Vikings coach Brad Childress said today that he won't announce whether Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels will be the No. 2 quarterback behind Brett Favre until shortly before Sunday's regular-season opener in Cleveland.
"We'll end up declaring that probably and hour-and-a-half before the game," Childress told reporters after a brief practice at Winter Park. "But at least you know who the starter is."
The Vikings find themselves in an interesting situation because Jackson and Rosenfels are both veterans and were competing for the starting job before Favre arrived last month. Last season, for instance, rookie John David Booty served as the third quarterback.
A third quarterback can play in a game but it usually comes under very unfavorable circumstances. The NFL rule states that if the third quarterback is inserted before the fourth quarter, a team's first two quarterbacks cannot be used in the game at any position. That essentially means the third QB is inactive.
"It's not a tough situation and I know last year we had the woe is me with the eight guys that were down [inactive]" on game day, Childress said. "The fact of life is there are going to be eight guys down, there are going to be 45 guys up and that's the next decision that you come to. All of those guys are viable members of our team and at some point and time they will be called on to have to contribute."
Said Rosenfels of possibly being the No. 3 quarterback: "It's been a long time since that's happened. I've been at least a [second QB] for the last four years. This will be my fifth. That's a tough situation. You can never have too many good quarterbacks."
While Childress isn't saying who will be his No. 2 QB, new Browns coach Eric Mangini continues to remain mum on whether Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn will start against the Vikings. Childress, who has kept his starter quiet in the past, said it really isn't that big of deal.
"It doesn't," matter that much, he said. "Schematically, you're going to look at what you've seen. You're going to go back and look at Jets tape [from when Mangini coached there] and see what you've seen and then I know as do our guys that there will be unscouted looks. They certainly haven't showed their whole hand offensively or defensively. But you're just going back and looking at formation-wise where they are putting people. What kind of players they are. It will be more about us deploying than what they do."
