ShareThisLeslie Frazier made one thing very clear after being introduced as the Minnesota Vikings interim coach Monday: He won't be making a change at quarterback.
"Brett Favre," Frazier responded when asked who would be his quarterback Sunday at Washington. "There's no hesitation for me in that regard. Brett is a tremendous quarterback. He has been a leader of our football team in the year and a half that he has been with us. There are some things that we have to do as a group to help support Brett. That will be my message to our football team."
Favre, 41, is having one of the worst seasons of his 20-year career statistically -- he has thrown a league-high 17 interceptions, has lost five fumbles and is second-to-last with a 69.8 passer rating -- but Frazier hasn't wavered in his support of the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
Frazier's response comes as a surprise to no one inside Winter Park. As the Vikings defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to Brad Childress, Frazier had been one of Favre's biggest allies and attempted to play peacemaker in the often-icy relationship between Childress and Favre.
Frazier even stepped in last month to lend support when Childress considered sitting Favre against New England after he suffered a stress fracture of his left ankle and fractured heel.
There had been a feeling Frazier might want to give Tarvaris Jackson a chance with the Vikings sitting at 3-7, but there is no guarantee Jackson is this team's quarterback of the future. Depending on what happens when a new collective bargaining agreement is worked out, Jackson could be an unrestricted free agent after this season.
It's likely Favre and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will be given far more freedom to run the offense, especially because Frazier's expertise is on the other side of the ball. The hope would be Favre could begin to recapture his magic of last season when he had 33 touchdown passes, a career-low seven interceptions and a career-best 107.2 passer rating.
"If you ask Brett that question I'm sure he would say, 'Give me all the latitude in the world,' " Frazier said. "But we do have a system in place, there may be some tweaks to the system. We're going to talk about that. But Brett, like all of our players, has to play within the scheme. One of the things that we talked to our players about (at Monday's meeting) is that no one individual irregardless of names or accolades is bigger than our team, and I think all our guys understand that and all they want to do is be a part of a successful group. And Brett's no different."
As for whether there might come a point where Favre's turnovers become too much to take, Frazier said: "I'm under the belief that Brett Favre is going to get it going and those turnovers are going to come down and we're going to get it going as a football team. I really believe that."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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