Vikings’ Coach Frazier Has No Immediate Plans To Bench McNabb

Added on Oct 04, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The Minnesota Vikings have gotten off to a brutal start in the 2011 NFL season losing their first four games. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but some disgruntled fans have already started to call for starting quarterback Donovan McNabb to be benched. On Monday he received a tepid vote of confidence from head coach Leslie Frazier–also reportedly on the ‘hot seat’–who said that McNabb’s starting quarterback job was safe. For now.

McNabb may have a little more ‘rope’ than most struggling quarterbacks since he was hand picked by Frazier in the off season. The coach rightfully concedes that there’s plenty of blame to go around:

“Based on these four games we’ve had this season, we’re not at a point where we’re making a quarterback change. I mean, there are a lot of things we need to correct on our football team based on the fact that we’re 0-4. But, at this point, quarterback change isn’t one of those changes.”

Still, Frazier didn’t exactly offer unwavering support for McNabb:

“I do expect him to be our starter, barring something happening between now and then that I don’t know about.”

Frazier expanded on the ‘plenty of blame to go around’ concept, suggesting that he’s not going to throw McNabb under the bus just for the sake of having a scapegoat:

“Offensively, defensively, special teams, we have enough areas of concern that is not just the quarterback position. We really have to do a good job of supporting one another. If we do that, our quarterback play will improve, our defensive line play, our linebacker, our secondary, our offensive line, our running backs. We have a number of areas, besides our quarterback, we have to improve.”

Wide receiver Percy Harvin said the team still has faith in McNabb:

“Well he’s a vet, most importantly. He’s led the Eagles to I don’t know how many conference championships. He’s a veteran that can come in and learn the system as quick as he did. We’re all learning. We’re just going to keep plugging and working hard and trying to get this thing right.”

The Vikings will host the Arizona Cardinals this weekend. Minnesota is a -2′ point NFL betting favorite with the total set at 44.