The Vikings have had several stellar quarterbacks at the helm this century. Which one should ultimately get the nod for our Quarter Century team?
ESPN recently dropped an All Quarter Century Team for the NFL and it brought with it a ton of discourse. Fans were mad that members of their favorite franchise was not included and it led to a ton of discussions on who should and should not have been given the nod.
While over seven Vikings were selected to the headlining team or were placed on the “practice squad” (honorable mention), there was one massive mistake and that was keeping Adrian Peterson off ENTIRELY. No practice squad, no nothing.
Obviously we cannot stand for this blasphemy so we’re creating our very own Quarter Century Team for just the Vikings.
And we need your help!
To make sure we get this right, we’re requesting the help of everyone to vote amongst our nominated players. It’ll take a few weeks as we go position-by-position, but it’ll be all worth it when we finally arrive at our final team.
Let’s go ahead get started! First up, let’s find a quarterback!
Daunte Culpepper (1999-2004)
The Vikings picked Culpepper with the 11th pick in the 1999 NFL Draft out of Central Florida. After sitting for the majority of his rookie season, Culpepper won the starting job in 2000 in what was one of the most successful seasons for a first-year starting quarterback in franchise history. Culpepper led the Vikings to an 11-5 record, throwing 3,937 yards and 33 touchdowns.
While he would never lead the Vikings to a better record the rest of his tenure, Culpepper did hit new career highs during the 2004 season when he chucked 39 touchdowns with 4,717 yards.
In all, Culpepper was named to the Pro Bowl three times with the Vikings (2000, 2003-2004) and finished his career in Minnesota with 20,162 passing yards and 135 touchdowns.
Kirk Cousins (2018-2023)
Cousins joined the Vikings in 2018 after six seasons with Washington. In six seasons at helm, he threw for 23,265 yards and 171 touchdowns, both top marks this century among all Vikings quarterbacks. That’s not all that surprising as he had the luxury of throwing to the majority of the Vikings’ top receivers this entire century during his tenure.
By the end of his time in Minnesota, Cousins was named to three Pro Bowls (2019, 2021-2022) and threw for over 4,000 yards four times. His career highs in purple are 4,547 passing yards in 2022 and 35 touchdowns which he threw during the 2020 campaign.
Brett Favre (2010-2011)
Favre was only with the Vikings for two seasons, but he gave the fan base one of the most memorable years since 2000 when he took the team just one game short of the Super Bowl in 2009. That year, he threw for 33 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, the only time in his entire lengthy career that he threw less than 10 picks in a season where he made at least one start.
In his short stint, Favre threw for 6,711 total passing yards and 44 touchdowns with one Pro Bowl selection in 2009.