Kellen Mond Is Done in Cleveland
The 2021 draft class, the final one of Rick Spielman’s tenure in Minnesota, was a disaster for the Vikings besides hitting on first-rounder Christian Darrisaw.
Kellen Mond Is Done in Cleveland
He made four selections in the third round, and three of them were off the team within 17 months when the new regime took over and was able to evaluate the players for their football talent and not the draft status.
One of them was quarterback Kellen Mond. He has now been waived by the Cleveland Browns, the second team that gave up on him within one year, according to Ari Meirov.
The Vikings picked a potential QB of the future for the first time since Teddy Bridgewater was chosen in the 2014 draft. Some pundits viewed Mond as a first-round talent, so the excitement was real in Minnesota.
His first training camp was rocky as he was out for a while with COVID-19, and the illness cost him his football shape. It took him the full season to gain the weight back. He was stuck behind starter Kirk Cousins and his backup Sean Mannion. When the team was hit by the news that Cousins was diagnosed with COVID-19 and had to miss the game in Green Bay, Mannion replaced him.
The fanbase didn’t like that as they wanted to get a glimpse of Mond instead of Mannion, who they had seen in some preseason contests and a meaningless game against the Chicago Bears, and it was not great. Mannion is a smart quarterback but lacks the talent to win a game in the NFL. Mond was the unknown and, therefore, the more exciting option.
After the game, Zimmer was asked if he wanted to see Mond perform in the meaningless Week 18 contests. He said no, and when he was asked why not, he infamously responded with, “I see him every day.”
The loss in Green Bay daggered the season for the Vikings, and the head coach perhaps expected his dismissal, but he still threw Mond under the bus, and it was a strange presser.
Kevin O’Connell came in, and there was a new hope that the former QB could fix the young passer. In the preseason contests, it became obvious that neither Mond nor Mannion was good enough to be the backup quarterback. The Vikings traded for Nick Mullens, waived Mond, and replaced him in the following draft with Jaren Hall as the developmental QB.
Kevin Stefanski and his Browns claimed him off waivers, but he only stayed on the team for roughly one season. The Browns signed Joshua Dobbs in free agency to be the backup of Deshaun Watson and drafted Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who lit up the preseason while Mond struggled.
Robotic mechanics and slow reads have always been the problem, and three different coaching staffs struggled to help him grow as a quarterback. He will probably get another shot somewhere, but he might be heading into a developmental league like the XFL sooner rather than later.
Mond is 24 years old and has thrown three passes in the NFL.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
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