His Year: Case Keenum 2017

The starter is down. The season is over, or is it? Let's talk about how a backup gave the Vikings their best season in decades.

As we all know, the New York Jets traded for Aaron Rodgers this past offseason to be the saviour of their new era of football, only for him to be injured and gone for the season in week one. This has left poor old Zach Wilson to run out there and give it another try, but for all the talk over the offseason about how he's been learning from Aaron, and about how good he's looked, this has still not gone well.

This situation has got me thinking about past instances in NFL history of this happening. The franchise saviour goes down injured, and the man behind him who seems to have proven he doesn't have what it takes at the NFL level has to step in and take his place.

Note that this does not include Kurt Warner stepping in for an injured Trent Green in 1999, as Kurt had not played badly in the NFL. He hadn't played at all. It doesn't include Sam Darnold stepping up in a big way for the Panthers last year, as Baker Mayfield was in no way supposed to be the saviour of that franchise. It also doesn't include instances of backups stepping up when the incumbent goes down, such as 2013 Josh McCown or Nick Foles. It must be the case of there being lots of excitement for a brand new era, only for that excitement to be immediately dashed, as fans are left with a previously subpar NFL QB to take his place indefinitely.

Jets fans may be asking: has this scenario ever worked out well?

Yes. Once.

Coming into 2017, Viking fans were legitimately excited about their team. They still had the same defence that'd ranked third in 2016, and Sam Bradford is coming off his best NFL season as a pro. He played well enough in 2016 to get a $20M contract extension (which seemed bigger then than it does now) from the Vikings to cover the 2017 season to give both sides more time to renegotiate a more permanent solution.

You may ask why I'm counting this season, since I said before that incumbents weren't to be counted. My answer to that question happens in week one of the 2017 season, where Sam Bradford has the best game of his NFL career. Playing as mere three point home favourites to Drew Brees and the Saints, Sam goes out there and puts up 0.61 EPA/Play and ensures that the game is over before the fourth quarter even starts.

I'm going to brush over it quickly because this article is not about Sam Bradford, but this sort of thing does not happen to the 2010s New Orleans Saints. Never is Drew Brees so thoroughly outplayed that the Saints don't even have a chance that early into the game. The 2017 version is not the suffocating defence that the Saints are going to become in the ensuing years (and remain until the present), but this is going to be a His Day article in the future, and it convinced Vikings fans that this was a team that could make serious noise.

This is not the same old Sam Bradford. This is the new saviour.

A saviour that will not play even one snap for the Vikings.

Yup. At least Jets fans got to see their saviour get four touches. In 2017, Vikings fans are left with nothing as Sam is diagnosed midweek with a bone bruise to his knee (the same knee that’s undergone two ACL surgeries in the previous four years). He tries to go out there and warm up, but it becomes clear to everybody he can't go for week two against the Steelers.

Just like the 2023 Jets, the Vikings' new era is over already, and they never even got to see what it looked like. In just one week, the Vikings have gone from favourites to defeat Drew Brees and the Saints to prohibitive nine point underdogs against Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

We all know why this is.

In the absence of Bradford, and with their potential late season backup Teddy Bridgewater still a long way away nursing his gruesome knee injury, the Vikings are left with their third option, veteran Case Keenum.

This is where the Jets comparison becomes imperfect, as Keenum is 29 years old as of 2017, compared to the still young 24 year old Wilson, and the differences don't end there.

Unlike Wilson, Keenum was never highly touted as a prospect. Never really recruited during high school, Case repeatedly made trips to all the big QB camps on his family's own dime looking to get noticed, but no recognition came. In the end, Case was a two star recruit with only one offer to play college football, from the University of Houston, which he was forced to accept.

Despite feeling underappreciated and unwanted, Case Keenum would go on to throw for the most yards, completions, and touchdowns in NCAA history with Houston (all records he still holds), yet somehow still nobody wanted him. He went undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft. Nobody even wanted him enough to bring him in for a look as an undrafted prospect. He got no calls draft night. The only team that would even bring him into camp was the hometown Houston Texans, likely looking to sell some training camp tickets by showcasing the local star college QB before inevitably cutting him.

Cutting him is exactly what the Texans did, but in his limited look he impressed in a limited capacity, as the Texans elected to keep Case on as a practice squad player for 2012. Due to injuries to both Matt Schaub and TJ Yates, Case is able to get his first NFL action in 2013, and since then has played sporadically for both the Texans and Rams.

Coming into the 2017 season, Keenum has generated -0.056 EPA/Play, on a -4.9 CPOE, and a 5.35 ANY/A in his 903 plays of pro football so far. Looking at those numbers, Zach Wilson and his -0.126, -8.1, 4.29 in his 769 career plays coming into 2023 seems like a much fairer comparison.

Also much like Wilson, Keenum is down to his last chance at the NFL level.

Case has talked about being in the extremely nervous position of having only one team wanting his services for 2017. There were a few other teams willing to take him, having missed out on their top backup options, but NFL players know that when only one team wants you, that means your time in the league is getting ready to come to a close.

Not wanting to feel unwanted yet again, Case did pick the one team that he truly felt wanted him, the Minnesota Vikings, and that gets us to Pittsburgh in week two. Sam has decided that he can't go, and without him the Vikings are now huge dogs.

If Case knew he was at the end of his NFL rope, he sure didn't play like it, as it's all he can do to generate -0.24 EPA/Play in a blowout loss. Keep in mind that while the horrendous defences of the early 2010s Steelers are behind them, they are also not the juggernaut of a defence that they are today. These Steelers are a mediocre defence, and Case could not make a dent in them. He couldn't even keep the game close.

Much like the modern Jets, the Vikings' fanbase immediately fall into mourning for a potential great season that will now never be. It's only week two and there is already speak of what could've been with this great defence and great receiving corps. They've seen what Case can do against a good but not elite Pittsburgh defence, and they shudder to think about what he can do against great ones.

Thankfully, Minnesota's next game is not against a great one. It's against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their perpetually porous defence they carried with them throughout the Jameis Winston era. The 2017 variant is no different, as it will go on to rank 29th in total defence in 2017.

In a way this puts more pressure on Case, since if he can't be productive against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he won't be able to be productive against anybody, and the season really will be lost. It's possible that if Case does not pull off at least a good day against these Buccaneers, he'll never get a look as an NFL starter again.

