vikings/nfl

Four Downs while being thankful that it will be another 12 months before we have to hear people whine on and on about four preseason games ...

FIRST DOWN:

I hate to keep kicking poor Tarvaris Jackson, but ...

I have no doubts that he knows the offense. That he knows where to throw the football. That Brad Childress truly thinks he's further along than Sage Rosenfels in the KAO version of the West Coast offense.

The problem I have is none of that matters because Jackson can't ever seem to throw the ball where it needs to go. It's the most fundamental job of the quarterback, and he's struggled with it going on five years.

Yes, Jackson had receivers drop some passes in last night's win over Denver. But even some of the drops couldn't hide just how poorly the ball was thrown. 

On the drop by tight end Garrett Mills, Jackson threw the ball badly behind Mills. Mills is cruising upfield with no one in front of him. If the pass hits his lead shoulder, the play becomes a huge gain. Tarvaris not only missed the front shoulder, he missed the back shoulder, too.

Later, on a deep out to Javon Walker near the sideline, Tarvaris threw the ball inside where the defender should have intercepted the ball. An experience quarterback with an accurate arm throws that to outside shoulder where only Walker can catch it. Jackson has the strength to get it there. He just can't control where it's going.

If it were me and I couldn't keep four QBs, I'd release Jackson, start Rosenfels in 2011 and do everything possible to make sure Joe Webb is ready to start in 2012.

SECOND DOWN:

Why are we even talking about whether No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford should start in St. Louis? He's looked very good and he's not going to learn anything standing on the sideline watching his team lose. Toss him into the fire. If his pysche can't handle it, you got the wrong guy anyway.

THIRD DOWN:

It appears Jamarca Sanford has won the strong safety job since he didn't play last night while Tyrell Johnson did. But even if Johnson lost his job, it was good to see him around the ball for a change last night.

All of the safeties have worked extremely hard this offseason. They seem determined to be a factor on defense this year. That's good, cuz they were AWOL in '09.

FOURTH DOWN:

Maybe Tim Tebow can make something of himself in this league. But as I'm watching him play this preseason, I keep thinking "Should the 25th overall pick in the draft be so raw that he can't even execute the center-quarterback exchange?"

Joe Webb is more ready to play at the NFL level than Tebow is.