Sean Mannion could take similar approach as Case Keenum with Vikings

Since things with the Los Angeles Rams didn’t work out, Sean Mannion will reportedly be meeting with the Minnesota Vikings on Monday.

Early on in the offseason, the Los Angeles Rams seemed to hint that Sean Mannion wouldn’t return for a fifth season with the team, which was exactly the case after the team signed Blake Bortles to one-year deal.

With all due respect to Mannion, Bortles was a major upgrade at the backup quarterback position in case Jared Goff were to ever suffer some sort of injury, especially from an experience perspective.

Numerous reasons came into play behind the decision by Los Angeles to move on from their former backup, but with teams expressing interest in Mannion due to working under Sean McVay over the last two seasons, money seems like one of the top factors on the decision by the Rams.

Now, it seems like only a matter of time before Mannion finds himself on a new team for the 2019 season. And with the quarterback scheduled to meet with the Minnesota Vikings on Monday, it looks like he could be taking a similar approach to another former Rams backup, Case Keenum.

Back in 2016 when Los Angeles traded up in the draft to select Goff at No. 1, Keenum knew it was only a matter of time before he was out of the starting job with the Rams since no team gives up all of those draft picks for a player to have him just ride the bench.

Similar to Mannion’s situation, the Rams never had anything against Keenum as a quarterback, as this was more of a business situation in which they were able to upgrade at the position.

As football fans remember, Keenum would end up joining the Vikings for the 2017 season as the backup to Sam Bradford before eventually taking over the starting job once the former No. 1 pick got hurt, and the rest was history.

One can only imagine how different things would have been if Keenum led Minnesota to the Super Bowl that season instead of falling to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship, but at least it eventually led to a hefty new contract with the Denver Broncos the following year.

Mannion may not get the opportunity to start in Minnesota like Keenum did since Kirk Cousins is obviously going to continue being the starter as long as he remains healthy, but it is sort of ironic to see the team express interest in another former Rams quarterback.

Depending on how well Monday’s meeting goes, it will be interesting to see if the Vikings end up deciding to give Mannion a chance to compete for the starting job, because for all they know, this could work out better than expected, just like it did with Keenum.