I know this is a lot of build for a week three game against Tampa Bay, but it's important to keep in your mind the thoughts that had to be running through Case's head in the leadup to this game. Fans tend to think in terms of team oriented goals, but players don't. Recall that the Vikings are the only team in the whole league that wanted Case. He'll have a few more weeks after this to prove himself before Sam gets back, but none of those opportunities are going to be as good as this one.

It's clear the NFL world doesn't believe he can do it, because the Vikings are not favourites. Just think about that. Coming in at even money at home against the 2017 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (a team that will go on to win just five games), when you're at the helm of the same squad that just two weeks ago were favoured to beat the New Orleans Saints is a slap in the face. It's the NFL world telling Case Keenum loudly and clearly that they don't believe in him.

Starting now, Case Keenum is going to make you believe in him.

Recall how Vikings fans were treating Sam Bradford's 0.61 EPA/Play in a blowout win over the New Orleans Saints as the beginning of a new era? In week three, Case Keenum goes out and does the exact same thing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In a game that's over before halftime, Case torches the Buccaneers to the tune of 0.59 EPA/Play over his 39 touches. He throws three touchdowns and no interceptions and totally outclasses a pretty good opponent in Jameis Winston. In all, he finishes the day with 23 total EPA, which falls just short of my all-time great game measure (which is 25), but is more than enough to ensure that everybody knows that the Vikings are going to be just fine, at least until either Sam or Teddy Bridgewater can get back.

Or are they?

Despite having just played a game that ranks in the 96th percentile of all QB games in the play tracking era (meaning only four percent of all games played by all QBs can match this one), Case still hears words like 'unremarkable' and phrases like 'game manager' on the regular.

Perhaps trying to prove these people wrong, Case comes out in week four and throws passes with an average distance of 12.1 air yards (way above the norm, which is about eight). Unfortunately, this is just not his game, and the Vikings take a rough looking 14-7 loss at home against the Detroit Lions.

Never mind that this lack of offensive production can quite easily be explained by the astounding 22 plays wasted on a rush offence operating at (jeepers creepers) -0.51 EPA/Play today. When things go badly, people want the quarterback's head, and for week five in Chicago, they're going to get it.

It's announced prior to the Chicago game that Sam Bradford will be the week five starter. It's always felt weird to me that the Vikings are currently starting a QB that's just had one of the best games in franchise history against Tampa, and nobody bats an eye when they replace him, but they certainly bat their eyes when Bradford shows what they're replacing him with.

It's instantly clear to everybody that Sam is not ready. Minnesota's first three drives go three and out, three and out, safety. Their fourth drive gets one first down before punting, and their fifth one gets two, but their sixth one goes three and out again.

Due to Chicago's incompetence in addition to the suffocating Minnesota defence that will be in the background of this whole article, the Vikings are somehow winning this game 3-2 in spite of all this offensive ineptitude, but it's abundantly clear that Sam cannot do this. Give him an A for effort, but this is the NFL, and you can't play on one leg.

Sam Bradford will never play for the Minnesota Vikings again.

Beginning the second half with a 3-2 lead, Case is back in at QB. The offence immediately springs to life. The offence that'd taken the whole first half to get three first downs takes just eight plays to repeat it, and five plays after that Case has thrown a touchdown pass to Kyle Rudolph, something that never came anywhere near happening in the first half. It's taken just one drive to reassure everybody that Case Keenum is Minnesota's best option, and for better or worse, they're going to have to stick with him.

After the Bears manage to go around the fearsome Viking defence by scoring a cheap touchdown on a fake punt to narrow the score to 10-9, Minnesota responds with an easy touchdown to make the score 17-9 to finish the fourth quarter. Somehow, the Bears (led by the horrendous rookie version of Mitch Trubisky) manage to respond again with a pretty easy touchdown of their own to tie the score at 17.

Surely entranced by the miracle they've just witnessed, the Vikings spend their next two possessions putting Case in a bad position with excellent play calls such as a run between the tackles on first and 20, and two consecutive handoffs to Jerick McKinnon on the Chicago 46, each of which go nowhere. Each of these instances scuttle decent drives that Case had going, and so the offence has to rely on a brutal Trubisky interception to get themselves in position to kick the game winning field goal. These are the perks of playing against a rookie QB with one of the league's best defences, and the Vikings sneak out of Chicago with a 20-17 win.

The first half wasted with Bradford in the game turned what could've been a relatively easy win into a win that, while still rather easy, did come down to the last seconds of the game, but none of this is Case's fault. He stayed ready, and when it became clear that Sam couldn't do it he did not fold like he did against the Steelers. Instead, he scored 17 points in a half and won a game that easily could've been lost.

Trust me. The Vikings normally find ways to lose these ones, but not today.

Now at 3-2, the Vikings have not taken the nosedive that many had expected, but they are no longer division favourites. That honour has reverted to the 4-1 Green Bay Packers, who are led by an Aaron Rodgers seen by many to be on the downswing by 2017. Of course we all know he will find the fountain of youth in 2020, but nobody knows that yet.

This is the main reason Vikings fans were so excited about 2017 coming in. With the other two QBs in the NFC North division being a rookie Mitch Trubisky and a Matthew Stafford who posted a scant 0.1 CPOE in 2016, there was a real chance that Sam Bradford could've turned out to be the best QB in this mix if Aaron's decline were to continue. Of course we know it doesn't, so this notion seems ludicrous, but at the beginning of 2017 it seemed possible.

In week six, Aaron and his Packers are coming into Minneapolis to face Case Keenum and his Vikings, and for the second time in his three home starts, the Vikings are not favourites. They come in as three point home underdogs. This is a battle for NFC North supremacy early in the season, but we've all watched enough games between these two teams to know how this is going to go.

How it goes is that on the Vikings' first possession, Case is allowed to touch the ball just twice. Why this is the case I cannot tell you, considering the Packers have the league's second worst pass defence and its ninth best run defence, but this is what our man must deal with. We have to punt the ball away to Aaron and the Packer offence, but do you remember what happens on this next Packer possession?

The hit happens.

The hit. You remember the one. The one that inspired the NFL to change the roughing the passer rules to make tackling the QB illegal.

Of course I'm being facetious, but not by as much as you might think.

Anthony Barr tackles Aaron Rodgers as he throws the ball away, and comes down with all of his weight on Aaron's shoulder, separating it. Aaron will not play again until the Packers' season is all but over, and in the offseason heading into 2018 this hit is referenced as being the main catalyst for the NFL making the rule change forcing defenders to not tackle the QB with all of their weight.

