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Shaun Hill Is a Top Ten Backup QB, Says Extremely Bored John Clayton

By Dan Zinski

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We know how you feel John Clayton.

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We’re in that time of the football calendar when the news gets pretty sparse. As irritating as this is for us bloggers, it must be downright mind-numbing for guys like John Clayton who make their living by being in the thick of the action.

With the action at its thinnest in a long time, John Clayton decided to amuse himself by putting together a ranking of the top backup quarterbacks in the NFL.

Sure. Why not? It was either that or rearrange his collection of Slayer t-shirts for the four-hundredth time.

Well, here’s what I can tell you about the results of Clayton’s backup QB rankings. Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Jets is the best backup QB in the NFL. And the Vikings’ Shaun Hill…is no. 7 (via ESPN):

"Hill went 3-5 last year in St. Louis, proving he’s a good — not great — No. 2 option. Now 35, his age is a bit of a concern, but he can still get you 22 to 24 points per game."

The Vikings brought Hill in to provide a solid veteran backup behind rookie Teddy Bridgewater, a guy who can be another QB coach for Teddy but still has enough game left to enter in a pinch and give decent production.

The Vikings could have elected to try and bring back Christian Ponder to fill that role, but they decided to move on from the first round bust. Incidentally, Ponder finished #8 on John Clayton’s list.

Another former Vikings starter, Tarvaris Jackson, finished #5.

So the last two significant quarterbacks drafted by the Vikings before Teddy Bridgewater are both now top 10 backups according to John Clayton.

The Vikings are great at drafting future backup QBs. Give them that.

Next: Will Vikings make run at Evan Mathis?

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