Is Donovan McNabb the Vikings' Mr. Right?

Christian Ponder was in Vikings coach Leslie Frazier's office on July 26 for the conversation that would press the pause button on the Purple's Ponder Era.

The NFL's 4½-month lockout had ended the day before. By then, Frazier and Rick Spielman, the team's vice president of player personnel, had decided the deck would be stacked far too high against any team trying to start a rookie quarterback with nary a snap of offseason instruction.

New offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, one of the league's noted developers of young quarterbacks, was in Frazier's office, too. He's not opposed to starting rookies, but in this case he thought acquiring a veteran starter was the best route to take for the team and Ponder.Ponder is a competitor, not to mention the 12th overall draft pick. So he told the bosses how much he desperately wanted to start. But he also proved to be an astute realist during the course of that meeting.

"We all came to the same conclusion," Ponder said. "They threw Donovan [McNabb] out as a possibility. I was excited. Looking at it now, definitely, I know the team is in better hands with Donovan at quarterback."

The Vikings ironed out trade compensation for McNabb -- whose one season in Washington was a disaster on the heels of a strong, 11-year career in Philadelphia -- late that night. They would send Washington a sixth-round draft pick in 2012 and a conditional sixth-rounder in 2013, but only if McNabb's contract could be structured so that it wouldn't do anything to stand in Ponder's way long-term.

A day later, McNabb agreed to a one-year deal.

"I am happy about this opportunity," he said. "Obviously Leslie and Rick Spielman saw something in me, that I can come here and help this team. I want to provide that for them."

McNabb's contract is for $5 million, although he can make up to $7.25 million with incentives. It's nowhere near the $12.5 million he would have made this year had he succeeded with the Redskins. But he gets a fresh start and, more important, he gets the heck out of Washington.

"You go through minor adversities that you have to be able to overcome and understand what happened and then you move on," McNabb said. "You take the good with the good and leave the bad."

No offense to Ponder, but the general perception of the team's chances this season immediately soared in the Vikings' locker room.

"It changed it a lot," running back Adrian Peterson said. "Considering we brought in a rookie quarterback and not knowing what to expect. He hasn't taken any snaps in the National Football League. So it was kind of like we had to have confidence in this guy that he can get it done, and just adjust to it."

The Vikings have a talented core of players, not to mention eight starters who are 30 or older. But they lack proven depth, with a roster that has 16 players with fewer than three years of NFL experience, including nine rookies.

McNabb is a six-time Pro Bowl selection who was on eight playoff teams with the Eagles. He led Philadelphia to five NFC Championship Games, and the Eagles made the Super Bowl following the 2004 season. He went to Washington as Philadelphia decided to go with younger Kevin Kolb at quarterback -- although Michael Vick eventually took over -- but struggled with the Redskins and butted heads with coach Mike Shanahan.

He was available, and the Vikings made their move.

Making a choice

"I thought it was important [to get McNabb], and I didn't have to do a lot of pushing," Frazier said. "Fortunately for me, the Wilf family [ownership], they trust my judgment in this area, and Rick Spielman as well. It wasn't a hard sell at all. I thought he would bring certain things to the table considering what had transpired this offseason with no practices, the lockout and all. At this point, he hasn't disappointed."

Spielman said the Vikings had "four or five different scenarios" for the quarterback position coming out of the draft. One of them included starting Ponder if the lockout ended quickly. McNabb was another scenario, although it was "based only on rumblings" the team had heard about Washington's desire to trade McNabb once the lockout ended. Spielman didn't reveal the other possible scenarios, but a quarterback of at least some interest was former Viking Tyler Thigpen, who ended up going from Miami to Buffalo via free agency.

The Vikings, obviously, view McNabb differently.

"We know he didn't play as well last year in Washington as he did for all those years in Philadelphia," Spielman said. "He had his struggles, but there could be other reasons for that than on the football side of it."

McNabb completed just 58.3 percent of his passes with 14 touchdown passes and a career-high 15 interceptions. He was benched late in a loss to Detroit and again for the final three games of the seasons.

"A lot of times, it's not the player's fault and it's not the organization's fault," Spielman said. "Sometimes, it's just not a good fit."

Return to form?

After all, it's no secret that McNabb clashed with Shanahan and the more rigid system employed by offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Frazier's personality is much different, and he and McNabb had a good relationship when Frazier was an Eagles assistant early on in McNabb's career.

"We know Leslie's personality and Bill Musgrave's personality, and we saw it as a good fit [for McNabb]," Spielman said. "And the one great thing about a Bill Musgrave-type coach is we can get Donovan comfortable with what he's comfortable doing and still have success. That's Leslie's philosophy, too. Let's not always try to fit a square peg into a round hole type of thing."

It's an approach McNabb appreciates when he's asked to reflect on such a miserable experience in Washington.

"You know, the Lord puts you in a place where you kind of sit back and you wonder, 'How did this happen?' Or things get thrown at you where you just have to sit back and say, 'I'm in your hands, you know the best for me' and just let it play out," McNabb said of last season. "What happened last year was a learning experience for me. It was one where I don't look back on, I move forward. I think that's the way that you have to approach different situations like that."

McNabb looked surprisingly comfortable in his new offense this preseason. He showed poise, ability to move in the pocket, a nice touch on short to intermediate passes, and plenty of arm strength, especially on a 49-yard touchdown pass to Bernard Berrian on the opening drive of the third preseason game against Dallas.

"I think Donovan's very similar to Peyton [Manning]," said left tackle Charlie Johnson, who played the past five years in Indianapolis. "They're both very smart quarterbacks. I would say Donovan learning this offense is a good thing for the Minnesota Vikings. He's only had a short time, but you can see him starting to grasp it. You can see he knows where the ball needs to go. He's getting us into the right plays."

In three preseason games, McNabb completed 64.9 percent of his passes with one touchdown, one interception and an 86.0 passer rating. He's also maintained hope among veteran teammates who don't want the season to dissolve into a rebuilding year under a rookie quarterback.

"I liked them young cats at quarterback, too," said nose tackle Remi Ayodele, who came from New Orleans via free agency days after the McNabb trade was worked out. "But I know what happens to most of them when they have to start. In New Orleans, it was like a week off when you played one of them. That was the best week ever because we knew all we had to do was attack, attack, attack and the kid would mess up.