The Vikings have waived QB Kellen Mond. I thought he just needed more time to be successful, but with a new regime in town, change is inevitable. Two new systems in two off-seasons is no recipe for success, especially for a young QB. The learning curve was pretty steep and that is why I believe we saw the results we did. Kellen Mond isn’t the only Jimbo Fisher product to struggle in the NFL. That list is pretty long actually…. and it made me think, why isn’t he scrutinized more? Ohio State gets criticized for manufacturing great college QB’s that don’t have much NFL success, but what about Jimbo? Let’s take a look at the list.
Jamarcus Russell
Russell may be known as one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history. Younger college football fans may have also forgotten that Jimbo Fisher was his offensive coordinator and QB coach at LSU. Russell’s NFL reputation is well known even though he only made 25 career starts (7-18 record).Christian Ponder
This one sounded like a mistake as soon as it was announced by Roger Goodell. Even with a plethora of talent around him like Percy Harvin and Adrian Peterson, it still didn’t hide the fact that Christian Ponder wasn’t worthy of being a first round pick. In defense of the Vikings, 12th overall was not a good spot to be in this draft. In the top 11, there were at least five future hall of famers and from picks 12 to 32, there were a long list of busts.
EJ Manuel
Sandwiched between Christian Ponder and Jameis Winston and FSU, there was the often forgotten EJ Manuel. Of course, Jimbo made him look awesome in college and created false hope for many scouts and GM’s around the league. Again, another Fisher product was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft at 16th overall, but Manuel only started 30 career games in his time with a handful of NFL Teams.Jameis Winston
You could make the argument that the jury is still out determining whether Famous Jameis is a bust or not. The one constant in his career to this point has been turnovers. Winston has 91 career interceptions in 7 seasons in the NFL.
Kellen Mond
Mond is the only figure on this list that wasn’t a first round pick, but there were still decent expectations for him as a 3rd round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. There was hope he would at least materialize into a solid backup for Kirk Cousins. I’m not ready to label Kellen Mond a bust, I believe this was bad timing with all the changes in the Vikings franchise and there is still hope for him to find a better situation somewhere else in the league.What Did We Learn?
Now that we have a decent trend shown, maybe these NFL scouts and GM’s will be a little more skeptical when evaluating current Texas A&M Quarterback Haynes King. King was recently named starting QB for the 2022 Aggies and looks promising as he was a 4-star recruit out of high school. Maybe his luck changes with the new NIL rules to bring in some more talented individuals for Jimbo. For now, there’s been more bust than boom with his NFL prospects.
Parlay engineer with Twitter fingers.