There has been a great deal of discussion lately about what the Vikings will or should do with QB Joe Webb, a sixth-round draft pick with raw athletic skills and years of clipboard learning ahead of him. All we can go by right now is what the Vikings have told or shown us -- and those signs say it's a no-brainer that they have to keep Webb on the 53-man roster this year. Why do we feel that way? Well, with all due respect to Clarence Swamptown's feelings otherwise, it's rather simple:

You cannot say the only acceptable outcome this season is the Super Bowl. Football is too weird for that. A bounce here, five turnovers there ... you just never know. But you can certainly say the only acceptable goal this season is the Super Bowl. The Vikings aren't shy about it. The window is open for one more year. That's about it. The Vikings have also made it perfectly clear that they don't feel they are a Super Bowl team without Brett Favre. And we think most people would agree with that.

Brett Favre has played more than 300 consecutive games (including playoffs) without missing one. Sure, that streak is always in peril -- particularly as Favre ages and limps. But this entire season is predicated upon him staying healthy for one more go-round. If that doesn't happen, the Vikings are not a Super Bowl team. So would you keep both Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels to back up a guy who last rode the bench at the start of a game around the time Bill Clinton was turning the first Bush into a one-termer ... knowing full well that if Favre went down, your season was probably shot anyway (at least in terms of a legit Super Bowl shot)? Or would you rather keep a guy in the third-string role who you think might be special down the road?

And again, we're not saying Webb is the next coming of Tom Brady. But the Vikings do not have a QB of the future. Jackson was supposed to be that guy. But he's not shown himself quite worthy of the mantle -- and even if he had, he's only under contract through the end of this season. Sage Rosenfels is not that guy. Webb might not be that guy, but he's the closest thing to it right now. Even if this team is all in this year, there will be future games in the NFL. And he could be a piece of the long-term puzzle. He at least has a better chance to be that piece than either of the other two guys not named Favre.

So yes, you keep Webb and try to get value in exchange for one of the other two guys. The only calculated risk you are taking is that you are vulnerable if two QBs get hurt, you are stuck. But in the Vikings' case, the season as they know it would be over regardless of who was the No. 3 QB.