So we can thank Anthony Barr for that.

The score is still 0-0, but this anticipated tight battle for the NFC North between Aaron Rodgers backed by nobody and Sam Bradford backed by the league's second best defence has turned into a battle between Brett Hundley backed by nobody and Case Keenum backed by one of the league's better defences. Place your bets on who's coming out on top here.

I'll be frank with you. The remainder of this game is not pretty. After two easy touchdown drives to begin the second quarter with a 14-7 score, Case throws his first interception of the season, and everything grinds to a halt. Not all of this can be blamed on Case (there is an instance of a first and forty in the second quarter due to two offensive personal fouls), but in the end he generates 0.05 EPA/Play against the league's second worst pass defence.

With his opponent being Brett Hundley, Case is able to get this win 23-10, and the Vikings take the NFC North lead, but once again he's done nothing to inspire any confidence. He gets away with this again in week seven, generating 0.03 EPA/Play (albeit this time against a very good Baltimore defence) and winning 24-16 due to his opponent being 2017 Joe Flacco.

To give some credit to Case, over these two weeks his rush offence has lost Dalvin Cook, and his offensive play callers have elected to use 63 total plays over the previous two weeks on a rush offence generating -0.28 EPA/Play over this span. Needless to say, he is not the sole reason the offence is struggling, but he's not pulling off any Chad Pennington-style Houdini acts either.

You may be asking yourself: Case Keenum has now had significant playing time in six games. In those six games he's generated an EPA/Play significantly above zero just twice, and he's had a positive CPOE just three times. How is this His Year material? Did I not make an article all about 2006 Rex Grossman and refuse to label it His Year because it wasn't good enough?

Yes, I did do that, and it is true that if Case's stats are to end where they are now (0.09 EPA/Play on a 1.3 CPOE) this season will hardly be His Year material. The Vikings will likely crash and burn the instant their offence has to score more than 17 points to win, and their starting QB will be Teddy Bridgewater.

You didn't forget about Teddy Bridgewater did you?

You know, the Vikings' first round pick from 2014 who led them to the playoffs just two years ago and was (and still is by some) seen as the future of the franchise? The guy who's been out over a year with a horrifying knee injury that nearly cost him his leg, but who's going to be back ready to play any week now?

For you and me, the comeback of Teddy Bridgewater is a great story, but it's horrifying for Case Keenum. The job that he has only just secured from Sam Bradford is now set to be back on the line again. Considering week eight is a matchup against winless Cleveland, Teddy won't be rushing back, but then comes the bye week, which is where Case's dream of starting for a playoff team has its best chance to go off the rails.

In week ten the Vikings are going to Washington to face the high flying Redskins, led by one of the NFL's best QBs in the Washington version of Kirk Cousins. Maybe just maybe, Minnesota may need a higher ceiling option to go against that.

What I'm getting at is that Case better impress against Cleveland, or there's going to be endless talk about his job. Again.

The 5-2 Vikings go into London to play Cleveland as 11 point favourites, and walk out on the first drive to turn the ball over. Touchdown Cleveland. The second drive sees Minnesota get just one first down before punting, and after a muffed catch they get just one first down before kicking a field goal. The third drive is scuttled by a holding penalty. The fourth sees a 40 yard completion wiped out by a chop block penalty, and also scores no points.

It takes the Vikings until 2:55 of the second quarter to at last get into the end zone, and to our credit, we make it look easy, but even this comes on a busted Cleveland coverage that leaves Adam Thielen uncovered in the corner of the end zone. Unbelievably, DeShone Kizer is able to respond with perhaps the best drive of his NFL career to get Cleveland back in the end zone and ahead 13-9 at the 45 second mark. Case is able to respond with a field goal drive to get the score to 13-12 as we go into half, but this is not optimal.

I would wager that if this game were played in Minneapolis, the Vikings would've been booed off of our home field. This was supposed to be the year, and here we are losing to winless Cleveland. This is why people laugh at the Vikings. Thankfully, this is a London game, so there will be none of the booing (Europeans don't boo their sports people like we do), but that surely did nothing to alleviate Case's stresses.

This Cleveland pass defence is fourth to worst in the entire NFL. We've already seen him play one worse (Green Bay), and he was able to do nothing with it. It seems like today his defence isn't going to be able to bail him out. By some miracle of God, we're struggling with the Browns' attack, so it’s on Case. The only other time this has happened (against Chicago) he was able to pull it off, but if it doesn't turn around, this game can easily be construed as proof that the Vikings are going nowhere with Case at the head. The cries for Teddy Bridgewater will be heard all the way in London.

At the dawn of the second half, it isn't turning around. Each of Minnesota's first two third quarter touches are three and outs. No penalties. No dropped balls. No extenuating circumstances. Naked three and outs. Thankfully one of these drives is off a Cleveland fumble deep in their own territory, so there is a field goal to take a 15-13 lead, but the Browns respond with one of their own to make the score 16-15.

There is now five minutes left in the third quarter, and the Vikings are still behind. This is starting to look ugly. Something needs to change, and change soon, or the Vikings are going to spoil the Browns' perfect 0-16 season for all of us. The drive starts with two innocuous handoffs and a short dump off that sets up second and nine from the Minnesota 42.

Here is where it all turns around. I've never said this mid-game before, but this situation necessitates it.

Welcome to Case Keenum's year.

A beautiful ball thrown off the back foot out of a sack turns into a 25 yard completion to Adam Thielen. From here, Case needs just two more passes to get to the end zone for a 23-16 lead. After a Cleveland three and out, we head straight down the field for another touchdown and a 30-16 lead. In just ten minutes, what could have been total disaster is now a two touchdown lead in an inevitable 33-16 blowout win.

Take a deep breath. Disaster is averted, and Minnesota is 6-2.

In all, Case played about as well as he possibly could've without actually impressing anybody. 0.22 EPA/Play is pretty good, but he did it with just a 52% personal success rate. Both of which are merely above average compared to what this Cleveland defence gives up against everybody. Also, his 5.8 aDoT (average depth of target) led some to believe that his success was mostly due to his receivers not being tackled.

All of this adds up to head coach Mike Zimmer having to field questions through the bye week about Teddy Bridgewater. To each question he gives the same answer. Teddy is not ready physically to be a starter.

