Tag Archives: Minnesota Vikings

NFL

Jones, Cayleb

sage16 cjonesCard: Sage 2016 #120/250
Acquired: 2016, Hobby Box Break

The son of former Cowboys LB Robert Jones and nephew of former Saints QB Jeff Blake, Cayleb Jones played High School ball in Austin, Tx at Austin High School. The wide receiver was recruited by the University of Texas, but in the wake of the change over from Mack Brown to Charlie Strong and being charged with misdemeanor assault in 2013, Jones elected to transfer out of UT to Arizona. Jones, at 6’3″, 215 finished his college career with 130 receptions for 1,958 yards and 14 TDs. He played in all 13 of the Wildcats’ games in 2013, including a 45-37 win over New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl.  Cayleb Jones was considered a sleeper in the 2016 NFL Draft with all the puzzle pieces of a complete receiver- that hasn’t completely put it all together yet.

After the NFL draft he signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.  He made it all the way to the final cutdowns before being released. Later in the year he signed with the Minnesota Vikings but was cut during preseason, after seeing limited time on the field dur to injury. He resigned with the squad at the end of the year on a futures contract, but was later suspended the first 4 games of 2018 for violating the league’s PED policy. He was again released by the team at the end of the preseason.

NFL

Rosenfels, Sage

Card: Upper Deck SPx 2001  (129/500)
Acquired: 2017, EBay

Sage Rosenfels was a quarterback for Iowa State from 1997-2000.  Although only a two year starter, he put up 306 completions (52.1%) for 4,164 yards and 18 TDs. Sage always seemed to have big numbers when the lights were the brightest, such as in the Insight.com Bowl, where he guided the Cyclones to a victory over Pittsburgh.  After a pretty solid combine, Rosenfels’ name began to climb in the view of many scouts. Still Rosenfels was considered a prospect without the big name glitter.

He’d be the 9th quarterback selected off the board- taken by the Washington Redskins with the 109th pick (4th round) of the 2001 draft. In 2002, the Redskins felt that they had their quarterback situation well in hand under Danny Wuerffel, Shane Matthews, and Patrick Ramsey, so Steve Spurrier traded Rosenfels to the Miami Dolphins for an undisclosed 2003 selection. Sage started only 2 games over the next 4 years, and was primarily only seen in mopup duty.

In 2006, the Houston Texans were in full rebuild mode under new head coach Gary Kubiak, but they wanted to give incumbent starter David Carr another year to develop at quarterback before they pulled the trigger. The team signed Rosenfels via free agency to back up Carr. Sage came in again during mop up duty and had a pretty decent effort throwing for 265 yards and 3 TDs in 4 games of relief of Carr.

During the off-season of 2007 the franchise traded for Falcons’ backup quarterback Matt Schaub. Unwilling to backup Schaub or take a paycut, Carr was cut.  With Schaub off-injured over the next two seasons, Sage got some starting time in playing 10 games and posting a 6-4 record. Sage had his best season in 2007- a year in which both Schaub and Andre Johnson were hard hit by the injury bug. It was a fun season- watching the team come together under Sage from a bunch of scrappy role players to a really dangerous offensive unit. Rosenfels was 154/240 for 1684 yards with 15 TDs to 12 interceptions.  Teams quickly became interested and envious of the Texans sudden rags to riches situation at quarterback.

Sage returned in 2008 but didn’t have as much luck posting 6 TDs to 10 interceptions on 174 attempts. While his yardage per game increased as he was relied on to carry the team a bit more over a 5 game period (1431 yards), Sage is instead known as the butt of a joke to many outsiders for an incident known as the ‘Rosencopter’.  With the game on the line against the Colts, he decided to scramble for the first down. Facing down three defenders, Sage heroically decided to go airborne, but got spun in the air like a helicopter….  and fumbled the ball… and the game away. (Despite this Sage has been relatively easy going about the incident, even going so far as to poke fun at himself on Twitter.) As a Texans fan however, I was more forgiving as you could tell that Sage just wanted to win.

In 2009 the Vikings finally consummated the trade for Rosenfels they wanted to do in 2008 for a 4th round pick. (Initially I was very worried about the deal because Matt Schaub had done nothing to prove that he could remain injury free- but my fears would be allayed.)  Sage never found the starting quarterback job long term- as fate intervened again with the Vikings soon thereafter signing Brett Favre.

