Journeyman Keenum an unexpected star
Quarterback has led Vikings to eight straight wins and NFL’s best record
Raise your hand if you saw this coming.
Case Keenum, of all people, is quarterbacking a team tied for the best record in the NFL.
Last season, he kept the seat warm for Jared Goff while suffering inside the NFL’s worst offense with the Los Angeles Rams. Now Keenum, with this third team in six pro seasons, has stunned the NFL as triggerman for the 10-2 Minnesota
Vikings, who boast an eight-game winning streak and very legitimate Super Bowl hopes.
No, Keenum isn’t to be confused with Tom Brady or Russell Wilson, who often carry their teams in spectacular fashion.
Yet this quintessential journeyman is special in his own way. Since coming off the bench in Week 2 to replace injured Sam Bradford, he’s turned heads as the unlikely standout.
“From the first play when he walked into the huddle in Pittsburgh, he’s had a charisma and confidence about him,” Kyle Rudolph, the Vikings tight end, told USA TODAY on Sunday, not long after snagging the game-winning touchdown from Keenum in Atlanta.
“It was a little like, ‘ This offense is not going to take a step backward just because I’m stepping in.’ He’s played his balls off for the last 11 weeks.”
Keenum, a bit undersized at 6-1 and 215 pounds, has earned similarly colorful praise from coach Mike Zimmer for his courage. But he also has checked a few other key boxes.
He’s protecting the football, with just five picks in 360 passes and zero fumbles. He finds the playmakers, including wide receivers Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs. And he’s been rather adept at making or extending plays with his feet, demonstrating deft pocket awareness.
Zimmer likes that Keenum has not tried to “overdo things.” But the coach insists that the veteran has been better than expected in several regards.
“I probably didn’t know how good of a movement guy in the pocket that he is,” Zimmer said of Keenum, who has an NFL-low sack rate of 2.44%. “He has done a great job of that all year.”
During Sunday’s 14-9 win over the Falcons, some of Keenum’s most impressive moments came when he scrambled or kept plays alive by floating or shifting in the pocket before throwing. The biggest gain on the 15play, 89-yard drive that produced the winning TD early in the fourth quarter came as Keenum slid left and, as he absorbed a hit, found Diggs cutting across the middle for 19 yards.
Diggs acknowledged the importance of keeping routes alive, given Keenum’s patience. “He’s really creative back there,” Diggs told USA TODAY. “We call him the mini-magician because he runs around a little bit.”
Playing on a one-year deal, Keenum is having a blast while setting himself up for the potential of a big payday next offseason — even if not in Minnesota, with Teddy Bridgewater and Bradford set to become free agents.
Since Bridgewater was activated last month with Bradford on injured reserve, Zimmer has fielded weekly questions about whether Keenum would continue to start. There’s no reason to rock the boat at the moment, not with Keenum playing as well as he has.
Then again, as the stakes increase, maybe Keenum — a backup or stopgap option since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent from the University of Houston — is poised to crash back to Earth.
As good as he has been, there’s still a lot more to prove, which has been the story of his journey all along.