Frazier Doesn't Commit To Starter At Quarterback

Let the games begin!

In his first press conference since the Minnesota Vikings returned to the United States following their 34-27 triumph over the Pittsburgh Steelers in London, head coach Leslie Frazier refused to commit to a starting quarterback.

"Christian is still injured, but he's our starting quarterback. We'll see how he does coming out of the bye," Frazier said Tuesday during the team's bye-week news conference.

Asked directly if Ponder would start if healthy, Frazier said, "Yeah, we'll talk about a lot of things when we get to next week. We'll see what happens when we get to next week."

The team won't practice again until Monday, October 7, as the coaching staff has given the team the week off for rest and recovery. So, nobody is going to have any further information on how Christian Ponder's rib injury is progressing and/or whether he'll start in Week 6 against the Carolina Panthers, or whether the Vikings will start Matt Cassel for a second consecutive game.

Frazier's statement does seem to kind of echo what he had said previously, and that's when Ponder is healthy he will be re-installed as the team's starting quarterback, a stance that will certainly bring about nothing but calm, reasonable, low-key discussion from the Vikings faithful.

I still think that Frazier will be hard-pressed to not start Matt Cassel against Carolina, and really until Cassel puts up enough of a clunker to justify going back to Christian Ponder. But, we still have a week and a half to see how it works out one way or the other.