The former Minnesota Vikings quarterback revealed in his autobiography that his agents called the team in 2017 to question the head coach’s decisions about their client.
Anyone who followed the Minnesota Vikings during the 2017 season was pretty aware of the uncertainty head coach Mike Zimmer had about Case Keenum being the team’s starting quarterback.
Despite the fact that he helped lead the Vikings to eight wins in a row, Zimmer never officially named Keenum as the team’s starter. Why Minnesota’s head coach opted to do this is something that will probably never be known, but the quarterback’s agents at least tried to find out why he decided to take this route.
In Keenum’s autobiography “Playing for More: Trust Beyond What You Can See,” the former Vikings signal-caller revealed that his agents called Minnesota general manager Rick Spielman during the middle of the 2017 season to ask why Zimmer still had not named their client the team’s starting quarterback.
"“One early morning I was in the facility studying when Coach Zimmer called me upstairs. ‘Why did your agents call (general manager) Rick Spielman to ask what was going on?’ he asked. Coach wanted to know if I was angry that he hadn’t named me a starter yet.‘I honestly don’t know, Coach,’ I said. I had empowered my agents to do their job. They don’t check with me every time before making calls. To be honest, asking why he wouldn’t name me the starter in public was a valid question.”"
Looking back, it was a little odd that Zimmer never officially named Keenum the Vikings’ starting quarterback in 2017. Especially when his other options were a hobbled Sam Bradford, Teddy Bridgewater coming off a serious knee injury, and a rookie in Kyle Sloter.
But for whatever reason, Zimmer never felt it was necessary to assure Keenum that he was Minnesota’s starter.
If the Vikings’ head coach was trying to keep the quarterback motivated to prove himself each week, then it was a tactic that worked. Keenum had the best season of his career in 2017 and he almost helped Minnesota earn a spot in Super Bowl 52.
Ironically, when the quarterback signed with the Denver Broncos last March and he actually had some job security, he didn’t perform as well as he did with the Vikings.
So maybe Zimmer actually knew what he was doing with Keenum in never letting him enjoy the satisfaction of being named a starting quarterback.