Raiders expected to sign former Vikings QB Christian Ponder to one year deal

Well, that escalated quickly! There was a report just a few hours ago that Christian Ponder was visiting the Oakland Raiders and now Adam Caplan is reporting that the Raiders are in fact expected to sign him, via the all knowing "league sources".

#Raiders are expected to sign QB Christian Ponder to a one-year deal, per league source.

— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) March 13, 2015

Ponder was once the QB of the Future for the Minnesota Vikings but despite having Adrian Peterson by his side he never lived up to his first round status and expectations. He is entering his 5th season in the NFL and has so far completed 632 of 1057 pass attempts for 6,658 yards with 38 touchdowns to 36 interceptions. He might not be starter material but those are not terrible numbers for a back up.

He worked with Raiders new Offensive Coordinator Bill Musgrave for 3 years in Minnesota when Musgrave held the OC position for the Vikings. There is no doubt that the familiarity with each other is a major reason for this reunion of player and coach.

The arrival of Christian Ponder would serve as competition for Matt McGloin for the back up QB position and he would also be most likely taking the role of veteran QB alongside Derek Carr. In other words, goodbye to Matt Schaub is the most likely outcome of the signing of Ponder.

For all you Matt McGloin fans out there, this could be the end of his reign here in Oakland too if he were to lose out to Ponder. However, we all know McGloin is a scrapper who is going to stare down yet another challenge in his young career. He has beaten out rivals plenty of times throughout his collegiate and professional career so far, we will see this preseason if he can do so again with Christian Ponder.