We found it odd when Sage Rosenfels got only five (correction: make it six) snaps with the third team in two practices during 11-on-11 drills on Saturday. Turns out we hadn't seen anything.
The Vikings wrapped up their three-day minicamp with a single practice Sunday that ran about an hour. Rosenfels ended up being a spectator for almost all of it. He did not get one snap during 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 work in the red zone as R.J. Archer got the few third-team snaps that were available.
Once again, Tarvaris Jackson ran the first team and rookie Joe Webb ran the second team. Just as he did on Saturday, Rosenfels declined to comment as he left the field and made it clear he had nothing to say.
Asked what was going on, Vikings coach Brad Childress said: "Just rotating him around a little bit. We try to expose all those guys to all situations and it wouldn't be uncommon for you to see here [at Winter Park] or in training camp where you're trying to expose two quarterbacks and shutting [another] guy down for a day. I really wouldn't make anything of that other than we were tryng to expose those other three quarterbacks to some of that red area stuff and some of that blitz stuff yesterday."
You can buy Childress' argument to only a certain degree. Keep in mind, this was the only mandatory minicamp where everyone (well, almost everyone) was supposed to be present. That meant this was the best place for players to get their pre-training camp work. While everyone expects Brett Favre to return, the expectation also has been that Rosenfels would at least get a chance to battle Tarvaris Jackson for the starting job if Favre does not come back.
That means Rosenfels certainly would have expected to get in some work that might have been close to what Jackson got. But in the end it was Webb who got those snaps.
Childress pretty much confirmed that Jackson is his top quarterback right now -- in other words without Favre -- and that comes as no surprise. "He was one coming out of last year," Childress said, actually meaning that Jackson was the top backup to Favre. "He really hasn't done anything to move himself back. That's what training camp is for. My expectation is that all those guys will come in and compete and really the proof is what you put out on the field."
No change in Favre plan