Getty The Vikings brought veteran quarterback Kevin Hogan in for a workout on August 4, 2022.
The Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks room is in a precarious state.
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah opted to keep the room intact, kicking the tires on Kirk Cousins through the next two seasons by offering the veteran a contract extension in March.
However, beyond Cousins is questionable. Sean Mannion is merely a player-coach at the quarterback position who is rostered solely to support Cousins, while Kellen Mond continues to struggle in his second NFL training camp.
It’s become a problem for the coaching staff who cannot evaluate receivers and the secondary when balls are being underthrown, overthrown and fumbled on the snap in practice.
Minnesota may be on the verge of making a move to remedy the situation, recently inviting a veteran quarterback in for a workout.
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Vikings Work Out Kevin Hogan
Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson reported on August 4 that the Vikings worked out five players, including veteran quarterback Kevin Hogan, who was cut by the Houston Texans on August 1.
Hogan was Andrew Luck’s successor at Stanford, nicknamed “The Gunslinger” his redshirt freshman year when he led the Cardinals to a Pac-12 Championship and was the named Most Valuable Player of the title game. Hogan’s career combined total offense of 10,634 yards is also a school record, and his career passing efficiency of 154.6 is second only to Luck.
He was drafted in the fifth round of the 2016 draft by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016 but was cut before the start of his rookie season. Hogan was signed by the Cleveland Browns as a practice-squad arm but played four games in 2017, throwing for 517 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions.
Hogan hasn’t thrown a pass in a regular season game since the 2017 season but has bounced around the league as a member of the Denver Broncos, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Washington Commanders and Texans.
Hogan isn’t going to be the next Vikings starting quarterback anytime soon, but he’s received plenty of praise around the league as a player who can help facilitate practice.
The Vikings also worked out wide receiver Jonathan Adams, guard Matt Burrell, tight end Kahale Warring and offensive tackles Chidi Okeke and Jarrid Williams, per Wilson.
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Vikings May Be Stuck With Mond/Mannion
Appearing on the Purple Daily podcast, Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins weighed the Vikings’ options at backup quarterback a month away from the season opener.
Mannion proved he’s incapable as a starter last year in a 37-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers that knocked the Vikings from a playoff bid. He completed 22-of-36 pass attempts for 189 yards and a touchdown as Minnesota dinked and dunked the ball inside the sticks for most of the game.
Meanwhile, Mond may still not be ready to start and is not rising to overtake Mannion.
“Mond, there does seem to be some indecisiveness,” Scoggins said. “We’ve seen the ball handling issues, the balls security issues — that’s got to be frustrating for the coaches. I got to imagine they’re giving him every opportunity available to win that job because you want him to be that backup over Mannion.”
If Mond can’t overtake Mannion, the new regime will be making the same mistake that proved costly with the Packers bouncing the Mannion-led Vikings from playoff contention.
But there may not be enough time to bring along a new quarterback after months of installing Kevin O’Connell’s offense in Minnesota.
“You have to have a Plan B at every position,” Scoggins added. “Are (the Vikings) going to go through a full training camp with two guys and then sign someone who doesn’t know the system?”