As we now know, Teddy will never be physically ready in time for the end of 2017 season. While he is able to play and practice he will spend the rest of the season dealing with what are called 'serious limitations.' Considering the Vikings' offensive success so far has been based around Case being one of the best QBs in the NFL at avoiding sacks, I don't think a man with 'serious limitations' ever is going to get a serious look. This means it's now official. The job is Case Keenum's for the remainder of the season.

It's a great time for it too, since Case is about to prove himself in a way we've yet to see from him.

Week ten is a matchup in Washington that will present a new challenge to Case and a new challenge to all of the Vikings. What can we do when the defence is not able to bail us out? The Vikings have won five games under Case, but in those games the opposition have scored 17, 17, 10, 16, and 16 points. Two of those times we've gotten great performances out of Case. Two and a half if you count Cleveland, but this means the other two and a half times we haven't.

Unlike Chicago and Tampa Bay and Cleveland, Washington has a good (7th ranked) pass defence. As such, the oddsmakers are not convinced. 6-2 Minnesota goes into 4-4 Washington as scant one point favourites, and I'm not sure if I can disagree. NFLFastR's estimated Win Probability (WP) model sees this game as a perfect 50/50 pick 'em at kickoff, and after Washington scores easily on their first touch, there are grounds to be nervous for all the people out there who put money on the Vikings.

That is, until the Vikings respond right back. 7-7.

Washington scores a field goal to exit the first quarter with a 10-7 lead. Case says come get some. 14-10 Vikings.

Kirk Cousins says you really want to play this way with me? 17-14 Redskins.

Case says so what? 21-17 Vikings.

Kirk finally blinks, throwing an interception. This is Case Keenum we're talking about here. Surely he can't do this again right?

Yes he can. 28-17 Vikings at the half.

Okay. Okay. That's all well and good. We can all have a great time at the half laughing about how one of the best QBs in the NFL is getting outclassed by the guy who used to be Sam Bradford's backup. Even in this time, laugh at Kirk Cousins was starting to become an NFL meme, but didn't you see what Case did against Green Bay? This is an actual good defence. Surely this won't continue.

Case isn't laughing. 35-17 Vikings.

Kirk isn't ready to die yet. On his first touch there's a field goal to make the score 35-20. This time it's Case's turn to blink, throwing an interception deep in Washington territory, and then again in Minnesota territory. Before we know it it's just 35-27 Vikings.

No problem. 38-27 Vikings on the crack back.

Washington is able to narrow the score to 38-30 but no closer, and Case Keenum has just made a statement to the NFL world.

To most people, this would be seen as one of the more boring 38-30 games in NFL history, but to me this is what I love about football. Two teams going back and forth, each believing their guy is the best, and today Case Keenum got the measure of Kirk Cousins. Keep in mind this is a Kirk Cousins that ranked sixth on my QB tier list in 2015, and fifth in 2016. This is much closer to modern Joe Burrow than modern Kirk Cousins.

He didn't best him by a little bit either. Case was able to generate 0.50 EPA/Play around two turnovers, which is almost impossible to do, and score 38 points in just 59 Vikings offensive plays. Washington won this TOP battle quite handily (74 plays to 59), and even so, at no point after the second quarter got as much as a sniff of the Vikings' dust.

That folks, is hard to do.

Case has returned from the brink of disaster in London, to the top of the world in Washington DC, and he's not stopping there. In week 11, the disrespect continues. The 7-2 Los Angeles Rams are coming to town for what is, in essence, a battle to stay alive in the race for a first round bye in the NFC. With the 8-1 Eagles, 7-2 Vikings, 7-2 Rams, 7-2 Saints, and 7-3 Panthers all still in the fight, this head to head matchup has every opportunity to be vital for the Vikings' future playoff hopes.

The disrespect comes in that the Vikings are mere one point favourites again, this time at home, meaning if this game were played in Los Angeles we would be underdogs. I don't think the Viking players are very happy about this, because once again we take a top QB in the NFL behind the woodshed.

For the second week in a row, the vaunted Viking defence gives up an easy opening touchdown. For the second week in a row, Case has no issue responding, getting the Vikings all the way to the LA 29 before an offensive facemask penalty pushes Minnesota out of field goal range and kills the drive.

No problem though, after a quick three and out and some help from a solid punt return, it takes the Vikings just seven plays to even the score at seven. Our next touch is a missed field goal. Our next sees the first half end with the score still knotted at seven.

Coming out for the second half, it's becoming clear that the Rams cannot touch this Minnesota defence like Washington could, and this gives us all the time in the world to weather another missed field goal before responding with an easy touchdown drive to begin the fourth quarter that makes the score 14-7. Our next touch is another easy TD on a 65 yard Keenum to Thielen connection, and at 21-7 this game is over. One further garbage time field goal will come, and the Vikings win 24-7.

After their opening drive touchdown, the Rams did not score another point. Only once did they even get close. After a hiccup last week, this Viking defence reasserted their dominance in a big way today. The offence wasn't too far behind either, putting up 24 points around two missed field goals, plus one more drive inside the LA 30 scuttled by a personal foul, against a defence even better than Washington's. This same Ram defence will go on to be the backbone of their Super Bowl appearance in just one year's time.

None of this bothered Case Keenum, who for the second week in a row made a top ten NFL QB look like Brian Hoyer, running laps around Jared Goff to the tune of 0.36 EPA/Play. Quite honestly, if there is a way to more thoroughly prove your dominance over your competition than this 2017 matchup between the Vikings and Rams, I haven't found it. This was a drubbing of proportions not remembered accurately enough, and Case Keenum was a huge part of it.

If you figured manhandling top ten NFL QBs two weeks in a row is enough, Case doesn't, as in week 12 he does it for the third consecutive week, this time to Matthew Stafford. 0.56 EPA/Play against the same Detroit defence that gave him fits eight weeks ago indicates that something has changed with this Minnesota offence. What was once a liability is now a driving force, and the Vikings are 9-2.

It's now been three and one quarter games since that fourth quarter turnaround in Cleveland, and Case Keenum, with his 0.464 EPA/Play on a 6.6 CPOE in these three weeks, has been the second best QB in the league since then.

Second best? Who was the best?

Well my beautiful reader, thank you very much for asking. The best QB, with a 0.488 EPA/Play on a 12.7 CPOE in this three week span, has been Matthew Thomas Ryan, and you'll never guess where our 9-2 Vikings are going in week 13.

