Case Keenum's unforgettable Vikings season deserved a different ending

Case Keenum didn't sign with the Minnesota Vikings in the 2017 offseason with the hopes of starting the majority of the team's games in the following regular season. But that's what ended up happening, and Minnesota fans were very thankful that it did.

Similar to Sam Darnold's lone season with the Vikings, Keenum's one year in purple and gold didn't begin with high expectations. Confidence from the fanbase was low when the journeyman backup quarterback was given the keys to Minnesota's offense, but he quickly did more than enough to capture the hearts of so many Vikings fans in the 2017 campaign.

Debates will go on forever about whether Keenum's time in Minnesota should have lasted longer than a season, but for now, we're just going to look back at all the excitement (and miracles) he helped create for the Vikings during the one year that he suited up for the team.

Minnesota Vikings 1-Year Rentals: Case Keenum in 2017

How it happened

After bouncing around between the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Rams during the first five seasons of his NFL career, Keenum signed a one-year deal with Minnesota in March of 2017.

The Vikings were set at the top of the quarterback depth chart with Sam Bradford, but they needed to make sure they had a reliable backup since there were still plenty of questions surrounding the health of Teddy Bridgewater after his brutal knee injury in 2016, and that's where Keenum came in.

How it went

Well, Keenum's one year with Minnesota almost ended before the 2017 regular season even began.

He was in a battle for the backup job with Taylor Heinicke in training camp, and some had their doubts about Keenum actually playing well enough during the summer to deserve the No. 2 job behind Bradford.

The Vikings eventually cut Heinicke and entered the 2017 season with Keenum as their backup, with the hopes that he wouldn't be needed for any valuable time on the field.

Thanks to Bradford having the knees of a 95-year-old, however, Keenum was in Minnesota's starting lineup by Week 2, and he remained the team's starter until Week 5 against the Chicago Bears when the Vikings attempted to see if Bradford was healthy enough to play again.

It didn't take long to find out he wasn't, as the Bears sacked him four times in the first half, and he was eventually pulled in favor of Keenum, who went on to help lead Minnesota to a 20-17 win.

Keenum went on to start the remaining 11 games on the Vikings' 2017 schedule, and during that stretch, he led the team to a 10-1 record, with their only loss coming in a Week 14 thriller against the Carolina Panthers.

Minnesota won the NFC North in 2017, earned a first-round bye in the playoffs, and their sights were set on playing in a Super Bowl inside their own building.

Keenum and the Vikings' first postseason matchup was against Sean Payton and the hated New Orleans Saints. A bitter taste from the 2009 championship was still lingering inside the mouths of Minnesota fans, and they wanted nothing more than to send Payton and the Saints back to New Orleans with a loss.

Two quarters in, everything was going great. The Vikings had a 17-0 lead, the Saints couldn't do anything on offense, and all signs pointed to a Minnesota win.

But then came the second half, and that was a totally different story.

This time it was the Vikings' offense that struggled, and New Orleans putting together scoring drive after scoring drive. With three minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Saints took a 21-20 lead, and it seemed like a win was slipping out of Minnesota's hands.

Both teams traded field-goal drives after that, and everything came down to the final 25 seconds. The Vikings needed more of Keenum's magic, and man, did he come through.

Keenum, of course, found receiver Stefon Diggs near the right sideline, and the connection turned into a 61-yard game-winning (miraculous) touchdown.

Plays like this never went in favor of Minnesota, so the entire fanbase was in shock when the unthinkable actually happened.

Unfortunately, the excitement from the Divisional Round win and the success during the regular season didn't carry over to the NFC Championship against the Philadelphia Eagles for the Vikings.

Keenum's magic ran out after Minnesota's first offensive drive of the game in Philadelphia, and the Vikings fell one game short of playing in a Super Bowl inside U.S. Bank Stadium

How it ended

After a disappointing end to a magical 2017 season for Minnesota, the top conversation in the fanbase quickly shifted to deciding whether Keenum should be re-signed in the offseason or not.

Could what the veteran quarterback did with the Vikings in 2017 be duplicated in 2018 and beyond?

Eventually, Minnesota decided the answer to that question was no, and instead of bringing Keenum back, they backed up the Brinks truck to sign former Washington Commanders quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Due to his success with the Vikings, Keenum was still able to land a nice payday during the 2018 offseason when he signed a two-year contract with the Denver Broncos worth $36 million.

During his next few stops around the NFL, Keenum was never able to have anywhere close to the success that he had in 2017 with Minnesota, and at the same time, Cousins was never able to live up to the high expectations the Vikings had for him when he joined the team in 2018.

Both parties failed by going their separate ways after the 2017 season, and instead, it just created one of the most talked-about what-if scenarios in Minnesota's history about whether the team would have been better off sticking with Keenum for another year or two instead of signing Cousins.

This article is part of a TVA series about one-and-done starting quarterbacks throughout Vikings history. Check out all the former Minnesota quarterbacks known as the 1-Year Rentals here.

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