7 takeaways from the Vikings’ preseason win over the Cardinals

Sloter still deserves second-team reps

What more does Kyle Sloter have to do to just get some time with the Vikings’ second-team offense in a game?

Each week, he continues to go out and lead Minnesota to touchdown drives while the guy in front of him on the depth chart, Sean Mannion, has done nothing to prove that he is 100 percent deserving of the team’s backup job behind Kirk Cousins this season.

After Saturday’s performance against the Cardinals, Sloter has now completed 85.2 percent of his passes for 280 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions during the current preseason.

Minnesota has scored points on 62.5 percent of the drives with him under center during the last three weeks compared to the team only putting points on the board in 20 percent of their drives with Mannion under center.

But despite Sloter’s success and the success of the Vikings’ offense with him out on the field, he still hasn’t been given a shot to even get a handful of reps with the team’s second-string offense.

The Vikings are only hurting themselves by not seeing if he can do just as well as the No. 2 guy on their depth chart. And for those who don’t think the backup quarterback job doesn’t matter, go tell that to Minnesota who has lost their starting signal-caller for the majority of the season in two of the last three years.

No one is asking for Sloter to be the starter or anything like that. It’s just very obvious that he outperforms his competition every time he’s out on the field and the Vikings’ need to see if he can do the same against second-team defenses.