Not So Fast on Those T-Jack Trade Rumors

A couple things became obvious during Friday night’s preseason game against the Chiefs.  1:  Brett Favre isn’t ready for the season.  2:  Tarvaris Jackson looks like a highly-motivated individual.

So does this mean T-Jack has a realistic shot at beating out Favre for the starting QB spot?  Of course not.

Nevertheless, I think maybe we should shelve those T-Jack trade rumors for the time being.  Despite Jackson’s terrific performance, his value on the market is not very high.  So you deal him and get maybe a seventh, a sixth at best?  So what?

Jackson’s true value, now, is as an insurance policy.  Because, as I said, Favre is clearly not ready for the season.  Even Favre himself admitted that, though he knows the offense in broad terms, he is still learning to grasp the nuances of Chilly’s version of it. Speaking about his last play of the evening, where he got blitzed and sacked, Favre said:

"That was an empty blitz, which was a little surprising. But it was a double post, which is a pretty good call against that. I thought Percy [Harvin] would go inside the safety. He actually kind of stuck the guy and went around the top, which is what he had been coached to do. I didn’t know that. So that’s where I need to catch up."

How much time will it take for Brett to catch up?  Will two more preseason games be enough?

Maybe two more preseason games won’t be enough.  What do the Vikings do then?  Maybe they have to put Brett on a kind of extended spring training, to borrow a baseball term.  Not start him the first couple of games, but let him take most of the practice reps until he feels more comfortable.

And if you’re going to do that?  It makes sense to keep both Sage Rosenfels and Tarvaris Jackson around.  You don’t have to trade Jackson.  You will have to try to sneak John David Booty onto the practice squad, if you want to keep him, but that’s a minor issue at best.

Of course that’s not an arrangement Sage or T-Jack (or Booty) would likely be happy with.  But that’s okay.  They’re used to being screwed by the Vikings.