Keidel: Let's Hope Keenum Isn't Part Of Package Deal With Shurmur

By Jason Keidel
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Assuming the Giants hire Pat Shurmur as their next head coach, the media and masses will be eager to see how quickly and drastically he addresses the club's quarterback situation, which went from rock solid to quicksand in a few sordid months.

Not only is Shurmur the Vikings' offensive coordinator, he's worked a QB shell game so well you'd never know that Minnesota has gone 13-3 sans the services of their top-two signal-callers.

Had someone told you in August that the Vikings were one game from hosting this season's Super Bowl, you'd have assumed that either Teddy Bridgewater or Sam Bradford would be under center for the run.

But it has been Case Keenum, the QB who's had to pinball around the NFL map to get this golden chance. Until this season, Keenum's most heralded moment was getting knocked out in St. Louis, only to be shoved back in the game despite not being able to stand up on his own.

Now he'll be standing tall in the pocket in the NFC title game. An undrafted player, Keenum is this year's rags-to-riches story, the new Horatio Alger of the NFL. Even if his boss has never fully believed in him.

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Since Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer has been so lukewarm on Keenum all year -- never committing to him as his full-time starter despite his record -- it is believed Keenum would likely want to follow Shurmur, the man who trusts him and was the architect of his breakout season, to the Meadowlands.

And it would make sense if Shurmur at least gives some thought to it.

But leave it there.

Keenum has been a revelation this season, going 11-3 during the regular season, with 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions, while completing 67 percent of his passes. But we've heard this record before, when a journeyman plays past the back of his football card and gives folks the impression that he's now a top-tier quarterback.

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Remember that Keenum, who turns 30 next month, was 9-15 in four seasons prior to 2017, with 24 TDs and 20 INTs. Granted, this is the best club he has ever led, but Keenum is the kind of QB you insert into a loaded squad like the Vikings, not the new QB on a tattered team like the Giants. And coveting Keenum presupposes the Giants don't have options at his position, which is not the case.

The accidental gift of Ben McAdoo's incompetence is the Giants now having the second pick in the draft, high enough to get your next franchise quarterback. Whether it's Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen, there's no better QB altar at which to kneel than that of a Manning.

If anyone has earned a mulligan it's Eli, who was saddled in 2017 with the twin burdens of injury on the field and ineptitude on the sideline. Let Manning give it one more shot, with a healthy set of wideouts and a competent coach, then hand the franchise to their top draft pick in a year.

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To paraphrase Bill Polian, if you spend too much time worrying about what fans think you'll soon be sitting with them. Still, we saw what happened when McAdoo benched Manning for a game. It got supremely ugly on the field, in the stands, and in the headlines. And it's probably not advisable for Big Blue's new coach to make benching or cutting Manning his first big move.

All of this is moot if the Vikings are finally sold on Keenum and slap a franchise tag on him. But there has just nothing to this point to suggest they are. Of course, a Super Bowl title will deify Keenum, making him impossible to move or even consider letting walk to New Jersey.

That would be not only the best thing for the Vikings, but also for Shurmur and the Giants, should they soon become a gridiron pair.

Please follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel