Patience

I sure wish that football fans would have greater patience with quarterbacks. Especially young quarterbacks. Developing a franchise quarterback is rarely a smooth process. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder has had more good to great games than poor games this season. For a team that was predicted to find a home in the cellar of the NFC North, Ponder has helped lead the Vikings to a 6-5 record. They are in the thick of the playoff race. He's been far from perfect. One of the greatest mistakes made by fans is to heap all of the blame on the quarterback for a floundering team. Quarterbacks have always received too much of the credit when things go right and too much of the blame when things go wrong. Ponder has a lot that he has to do better. The same is true of his receivers and his offensive line. In this past game against the Chicago Bears, he completed 22 of 43 passes for 159 yards. His receivers dropped at least eight passes. Most, if not all, were pretty easy catches. Ponder put the ball right on the receiver's hands. Those have to be caught. Every single time. Those receptions extend drives. They get the quarterback in a rhythm. Everything is smoother when the quarterback can trust his receivers. It's a team game and everything looks better when everyone is complimenting each other.

This patience can't last forever. It has to pay off at some point. Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions during his rookie season. Accepting that many mistakes shows a lot of patience. Most quarterbacks experience struggles early in their careers. All quarterbacks have bad games. This is Ponder's first full season as a starter. It was never expected to be pretty every week. It wasn't even supposed to be 6-5 good. I've always felt that he needs this season and next to get a decent read on his abilities to be the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings long term. That's a fair amount of patience. Most fans have no issues showing that sort of patience to a young receiver or cornerback. Why shouldn't a quarterback receive the same treatment. More is expected of a quarterback. They have to lead, motivate, make decisions, improvise. All in a matter of seconds. All of it takes some time. Some patience.