Sage was traded again in 2010- this time to the New York Giants, where he’d backup Eli Manning. He’d be on the roster of the Giants through 2011. When starter Chad Henne was injured, Rosenfels rejoined the Dolphins for some mercenary action. Later in the year Sage made his final stop again with the Vikings, but was among the franchise’s final cuts in 2012.

He currently lives in Iowa, and is an active Twitter presence. When I posted this card to his profile with a ‘Blue Steel’ reference to Zoolander, he and a few other media personalities got a good laugh out of it. In 2017 he also attended Andre Johnson’s induction into the Houston Texans’ Ring of Honor.

G/GS 43/12     Att 562      Cpd  351        Yds  4156
TD  30            Int 29        Rat  81.2

Rush 38     Yds   95        Avg 2.0            TD 1

NFL

Keenum, Case

Card: Bowman 2012
Acquired: 2017, Ebay
Failure: 2013, C/o Home

Case Keenum played for the University of Houston- a school dipped in record setting quarterbacks from Andre Ware and David Klingler
to Kevin Kolb. Case was no different except he had a much steeper road to climb to be accepted amongst his peers at the pro level. After leaving the NCAA behind as the career yardage leader with 19,217 yards and a bevy of other records- he went unselected in the 2012 NFL Draft. Teams had grown weary of products from UH and were not enthusiastic about Keenum’s size or injury history. After the draft he signed a free agent contract with the Houston Texans.  He spent the entire 2012 season on the team’s practice squad.

The Texans were on the verge of one of the most terrible years in the history of the franchise. In 2013, Houston came out of the gate firing on all cylinders at 2-0, then dropped the remaining 14 games in a row. During that period, QB Matt Schaub came apart and was benched for TJ Yates who was ineffective, opening the door for Keenum to show his stuff.  He was still really a rookie, but Case showed some promise, and had a cannon for an arm.  Despite his efforts, the Texans did not win a game with him at the helm. Case finished with 9 TDs to 6 INT, on 137 of 253 passes, and 1,760 yards. The Texans cleaned house after the season and Gary Kubiak‘s staff was disassembled. Case was released and signed by the Rams. Again Case bade his time on the practice squad, but as fate would have it, he’d take another turn as quarterback of the Texans.

He’d be resigned by the Texans late in the season and guide the team two two wins, over Baltimore and Jacksonville, helping the Texans finish with a 9-7 record in rookie head coach Bill O’Brien’s first year. Keenum was traded back to the Rams the next year and in mid-November replaced starter Nick Foles as starting quarterback of the Rams, and into the team’s transition back to Los Angeles in 2016.

During that off season the Rams were looking to make a splash in the NFL Draft to show fans in LA they were serious about winning. The team traded up and selected QB Jared Goff #1 overall. -The writing was on the wall for Case. He’d hold down the starting job through mid-November before being benched in favor of Goff.

Case signed a free agent contract with the Minnesota Vikings for 2017. Largely an afterthought in the QB derby that was the Vikings, Sam Bradford was holding down the job provided Teddy Bridgewater could return from a catastrophic injury. Case entered the 2017 season as Bradford’s backup. After Bradford was injured during the season opener, Case stepped up and led the team  the rest of the way through. As a passer he had the best season of his career throwing for 3547 yards on 325 completions (481 attempts), and 22 touchdowns to just 7 interceptions, while posting an 11-3 record as a starter and to the playoffs. The Vikings were impressed, but Case jumped ship to the Denver Broncos in 2018 where he is expected to bring stability to the position for the franchise. As Case continues to mature, he reminds me of a young Drew Brees coming into his prime- but maybe that is all hyperbole.

Case Keenum is another patient exercise in finding good value off of EBay. After failing on him inexplicably back in 2013, I had been spying his cards for quite a while trying to find a good value pickup. I always felt like Keenum had what it took, and when the Texans traded him away, I was particularly miffed.  When it appeared that the dust had settled after his stint in St. Louis I was able to get this card for like a buck or two off of EBay. Now this particular card is treading water at 6-9 bucks.