Ladies and gentlemen, this week 13 matchup in the 2017 season sees our Vikings going to Atlanta to take on the Falcons. If this were just a matchup to determine who the hottest QB in the NFL is, that would be hype enough, but it isn't all about that. This is a 9-2 Vikings team taking on a 7-4 Falcons team in a game both teams need to win and neither team can afford to lose.

The NFC's top five playoff spots are more or less already decided. The Eagles, Vikings, Rams, Saints, and Panthers will all be playoff teams, but the order remains undecided. The Vikings, being a domed stadium team, are desperately in need of home field advantage, as going to play in Philadelphia in January is not a thing dome teams are fond of doing.

On the other hand, the NFC's sixth playoff spot is locked in a dogfight between the 7-4 Falcons and the 7-4 Seahawks. Any loss on the Falcons' part means they are surrendering their right to control their own destiny heading into the playoffs.

Second to the Rams game, this is the most crucial game of the Vikings' season. The Falcons on the other hand have not played a game this important yet, but best be ready for it now. Keep in mind that this is also a matchup between the two hottest QBs in the NFL at the moment.

Despite their run of form over the prior four weeks, the disrespect will continue, as the Vikings walk into Atlanta as two point underdogs, likely due to bettors not bothering to look past the name Case Keenum at how well he's been playing recently. That's okay though. He'll just have to teach them again.

This game happened nearly six years ago, but I'm hyped for it.

True to recent form for these Vikings, the Falcons score a field goal on their first touch, but unusually, there is no response, as the ball gets to the Atlanta 39 but no farther. After a Falcon three and out however, there is a Minnesota response, but it doesn't come from Case. A ten play touchdown drive consisting of eight runs and two passes puts the Vikings up 7-3 at the dawn of the second quarter. The Falcons respond with a field goal to make the score 7-6, and from here the teams trade punts until half, with nobody getting close to scoring.

Considering how hot both of these QBs have been, who would've thought we'd go into half looking at a 7-6 football game? I certainly didn't, but this isn't necessarily bad news for our man Case, who spent six weeks playing this way earlier in the season. This isn't what the Falcons do. This is what the Vikings do.

NFLFastR's WP model sees this situation as 52%-48% in favour of the Falcons, and that jumps to 59-41 upon a Falcon field goal to open up the half and take a 9-7 lead, but there's some things that a statistical model just can't see. If you're going to play a game for your life (which Atlanta is doing), you'd like it to be played on your terms, and these are the Vikings' terms.

As such, it's not crucial that both teams trade three and outs until the 8:11 mark of the third quarter, because against Atlanta, just like against Chicago, Green Bay, Cleveland, and Washington earlier in the season, Case Keenum finds the touchdown when he needs it.

An eight minute, 15 play long touchdown drives eats up all the time remaining in the third quarter, and sees the Vikings with a 14-9 lead at the start of the fourth. Atlanta will see the ball just twice more (one three and out. One missed field goal) before Case and the Vikings get the ball back at the five minute mark, and a clutch throw from Case to Thielen on third and four means this game is over. The Vikings have cleared the Falcons, and have moved to 10-2.

For the fourth week in a row, Case has outplayed a great NFL QB. 14 points may not seem like a lot, but Case generated 0.16 EPA/Play on his 34 touches in this game. Sometimes, there are no good positions to score, and a good QB performance like this can go under the radar because they're starting from their own 20 yard line every touch. That's what happened today, with Case and the Vikings (in order) starting from their own 24, 25, 47 (touchdown), 25, 9, 30, 11 (touchdown), 27, and 35.

There were no good positions in that game, but Case did just enough to get out of there with a win. That is the mark of a great QB in the NFL.

In fact, it's not just great.

With Matt Ryan now out of the way, there is nobody to contest Keenum's claim of being the best QB the NFL currently has to offer.

That's right. Case Keenum is the best QB in the world.

I'm not apologizing.

If you can find me a stat from weeks 10-13 of the 2017 NFL season that says anybody outperformed Case Keenum in this four week stretch I'll be willing to listen to you, but be prepared for me to question your validity, because in this four game stretch since Cleveland, Case ranks first in EPA/Play, and second in CPOE. That's hard to beat.

I've gotten into all that because I really don't want to talk about week 14.

Do you remember week 14?

In week 14, the run of great QBs ends, but the run of great opponents does not. The Vikings are going to Charlotte to play the 8-4 Carolina Panthers, who have fallen out of the hunt for the first round bye, but are still a very live opponent.

This is starting to become a bit ridiculous. I understand there are tough matchups in the NFL, and that's just how it is, but look at the recent run of opponents since Cleveland: 4-4 (but didn't play like it) Washington, then 7-2 Los Angeles, then 6-4 Detroit, then 7-4 Atlanta, and now 8-4 Carolina. Any interest for what our main rivals (Philadelphia) have been doing in the same period?

Late bye, 5-4 Dallas, 3-7 Chicago, 7-4 Seattle, and now the 9-3 Rams.

We'll say that the Rams will cancel themselves out, and Seattle and Atlanta are roughly a wash. That leaves a bye week, 5-4 Dallas and 3-7 Chicago to go against the perpetual (in this era) tough out Redskins, 6-4 Detroit, and 8-4 Carolina. This isn't even close.

If you ever catch yourself thinking the NFL schedule is fair, it's not, and it's about to catch up to the Minnesota Vikings.

As a reward for all they've done in clearing out the NFC's upper echelon, the Vikings are presented with a scheduled loss.

In the NFL, if a team is forced to play three consecutive games on the road, the third game is almost a 100% loss. It's just too much for a team at the NFL level to be away from home for three consecutive weeks, hence the term scheduled loss.

In the modern era, the NFL has mostly done away with scheduled losses. Nobody plays three straight games either at home or on the road anymore, but here our poor Vikings are, getting the very short end of the stick. This is more than just a normal scheduled loss too. The Vikings have played four of their last five games on the road as it is, and are now forced to play yet another one, our third in a row, and fifth in our last six.

I would love to tell you about how this Minnesota squad overcame a schedule clearly designed for the specific purpose of them losing this game, and boy did we come close, with Case leading a game tying touchdown drive in the fourth, but they just couldn't do it. Perhaps if this game were against a bad team we could've overcome this scheduling, but the Panthers are not bad, and our Vikings fall to 10-3.

I'll make myself clear. I don't believe the NFL created the schedule in a deliberate effort to harm the Minnesota Vikings. What I do believe is that the NFL did create this schedule, and it did harm the Minnesota Vikings.

