Donovan McNabb Thinks He, Not Christian Ponder, Should Be Vikings Starter

The Minnesota Vikings made the switch to rookie quarterback Christian Ponder last week, and he started his first NFL game against the Green Bay Packers. Ponder took over for Donovan McNabb in the middle of the Vikings' game a week. On the season, McNabb completed 60% of his passes, threw for 1,026 yards, 4 touchdowns, and two interceptions in his six starts. In that stretch, the Vikings went just 1-5 and their offense sputtered outside of the running game with Adrian Peterson.

But McNabb was quiet on the starting quarterback topic until this week, when he made sure to note that he felt he should still be the Vikings starting quarterback and it wasn't his fault the Vikings were 1-5.  Andrea Kremer of NFL Network asked McNabb in an interview that will air Sunday morning whether he should still be the starter for the Vikings. "Absolutely," McNabb said. "Absolutely."

McNabb told Kremer. "We should be sitting here, I'll be honest, at about what, 4-3, 5-2, or whatever? We had games that we should have won, but we just didn't. Now is it the quarterback position?"

The blame for the losses may not be totally on McNabb and the quarterback position, but, in his first start, Ponder gave the Vikings a good chance to beat the Packers. The offense seemed to hum and scored points on a talented Packers defense.

The losses weren't totally McNabb's fault, but, on a 1-5 football team with a first round pick at quarterback on the bench, he had to have known at a certain point in the season he would be replaced if the team wasn't winning, regardless of his play.

What McNabb may not realize with his comments, however, is that he basically blamed other areas of the Vikings for the team's losses, essentially saying "It wasn't me."

For more on Donovan McNabb and the Minnesota Vikings, check out SB Nation's Vikings blog The Daily Norseman.