Cris Carter: Keenum would have two wins with the 2018 Vikings

The former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver does not believe the team would not be any better off this season with Case Keenum under center.

As the Minnesota Vikings have struggled over the past few weeks, some have decided to place the blame on first-year quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Seeing what journeyman Case Keenum was able to do in 2017 with essentially the same offensive personnel has some questioning the Vikings’ decision to sign Cousins this past offseason.

But one former Minnesota player wants those claiming Keenum would be doing a better job in 2018 to know that this would likely not be the case.

On Tuesday, former Vikings star wide receiver Cris Carter expressed his thoughts on how the Vikings would be playing this season if their 2017 quarterback was still starting under center.

"“For the people who think Kirk Cousins has come up short, call me and I’ll be able to get you straight. Because the way that defense has played, the way the special teams has played, you don’t have a running game, if Case Keenum was there, they would have won two games.That’s where they’d be sitting right now.”"

Two wins seems a little drastic, but Carter’s belief that Minnesota would be worse with Keenum under center this season is not as crazy of a thought to have. Some of the throws Cousins has made this year would not have come even close to being completed if Keenum was the one tossing them.

As much success as the Vikings’ offense had last season, the majority of it was due to the play-calling of former offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. This has become even more obvious this year with John DeFilippo running the offense.

And now with Minnesota firing DeFilippo on Tuesday, it’s possible that the offense could get back to running things closer to how they did in 2017. At least that’s what the Vikings are probably hoping for.