Vikings at Packers: Vikings Promote QB Chandler Harnish, waive WR Rodney Smith (UPDATE: TEDDY NOT PLAYING)
Arif Hasan
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UPDATE: Teddy Bridgewater won’t play, according to Ian Rapaport
The #Vikings will start QB Christian Ponder tonight vs #Packers, source says. Teddy Bridgewater will be inactive
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 2, 2014
And a separate report from Mike Garafolo:
No surprise after their roster move earlier but Vikings will be starting Christian Ponder tonight.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 2, 2014
Original story below:
The Minnesota Vikings have announced that quarterback Chandler Harnish has been signed to the 53-man roster from the practice squad and they have waived wide receiver Rodney Smith. This very likely means that Christian Ponder will start for the Vikings tonight against the Green Bay Packers while Teddy Bridgewater is inactive.
Two things of note: McLeod Bethel-Thompson was the other quarterback on the practice squad and had been in the Norv Turner system for that much longer. Regardless, neither Bethel-Thompson nor Chandler Harnish spent an entire season with a Coryell system. Bethel-Thompson has been with Erhardt-Perkins systems and a West Coast system in San Francisco under Greg Roman. Harnish has been in Pep Hamilton’s West Coast Offense. There’s a good argument that neither of them are truly familiar with the terminology—Harnish was in a spread system in college, as was Bethel-Thompson (though opposite kinds of spread offenses).
The second thing that is worth noting is that receiver Charles Johnson stuck on the roster more than Rodney Smith, a preseason favorite. He will likely sign to the practice squad after the game, then be promoted to the roster after Sunday while Harnish finds himself on the practice squad.