The Minnesota Vikings certainly need to do something about their quarterback depth chart. Not at the top, mind you, but at the back-up spot behind incumbent starter Christian Ponder. At least one Minnesota sports writer seems to think he's found the answer.
This is Charley "Shooter" Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, so take this with as much salt as you deem necessary. But he does make sense when he says that the Vikings should be targeting current Buffalo Bills' backup (and former Viking) Tyler Thigpen to potentially be Ponder's back-up.
The Vikings originally drafted Thigpen in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL Draft out of Coastal Carolina. The team was impressed enough with him in training camp that they attempted to sneak him on to the practice squad, but the Kansas City Chiefs thwarted that clever plan and put him on their active roster. He didn't play much as a rookie, but got 11 starts in 2008 for the Chiefs.
Though the Chiefs went 1-10 in the 11 games that Thigpen started for them that season, he didn't play horribly or anything. He accounted for 22 touchdowns (18 passing, 3 rushing, and 1 receiving) and 12 interceptions in those 11 starts. After the Chiefs acquired Matt Cassel prior to the 2009 season, Thigpen was traded to the Miami Dolphins, where he played sporadically for two years, and then moved on to the Buffalo Bills, where he's held off both Vince Young and Tarvaris Jackson to be the primary back-up to Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The Vikings can't go into the 2013 season with Joe Webb as the primary back-up to Christian Ponder. We've established that already. I don't know if Thigpen is the sort of "veteran presence" that this team probably needs, but he has been in the league for six seasons in a few different systems, so maybe he can bring that perspective to the Vikings if they were to bring him back.
Free agency kicks off a month from Tuesday, on March 12. The quarterback position is just one of many spots where the Vikings might have some work to do. What do you think of the prospect of bringing Tyler Thigpen back into the fold?