The Vikings’ receivers had a ton to do with Case Keenum’s 2017 success

During a career-best season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2017, the quarterback had the luxury of throwing to some of the NFL’s most talented receivers.

For the first time in his NFL career, Case Keenum was able to lead a team to the playoffs as a starting quarterback in 2017. In the 16 starts Keenum had last season (including the playoffs), the Minnesota Vikings won 12 times and captured the second-most single-season victories in the franchise’s history.

His performances ranged from outstanding (Week 3 vs. Tampa Bay) to head scratching (Week 7 vs. Baltimore) last year.

Keenum was part of one of the most (if not the most) memorable moments in Vikings history during the team’s NFC divisional round win over the New Orleans Saints. But then the quarterback followed up that game with a forgettable performance in Minnesota’s blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship.

Now scheduled to be a free-agent this offseason, Keenum is expected to earn a nice chunk of change from a new contract. Whatever amount he ends up getting from the Vikings or somewhere else, the quarterback has Minnesota’s wide receivers to thank for a lot of his final statistics in 2017 looking better than they have ever before.

According to Pre-Snap Reads’ Cian Fahey, Keenum actually had the luxury of throwing to the best receivers in the NFL last season.

A fact like this should make everyone wonder how much better Minnesota could have been in 2017 if their quarterback was someone with a better track record and skill-set than Keenum.

He certainly made some impressive plays last season (Minnesota Miracle, sliding away from defenders on numerous occasions), but the numbers show that Keenum was clearly bailed out by the skills of his talented receivers in 2017 on multiple occasions.

With injuries being a factor each and every year, this is not something the Vikings can rely on to happen consistently in the future if they were to re-sign Keenum this offseason. Could this be an indication that Minnesota would be better off letting the quarterback go get paid elsewhere this year?

Next: Where will Case Keenum end up in 2018?

It certainly doesn’t help his case to remain with the Vikings (pun intended).