Things like this are why the NFL bends over backwards not to hand out schedules with three straight road games to any team anymore, because in 2017, the NFC's home field advantage has just been decided by a scheduled loss. Not by the teams. Not by the players. Not by Carson Wentz. Not by Case Keenum, but by the schedule makers, and I hope that makes them feel really good about themselves.

Finally moving past that injustice leaves three games left on the Minnesota schedule. All are easy wins (34-7 over Cincinnati, 16-0 over Green Bay, 23-10 over Chicago). The Vikings move into the NFC playoffs as the second seed.

Far from a wasted season, this year has turned out to be the new era Minnesota fans had been clamouring for, and it's all thanks to Case Keenum.

Case Keenum has taken the only team that wanted him and rewarded them with the franchise's best QB season since 2009. Over the course of the 2017 season, Case generated 0.172 EPA/Play (10th among QBs with at least 180 plays) on a 3.6 CPOE (8th) and 7.03 Adjusted Net Yards Per Attempt (9th).

The 3.6 CPOE is important, as it means that this level of performance is legit. There is no being carried by his receivers here, as everybody likes to claim about this season. Case Keenum was the eighth most accurate QB in the NFL in 2017, behind only Jimmy G, Josh McCown, Alex Smith, Jameis Winston, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and Tom Brady. That's everybody.

Accuracy is not everything of course, but in terms of results you can only add five more names to the list: Carson Wentz, DeShaun Watson, Philip Rivers, Jared Goff, and Ben Roethlisberger.

I have just named 13 QBs. Five of them (Jimmy G and DeShaun for small sample size, McCown, Winston, and Wilson for poor results despite elite accuracy) likely don't deserve to be in this discussion. This is to say nothing of people I have not named at all that were worse in terms of both accuracy and results than Case Keenum in 2017; people like Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, Cam Newton, Carson Palmer, Jay Cutler. I can continue, but won't for fear of boredom.

Case was definitively better than all those people, and has arguments with some of the others.

For the first time since 2009, the Vikings have a top ten QB on their roster, and he came to them as a backup for the man who was supposed to start the new era. As it turns out, he is the new era, and he's going to start a playoff game in Minneapolis.

That playoff game takes us right back to where we started. Drew Brees and his New Orleans Saints are coming to Minnesota for a rematch of the week one matchup that started all of the hype for the 2017 Vikings. We've come a long way since that game, and nothing evidences that more than the spread.

Recall how the Vikings were just three point home favourites over New Orleans all the way back in week one with their 'starter' Sam Bradford at the helm? Well the Saints are back in town, and it's 5.5 points now.

This is evidence that somewhere along the way, the disrespect has dissipated. It was only six weeks ago that these Vikings were underdogs against the 7-4 Atlanta Falcons. Six weeks ago these Vikings were viewed as a ship looking for a reason to sink. We did not sink. Instead, in the weeks since, we've become a juggernaut. The Vikings have been favoured by 2.5 (in a scheduled loss. Very impressive), 12.5, 8.5, 13.5, and now 5.5 points over a New Orleans team that, while not on Minnesota's level, is a very worthy competitor. An 11-5 record backed up by 11.07 expected wins is nothing to scoff at, and yet the Vikings are expected to win fairly easily. All of this despite the Saints having Drew Brees, and the Vikings having our man Case.

The disrespect shown towards Case Keenum and his Vikings by the football community has been a running theme of the piece, but it is now dead. Much like his Vikings, Case Keenum is no longer the underdog. He lost that status when he outplayed Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, Matt Stafford, Matt Ryan, and Cam Newton all in a row. Not even one year ago, his NFL career was on the verge of ending. Now, he's already guaranteed himself a big contract in the offseason, and he's just one win away from the NFC Championship game in Philadelphia.

The Vikings' hopes of getting that win are greatly aided by an immediate touchdown on the offence's first touch of the game, something they've made a habit out of in the back half of this season. After a Saints touch that sees only one first down, our offence blitzes straight back into the red zone, but two incomplete goal line passes force us to settle for only a field goal.

On the first drive of the second quarter, Case overcomes a third and eight and a second and 16, both in Saints territory, in order to get us in the end zone again, for a 17-0 lead. The next Saints' drive takes five minutes, but again does not score, and ends in an interception to give Case and the Vikings great field position again, but this time nothing can be done with it and the drive ends in a punt. From here, both teams trade missed field goals, and we get to the halftime break with a 17-0 Minnesota lead.

Wow. Raise your hand if you saw that coming.

Put your hand down. You’re lying.

I've spent 43000 characters explaining to you how great Case Keenum is, and you still didn't see that coming. Even with all the watertight context I've just given you, and that people were living through in 2017, it's such a human reaction to default back to the names on the headline. Drew Brees vs. Case Keenum is not supposed to result in Case having a 95% estimated WP at the half.

Nevertheless, that's where we are, and I'm reminding you that this is where we are because this has been totally forgotten in the wake of what is to come. It's important, even as we progress through the rest of this game, to recall that the first half counts just as much as the second one does, and in the first half Case Keenum built up a 17 point cushion over the New Orleans Saints.

As it turns out, he's going to need every bit of it.

The second half begins with a very very long (seven minutes) Viking touch that slowly grinds itself all the way down to the New Orleans 30 yard line, where it faces a third and four. Normally this is no problem, as this offence has made a season out of getting to third and short and converting once they get there, but for the rest of this game, it will be different.

As Case goes down for a sack to back out of field goal range on fourth and 14, little did he know he was being set up for the toughest battle of his NFL career.

In response to the Minnesota punt, Drew Brees leads the Saints on a seven minute drive of his own, but his ends up in the end zone. This seems like it helps a lot, but it really doesn't. Once you get this late into a game, seconds start to be worth more and more, and the Saints used up a lot of precious seconds in cutting their deficit to ten. This only cuts the Vikings' WP to 91 percent.

As such, as Case runs out on the field in an attempt to respond, there's still not that much pressure on his shoulders. A score here to pump the deficit back up to two touchdowns would certainly help, but it is not imperative. Perhaps this mindset would've helped Case out to avoid what happens next.

To fully explain what happens next, I need to call up another memory. Remember the majestic ball from Case to Adam Thielen, where he threw out of the arms of a defender in order to complete a deep ball that the Vikings desperately needed to keep themselves alive in the Cleveland game? This was the pass that I declared the starting point of Case Keenum's Year, and this next pass from Case towards Stefon Diggs looks eerily like it.

Here's the problem.

