Vikings backup QB situation ranked higher than several top NFL teams

As the Minnesota Vikings head into the 2021 season, rookie Kellen Mond appears to be the favorite to open the year as the team’s backup quarterback.

Luckily, backup quarterback hasn’t been something the Minnesota Vikings have really had to worry about during the last few seasons.

The Vikings currently have one of the NFL’s most durable signal-callers starting for them under center in Kirk Cousins. So while it’s still a good idea to have a solid backup behind Cousins, his ability to remain on the field has allowed Minnesota to be a little bit more experimental with the guys behind him on the depth chart.

This year, Cousins is the only quarterback on the Vikings’ roster who has actually started a game in the NFL. With this being the case, hopefully Cousins continues to remain healthy, and Minnesota won’t have to utilize any of his backups during the upcoming season.

Minnesota Vikings 2021 backup QB situation ranked surprisingly high

With the lack of experience the Vikings currently have in their quarterback room, most would probably assume that their backup signal-caller situation is not one of the best in the NFL right now.

However, CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin actually sees it differently. Benjamin has Minnesota’s current backup quarterback situation, specifically Mond, ranked as the 13th-best in the league heading into the 2021 campaign.

Benjamin made sure to share why he believes the Vikings currently have one of the top-15 backup quarterbacks in the NFL.

"“[Kellen] Mond enters the NFL with lots of starting experience from his Texas A&M days, but more importantly, he’s got a rocket arm and quick feet to give Minnesota some juice.”"

Yes, Mond did start a ton of games during his college career. But this doesn’t automatically mean he’ll be comfortable starting as a rookie in the NFL. He definitely could be, but the ranking just feels a little too optimistic for a player who hasn’t even played a snap in a preseason game yet.

At the same time, Benjamin did rank Trey Lance of the San Francisco 49ers and Justin Fields of the Chicago Bears as the two best backup quarterbacks in the NFL this year. Both are rookies, so the criteria in determining this list seems to weigh heavily on potential and not as much on what some of the passers have already done in the league.

Interestingly enough, this list has Minnesota with a higher-ranked backup signal-caller than both of the teams who participated in last season’s Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.