Despite the impressive efforts of Kyle Sloter this preseason, Sean Mannion appears to be the guy the Minnesota Vikings will choose to be their No. 2 quarterback this year.
Prior to this year’s training camp, it was believed by some that Kyle Sloter and Sean Mannion would be battling this summer to open the regular season as the second-string quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.
However, it sounds more and more like the Vikings had already made their choice for the role well before the team even stepped on the practice field for their first training camp session in July.
Despite Sloter playing very well during his appearances in Minnesota’s two preseason games this year, it hasn’t seemed to convince the team that he deserves to get a legitimate shot with the second-team offense moving forward.
On Tuesday, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer spoke about what Sloter needs to work on if he’s going to have a shot at the team’s backup job.
"“He’s got to get a lot better in a lot of the other parts of being a quarterback. Making the right checks, getting the people in the right formation, making sure the motion’s there, not missing the time clock when it’s eight yards in front of you.There’s a lot of things that he has to get better at if he wants to be the backup quarterback.”"
Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like Sloter has much of a chance to move past Mannion on the depth chart before the beginning of the regular season. It also doesn’t sound like it has anything to with what he’s done in actual game situations.
Minnesota seems to be very focused on choosing the guy who practices the best to be their No. 2 quarterback this year.
But if doing well in practice was something that actually mattered, then Case Keenum wouldn’t have helped lead the Vikings to the 2017 NFC Championship and Laquon Treadwell would currently be an All-Pro receiver.
So it seems like Mannion will likely open up the upcoming regular season as Minnesota’s backup behind Kirk Cousins and basically, there is nothing Sloter can do to change their mind.