This is not Cleveland. This is the playoffs. On top of that, the Vikings do not need this pass to keep themselves alive. We don't need to score at all. What we need is to use up time such that the Saints cannot complete a ten point fourth quarter comeback on us. Evidently, Case was not thinking in this way, as when he finds himself being taken down for a big sack on first down, he decides to toss the ball up for Stefon Diggs to go get. Exactly the way he did against Cleveland.

Unfortunately for Case, and for all of us Keenum lovers, this is not Cleveland. The ball falls into the hands of Saints' Safety Marcus Williams, and the Saints have the ball on the Minnesota 30. Six plays later, and Brees has put the ball in the end zone again, and the insurmountable 17-0 lead has turned into an extremely treacherous 17-14 one in just three minutes.

This is not all Case's fault, as a stop from his vaunted defence at either opportunity could've stemmed this bleeding, but the interception was absolutely unnecessary given the situation in this game and he knows it. Hopefully he's not the type to beat himself up about it, as his only opportunity now is to go out there and score some more.

The Vikings have now not scored for upwards of 25 minutes of game time. That's over an hour and a half of real time. It would be generous for me to say this offence is out of rhythm, but we have no choice. It's either score here or roll the dice with sending our defence back onto the field yet again, and we know how well that's gone in the second half so far.

It's hard to believe that it was just three (in game) minutes ago that Case was running onto the field without any pressure to score. Now, the fate of the Vikings' season relies on him scoring.

The drive starts well with a 14 yard rush from Latavius Murray, but finds itself on second and ten from the Viking 39. For an offence that hasn't had much success all season handling third and longs, this second down play is imperative, and Case shows he's got no residual fear from the interception, as he responds with a beautiful ball for a 26 yard completion to move us into field goal range. It's a good thing he did too, as this drive will see no further first downs, and will end in a Viking field goal to make the score 20-14.

The defence also steps up, as the next New Orleans touch is a three and out, giving the offence another chance to score and take a two score lead back. Another 20+ yard completion from Case to Diggs sets the Vikings up well to do this, but the drive is scuttled by an illegal block penalty on a completion that would've seen us in Saint territory again.

This is still a fairly good position. There's now 5:28 left in the fourth, and while the offence could not capitalise on the chance to score, we did succeed in taking three and a half precious minutes off the clock. Minnesota is tasked with defending a six point lead for five minutes, which is a situation that uniquely benefits the defenders because even in the event of a Saint touchdown, likely there will be the perfect amount of time for Minnesota to score a response field goal and win 23-21. As such, despite this missed opportunity, our estimated WP is still 86 percent.

What happens next is why estimated WP figures can only carry you so far.

The punt is blocked, meaning that instead of likely starting inside their own ten, the Saints get to start on our 40. This blocked punt alone takes 11 percent off our estimated WP. This is further not helped by the fact that the Saints take just two minutes to score, meaning that they take a 21-20 lead at the 3:01 mark. This is now a situation that favours the Saints, because even if Case is able to drive for a field goal to take the lead, New Orleans will likely have time to counter.

To his credit, Case does get his Vikings down the field to score that field goal to take a 23-21 lead, with the key play being yet another exceptional ball off of his back foot that turns into a 24 yard completion to Adam Thielen. Unfortunately, this FG is kicked at the 1:34 mark, leaving plenty of time for Drew Brees to respond, which he does. The Saints kick a field goal at the 25 second mark to take a 24-23 lead.

The Vikings' estimated WP, which had been 86 percent just five minutes ago, now sits at a lowly 40 percent. After a first play false start, this falls to 36 percent. A 19 yard completion to Stefon Diggs that forces us to use our final timeout drops it to 28 percent, and two further incompletions drop it to 23 percent.

This game now has ten seconds left on the clock. The Vikings are down 24-23, on their own 39 yard line, roughly 20 yards away from realistic field goal range, and before I tell you what happens next, we reflect on just how the Vikings have managed to get themselves into this position yet again.

The Vikings have had so many painful losses over the years. This trend starts at Super Bowl IV, where the 1969 Vikings (one of the best teams of all time) get their lunch eaten by the great (but not all time great) 1969 Kansas City Chiefs. This trend continues as the Vikings make two consecutive Super Bowls in the early 70s, but stand no chance in either of them.

They spend the rest of the 70s having their hopes of a dynasty crushed by the Cowboys, and have no great teams at all in the 80s. No greatness means no heartbreak, so at least that's good. In fact, this era contains perhaps the only great playoff win in Vikings' history when Wade Wilson leads the horrendous, lucky to be 8-7, 1987 Minnesota Vikings into San Francisco and defeats one of the greatest dynasties of all time, and takes away the 49ers' only chance at winning three straight Super Bowls.

Of course the excitement fades the very next week as the Vikings lose to a much easier opponent, the 1987 Washington Redskins, in the NFC Championship game, and the Skins get to ride the gravy train to the Super Bowl instead of them. Minnesota then spends much of the 90s lolling around in mediocrity until 1998, when they trip and fall into having one of the best offences of all time, only to lose the NFC Championship game to a much worse opponent due to a missed field goal.

The fate in 1998 was soul-crushingly painful, but was it as soul-crushingly painful as what happens in 2000, when the Vikings lose the NFC Championship game 41-0? How about in 2004, when the Vikings get one of the best QB seasons of all time out of Daunte Culpepper, but waste it because the rest of the team stinks? That train of thought gets us to 2009, where the Vikings come this close to causing Drew Brees to never win a Super Bowl, but lose the NFC Championship game on a Brett Favre interception right at the buzzer.

What happened in 2009 was soul-crushingly painful, but was it as soul-crushingly painful as what happens in 2015, when the dawn of the Teddy Bridgewater era is soiled by the Blair Walsh incident?

There has been a lot of soul crushing pain in the history of these Vikings, but would any of it match up to the pain of the best team Minnesota fans have seen since 1998 going one and done after having had a 17-0 lead? It likely wouldn't match up to 1998, but I would put this loss up against anything else in the history of the Vikings, in terms of how much pain this will cause.

I bring this all up because this is what fans are thinking as they stare at what we've just witnessed. We had an 86 percent WP just five minutes ago. Where has it all gone? What are we going to do?

There's ten seconds left. We have no timeouts. We have one play (two if we're extremely efficient about it), which has to go to the sideline, to get 20 yards forwards. From here, Kai Forbeth (who's already missed a 50 yarder today) would get the chance to send us to Philadelphia.

