Sept. 17, 2007

The Vikings have thrown their support behind QB Tarvaris Jackson since letting him get a taste of the NFL at the end of last season. But after Sunday’s overtime loss to the Lions, in which Jackson threw four interceptions, questions arose over whether he might be ready to lead this team. On Sunday, Jackson was 17-for-33 passing for 166 yards with a quarterback rating of 26.4. Through two games, his rating is 40.0, and his longest play was a 60-yard TD pass to RB Adrian Peterson that was mostly the work of the rookie runner himself. Jackson also suffered an apparent groin injury in overtime and couldn’t finish the game. He was replaced by backup Brooks Bollinger.

The PFW spin

The Vikings have hinted this entire year that they are not asking their young quarterback to do as much as other quarterbacks around the league. Basically, they want him to not lose games and make sound decisions. In Week One, he passed the test, throwing short and mostly accurately.

But in Week Two, on the road in a loud dome home of a divisional opponent, Jackson failed the test by a good mark. When asked to make more decisions and take more of the offensive responsibility, he seldom made the right play in critical situations. Jackson’s first interception was on a deflection, but it was not a good decision either. Two other picks were the result of him overthrowing long balls, attempting to make a play downfield when there wasn’t anything there.

The final interception clearly appeared to be a miscommunication with WR Robert Ferguson, as Jackson threw to the hashmarks, whereas Ferguson remained outside. That can be chalked up to not being on the same page as a receiver he has had less than a month to work with, but no one was making excuses for Jackson after the game, not even himself.

It comes back to whether the Vikings are rushing Jackson into duty, and privately they might agree they are doing so. The team, under a different head coach, did the same with Daunte Culpepper. And a cursory glance at how Culpepper fared in his early starts eerily mirrors Jackson’s subpar numbers. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a talent evaluator that would say definitively that Jackson is a can’t-miss player or that rushing him into the lineup won’t have a negative effect on his confidence or cause him some poor habits.

The coaches need to emphasize the importance of when throwing the ball away is a good thing. Of the four interceptions, throwing the ball away was the right decision on two of the plays. Throwing elsewhere was likely the right call on the other two picks. But Jackson also threw a couple of passes away on plays where he had open receivers. Coaches will say that learning that skill takes time, something Jackson hasn’t had a lot of since making the jump from Division I-AA to NFL starter in less than a year.

Another problem Sunday might have been the injury to RB Chester Taylor, which kept him out of the game, and the coaches’ reluctance to give Peterson too many carries. Instead, they got some nice contributions from Mewelde Moore and probably could have balanced out the offense a little more to put Jackson in less of a position where he had to make plays on his own.

These are the pitfalls teams can face when playing a young quarterback and not having receivers and tight ends who can create on their own at a high level. Right now, the Vikings don't have enough playmakers to protect Jackson properly. But benching Jackson might damage his psyche and make the maturation process even longer. If the Vikings want to win now, they might have to hurry up backup Kelly Holcomb to get ready to start. If they want to develop their young offense, taking their lumps with Jackson might be the only way to fly.

Jackson is not a fantasy option right now. Too many mistakes and not enough plays.