Vikings do not appear to be sold on Kyle Sloter as their backup in 2019

During a recent interview, Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer expressed the team’s desire to add another veteran quarterback to their roster this offseason.

For the 2019 season, the Minnesota Vikings already know that Kirk Cousins is the top guy on their quarterback depth chart. But with Trevor Siemian becoming a free-agent this year, the Vikings will likely have a new backup behind Cousins in 2019.

Kyle Sloter is the only other quarterback under contract for next season besides Cousins, but it doesn’t sound like Minnesota is ready to hand over the backup job to Sloter just yet.

During a recent appearance on Minnesota’s KFAN radio station, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer revealed that the team would like to add another quarterback to their roster this year.

"“We’re going to look for another quarterback. A lot of it is going to come down to the salary cap issues and who we can afford. We know who we kind of want and want back. We have to monitor the market.”"

When asked about what kind of signal-caller he would like to bring aboard, Zimmer explained that Minnesota will be looking into the possibility of adding a veteran or maybe even a rookie this year.

Based on these comments, it doesn’t sound like the Vikings are all in on making Sloter the No. 2 guy behind Cousins in 2019. If they were, then Zimmer probably would have made sure to mention that they want Sloter as their backup for next season and that they might look into bringing another quarterback in.

But the way the Minnesota head coach answered these questions, he almost made it seem like finding a more experienced backup signal-caller is among the team’s top priorities this offseason.

Judging from this, Siemian might actually have a good chance of returning to the Vikings in 2019. The backup quarterback market in free agency this year is pretty poor and Minnesota’s No. 2 signal-caller from last season has worked in the past with new Vikings offensive advisor Gary Kubiak.

There’s also still a chance that Sloter could win the backup job this offseason. Minnesota just doesn’t appear to be ready to hand the role to him on a silver platter right now.