As Case takes this snap, it becomes clear that for once in this second half (having been under siege since half time), he's not going to have to throw with a defender in his face. One small battle won. What else becomes clear is that the Saints have elected to leave two defenders within ten yards of the line of scrimmage, and one defender in the middle. Case never looks there anyway. Two small battles won.

As soon as Case winds to throw, a third thing becomes clear, and I want to give you a little homework assignment. Go back and watch this game, and as Case throws this ball, pause the tape. You will see a Saints defender manned on Kyle Rudolph. You'll see a defender manned up on Jarius Wright. You'll see Adam Thielen manned up on the opposite side. As the ball flies, you'll see something striking.

Nobody is manned up on Stefon Diggs.

This is not at all a small battle. This one mistake has lost the Saints the war. As Case puts the ball into the perfect place, and Marcus Williams is made to look a fool on his attempt to tackle Stefon Diggs, one final thing becomes clear as he's running down the sideline.

We've just seen the greatest moment in Vikings' history.

I've run you through all of the pain that Vikings' fans have had to go through, with the awful 70s losses and the missed field goals and the interceptions and the awful luck all around. For those of us who are not old enough to remember Wade Wilson, this is the first thing that has ever gone right for the Minnesota Vikings. The rest of the NFL world will ask sensible questions like: 'why did the Saints pick that moment to run Cover 0?' or even 'how great was that game?', but Vikings fans won't, and I won't either.

Why not?

Because what comes next is more important.

What follows is an outpouring of emotion from a city to a team the likes of which I've never seen before. It takes ten full minutes for the Minnesota fans to show their love to the Vikings' players in a way that only they can up there, but what happens next is even more special.

Case Keenum walks onto the field, an entourage of photographers in tow, with tears in his eyes, and begins leading a skol chant. We have to wait for the Saints to come back onto the field in order to kick the extra point to officially end the game, so in a game with a 40 second play clock, where things are moving so fast most of the time that it’s tough to understand the gravity of what you’re watching, this moment gets a chance to breathe. This makes me extremely happy that the Saints stormed off the field instead of staying and finishing.

Watching live, I could not understand the outpouring of emotion, but now that we've sunk so much of our time into the life and times of Case Keenum, how can you not want to cry along with him?

I know I do.

Case Keenum went out of his way to go to all the QB camps in high school, but still was unwanted. He punished the non-believers by setting every QB record the NCAA has, but still was unwanted. He made the NFL, but struggled to play well, was replaced by a rookie and nearly fell out of the league. Before the 2017 season, there was only one team in the league that wanted him.

Walking onto the field in tears after going to the only team left that still wanted him, and taking them to the NFC Championship game, after everything Case Keenum has been through, feels genuine. Any genuine emotion is a precious rarity in the era of robot QBs we live in, but we got it out of Case Keenum, and I respect the hell out of him for it.

We all know what happens in Philadelphia in the NFC Championship game. We all know the Vikings walk out there and get their doors blown off against a team they likely should've beaten.

I can come up with all the defences in the world. I can complain some more about how the unfairness of the schedule caused this game to be played in Philadelphia instead of Minnesota and what effect that could've had. I can talk about how this game is more competitive than people remember it being. I can talk about how this defence that'd been tearing up the league gave up 0.7 EPA/Play to a Nick Foles that couldn't move the ball three inches against much inferior defences, but I'm not going to, and the reason is simple.

Does any of that matter?

Don't get me wrong. All of that matters in the Vikings' story, but I'm not here to tell you the 2017 Vikings' story. I'm here to tell you Case Keenum's story, and the climax to Case Keenum's story happened against the New Orleans Saints.

Case Keenum went from a backup in St. Louis to the top of the world, and stayed there long enough to do what Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown, Andy Dalton, Lamar Jackson, Derek Anderson, Chad Pennington II, Jon Kitna, and Michael Vick couldn't. Case joins only Chad Pennington I, Carson Palmer, and Daunte Culpepper in capping off their His Year article with a playoff win.

His Year is not a series about people who tear up the league every season, but even amongst this crowd, Case Keenum sticks out like a sore thumb. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andy Dalton, Chad Pennington II, and Jon Kitna had all been NFL starters for years. Daunte Culpepper was one of the best QBs in the NFL. Chad Pennington I, Derek Anderson, and Lamar Jackson were all hotshot first year starters.

Case joins Josh McCown, and Michael Vick in starting their Year as backups for reasons other than being young players, but Vick had been a first overall draft pick. He does not belong in this discussion. That leaves Case Keenum in rarified air along with Josh McCown as players who were liable to fall out of the NFL if they didn't play better, and responded with the best season of their careers.

I know we talk about playoffs as if they're the ultimate pressure, but it’s not. The serious danger of your job disappearing if your performance doesn't improve, that's real pressure, and Case lived up to that pressure in a way nobody has since.

In the aftermath of this season, even the Vikings wouldn't want Case anymore. They kicked him out in order to bring in Kirk Cousins, and have floundered in mediocrity ever since. For Case's part, he would sign in Denver for $25M guaranteed, but he would never post a positive CPOE in a season again.

In a sense, that may make this the ultimate His Year season. Case posted a QB triple slash of 0.172/3.6/7.03. In so doing, Case Keenum joins 2006 Charlie Frye, 2016 Sam Bradford (both of whom I will not be writing about), 2016 Cody Kessler, 2022 Sam Darnold (both of whom I've already written about), and 2012 Colin Kaepernick (who I will be writing about) as QBs who posted a CPOE as high as 3.6, and never again posted a positive CPOE in their careers.

3.6 is a hard mark to hit, yet Case Keenum did. Just like all the other players on the His Year series, Case was never able to maintain his greatness, yet he did show us it was in there. It is not theoretical. It is not a what-if. We saw it. Case Keenum definitively proved he could be a top ten NFL QB, and I'm so happy he did it.

That's all I have to say about Case Keenum's Year. It will forever stand as proof that a backup, no matter how bad they've been, can come in and thrive. If ever your team finds themselves in this situation, with a backup coming in that's proven themselves to be not great at the NFL level, perhaps you may find it beneficial to think back to 2017, when Case Keenum took the Minnesota Vikings all the way to the final four. Then again, your backup likely isn't Case Keenum, so perhaps this may just make you feel envious.

Regardless, do not give up hope. It can happen. It did happen. It happened to Case Keenum. Never forget that.

Never forget Case Keenum's Year.

Thanks so much for reading.