Vikings analyst poo-poos performance of Kellen Mond vs. the Raiders

Purple Insider’s Matthew Coller is not among those who were impressed with the performance of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kellen Mond on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Compared to last year, Kellen Mond looked like an entirely different quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday in their first matchup of the 2022 preseason against the Las Vegas Raiders.

In his second preseason with the Vikings, nerves seemed to be affecting Mond during his first few pass attempts. Minnesota’s young quarterback began the matchup by only completing two of his first six passes for 24 yards.

Eventually, Mond was able to settle down though, and it resulted in him completing six of his final eight pass attempts for 95 yards and two touchdowns.

Minnesota Vikings analyst not impressed with play of Kellen Mond against Las Vegas Raiders

Despite leading the Vikings to a pair of touchdown drives against Las Vegas, not everyone was impressed with the way Mond performed on Sunday.

Following Minnesota’s loss to the Raiders, Purple Insider’s Matthew Coller had the following to say about how he believes people should interpret Mond’s play in the contest.

"“This game, you could switch into two parts with Kellen Mond. The first part was very shaky and kind of all over the place. There was some good throws and there were some pretty rough plays.And then, the second part is the Kyle Slotering of the fourth quarter [or] the McLeod Bethel-Thompsoning or John David Bootying. The number of guys that have run through [Minnesota]. Jake Browning even, who showed something, maybe against poor competition. But there’s not really anything there when they’re playing against even slightly better competition, in vanilla defenses no less.So I don’t think you can walk out of this and go ‘oh yeah, the upside guy, you’ve gotta play him.’ I would call it like a flicker, but you wouldn’t say ‘oh, [Mond] just ran away with this job over Sean Mannion.'”"

So basically, don’t give Mond any credit for anything that he did well on Sunday because some of it came against Raiders third-teamers.

But here’s the thing, Mond at his worst on Sunday was far better than Mannion at his worst. And if Las Vegas was so easy to move the ball against in the second half on Sunday, then why wasn’t Mannion able to replicate or perform better than Mond when he was put back onto the field in the fourth quarter?

Both of Minnesota’s offensive drives in the second half with Mond under center resulted in touchdowns and the team averaged 8.3 yards per play. During the Vikings’ drive in the fourth quarter with Mannion back in the huddle, the offense averaged 2.3 yards per play, and Minnesota was forced to punt after six plays.

No one is arguing that Mond is going to overtake Kirk Cousins as the Vikings’ starting quarterback anytime soon. Most people are just saying that the young signal-caller is clearly a better choice to be Minnesota’s No. 2 quarterback than Mannion.

This isn’t very difficult to understand. It means absolutely nothing if Mannion has the Vikings’ playbook memorized like his life depends on it and he can run the offense well in practice when everyone is in shorts. He’s proven multiple times that he is incapable of helping a team win in the regular season if he’s forced to start.

The results could certainly turn out to be the same for Mond in the future too if he has to start any games for Minnesota in the near future. But what the young quarterback displayed on Sunday is that, at the very least, the Vikings will have a better chance to win a game with him starting under center than they would with Mannion.