.com by going here. Four of Holcomb's five TD passes that day came in the second half, as his team was down by 2 TDs at halftime and the Browns were constantly playing catch-up.
Do I think this is a good move by the Vikings? Yes. Have you seen Brooks Bollinger this pre-season? He's been terrible at the best of times. Holcomb, while not a world-beater by any stretch of the imagination, is light years better than Bollinger at this point, and is more of the "veteran presence" that a young, developing quarterback like Tarvaris Jackson needs. I understand that Bollinger is a "veteran," but he doesn't have nearly the experience or the savvy that someone like Holcomb brings.
I don't think Holcomb is going to require much of an adjustment period, to be honest. He's been around long enough where there isn't a heck of a lot he hasn't seen. Obviously some of the terminology might be different than it is in other places he's been, but he should be able to adjust to that fairly easily. I still think Bollinger is going to remain on the roster, but he'll now be the #3 guy (which is pretty much where he belongs, I think) and we'll try to sneak Tyler Thigpen onto the practice squad to give him some time to develop.
Tarvaris Jackson has been a pleasant surprise this pre-season, in my opinion, and now we have what's probably the best #2 option in the division should Jackson struggle. I feel a whole lot better about the Vikings' quarterback situation now than I did 24 hours ago, to be certain.