Our usual angry end-of-the-Vikings-season phone call with Rocket the other day left us fuming, as usual, about the Vikings’ quarterback situation. But sometimes good things (even if they are painful) come from anger. We channeled it towards some research, and we found out that, well, for the generation or so things have been pretty dysfunctional at QB for the Vikings. So it’s not just a Brad Childress problem, though he certainly has perpetuated things. Consider:

*In three years under Brad Childress, five different QBs have thrown at least 50 passes in a season: Tarvaris Jackson, Gus Frerotte, Kelly Holcomb, Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger.

*In the past 20 seasons of Vikings football (1989-2008), those five aforementioned men, plus these chaps, have thrown at least 50 passes in any given season: Daunte Culpepper, Spergon Wynn, Todd Bauman, (Johnson and Frerotte again, during different tours of duty), Jeff George, Randall Cunningham, Warren Moon, Jim McMahon, Sean Salisbury, Rich Gannon, Wade Wilson and Tommy Kramer. That’s 16 different QBs, not including Johnson and Frerotte twice.

*From 1984-1989, Tommy Kramer threw 1,506 passes while Wade Wilson threw 1,356 passes for the Vikings. Wilson, from 1983-1991, started at least one game every season but no more than 12 games in any season for the Vikings. That’s nine years in a row! Kramer, from 1982-1989, started at least three games every season but no more than 15 games in any season. Unbelievable!

*Daunte Culpepper started 73 of a possible 80 games from 2000-2004, providing a measure of stability. But considering his career arc — and his relationship to fans — was more of a yo-yo than a straight line, we have to say the most stable era of Vikings quarterbacking in the past 25 years came from the two steady years of Warren Moon in 1994 and 1995.

*And somehow, in the past 22 seasons, the Vikings have made the playoffs 13 times. Their record in those trips? 8-13. We don’t even have the heart to see how many different quarterbacks have started those playoff games.

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