Donovan McNabb Was Surprised By Benching

Leslie Frazier faced the media on Wednesday to officially announce the change from Donovan McNabb to Christian Ponder. When Leslie was done explaining himself, Ponder took the podium to stare down those Twin Cities press jackals for the first time as an NFL starter (don’t look Jon Krawczynski directly in the eye or you will go insane!). Then it was Donovan McNabb’s turn.

McNabb, who is 1-5 as a starter this year and currently sits 19th in the NFL in passer rating at 82.9, said he was surprised to learn that Frazier had decided to bench him in favor of the rookie Ponder. When asked to explain why he still believes he should be the starter McNabb replied, “Well, we’ve done some good things on offense, we’ve scored some points and moved the ball. But again, the only thing that I can do at this particular point is continue to support Christian and be ready to go when called upon.”

Scored some points? The Vikings are currently 21st in scoring offense at 20.2 PPG. Moved the ball? The Vikings are currently 31st in passing at 168.7 YPG.

McNabb’s performance was obviously subpar, hence the benching. But McNabb is not dismayed. “The good thing about it here is I know that I have a lot of football left in me,” the former starting QB said. “I look forward to preparing hard and going out to practice and working on my craft and again, when called upon, be ready to go.”

Frazier made it clear that there will be no QB controversy in Minnesota: Christian Ponder is his man for the rest of the year and McNabb is his back-up.

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