Christian Ponder is no dummy. He sees the writing on the wall when it comes to his future with the Minnesota Vikings. After the team opted to sign Josh Freeman a week ago, Ponder's future became even less clear. After missing a game with an injury, Ponder has returned healthy and still might not start, despite the coaches claiming he is "the guy." Clearly frustrated, Ponder is unhappy with the direction of the team.
"Some of the dynamics of this organization have changed obviously with brining in Josh [Freeman]," Ponder said, via 1500ESPN.com. "I would be lying if I didn't say it was a little bit disappointing and frustrating."
Ponder suffered a rib injury in Week 3 that held him out of the Vikings' game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite having to sit out, Frazier continued to back Ponder as the team's starting quarterback. The third-year player had yet to get Minnesota a win, but the head coach continued to support him while Matt Cassel got the start. Enough players backed Cassel after the team defeated the Steelers, making the situation even more tense. Despite the drama, Ponder says Frazier continues to stand by him, but things feel different.
"Just in our talks, [Frazier and Spielman] are still supportive, which is good. They brought in another quarterback, but you know, they're still supportive," Ponder said. "In the past few years, you figure out where your confidence needs to lie in and sometimes it's not on the football field. There's more important things and when that happens, it's funny how your confidence on the field works out."
The quarterback has no clue what his long-term plans look like with the Vikings. All he knows is that as of this moment, Cassel will likely be starting on Sunday despite his good health. While Frazier had once said Ponder would start if healthy, that appears to no longer be true.
"It's not an open competition, but I just want to make sure we're doing the right thing," Frazier said. "We'll go through practice tomorrow and see where those guys are."
Ponder has a year remaining on his contract with a salary cap hit of $2.8 million. It seems unlikely Minnesota would trade him before the Oct. 29 deadline, but at this point anything is possible. No one saw the Vikings signing Freeman so the idea that Ponder would be traded is not out of the question.
"Again, I have no idea what is going to happen. I hope to still be here," Ponder said. "That's the front office's call. You never know, as we've seen in the past week, what's going to happen."
