Kyle Sloter should back up Kirk Cousins Ok it’s just pre-season.

But as a backup quarterback www.minnesotavikingsteamonline.com , most likely this is your season.Your chance to show what you got.Sure there’s practice, and that counts in terms of showing knowledge of the offense and ability to make throws in that setting, but it doesn’t show how you play in game situations.And the closest thing a backup quarterback has to that is preseason games.As a former starter with many games of experience in the regular season, you’d expect a guy like Trevor Siemian to show more command.More ability.He should be a little above the second stringers he’s playing against.But he didn’t.He didn’t look like a starter.He didn’t look like a guy you want starting at QB for your team either.And that’s the point.He was inaccurate.He looked poor under pressure.He did not lead second stringers, he let them down.There was a lack of energy. Quite simply, his game was not up to the task.By fairly obvious contrast, as soon as Kyle Sloter took the field in each of the first three Vikings preseason games, there was energy and leadership.There was the will to win.There was a QB looking to make plays, not just play out his time.And Sloter showed presence.Poise.Better scrambling ability.Better acccuracy.And he made plays.Every game.What plays did Siemian make?Zero.Nada.Bupkis.Sloter led drives.He came through in the clutch.He delivered when he needed to. Yes, he went down twice late on back side blitzes, but he managed to escape from several others and made plays too. Siemian never did.And, as every NFL head coach knows Minnesota Vikings T-Shirt , if you want to win, you need a quarterback that can make plays.You can’t coach that.You can’t learn that in practice.Experience can help, but not that of Trevor Sirmian’s kind.He was not a playmaker in Denver, and he was released as a result.I’m not sure how that type of experience is a plus.It sounds good to say, “now here’s a QB that’s started a lot of games in the NFL, who can come in a take over if Cousins goes down.”But you could say that about Christian Ponder too. Yes, it may be that if Cousins went down Sloter would have a learning curve playing against starting defenses not playing a more basic scheme.But he’s also a pretty smart QB that has been good at reading defenses in the past, and a good student of the game.He’s also got all the intangibles you want in a quarterback, and that are missing in Siemian. You often here coaches talk about how draft status, etc. doesn’t matter after training camp starts.It’s what you do in practice, and with the reps given to you that matters.Well, if that’s the case Minnesota Vikings Hats , Kyle Sloter should be the primary backup to Kirk Cousins.Trevor Siemian can run the scout team.Vikings coaches need to show to young guys that if you perform well, you’ll be rewarded - just like they do by extending deserving vets with big new contracts. A day after the San Francisco 49ers elected Richard Sherman as their player representative, the veteran cornerback believes a lockout is coming when the NFL collective bargaining agreement expires."It's going to happen, so it's not like guys are guessing," Sherman said before the 49ers' workout Thursday.The current CBA between players and NFL owners doesn't expire until after the 2020 season, but there have been rumblings that players might dig in their heels in order to get certain economic changes, including more guaranteed money in contracts.Owners locked out the players for four months during the 2011 offseason, but the sides eventually hammered out a 10-year deal before the regular season was jeopardized.Sherman said he's expecting a lockout this time around "because there was a lockout before. We don't plan on changing anything about the deal we currently have right now ... I don't think it's going to be negotiated before the end of the CBA."That issue is for down the road. For now, the three-time All-Pro cornerback eagerly awaits his 49ers debut Sunday at Minnesota. After being released by Seattle in March, Sherman, 30, signed a three-year deal with San Francisco.He appears fully recovered from a ruptured right Achilles tendon that ended his 2017 season in November. But Sunday's game offers Sherman his first true test to prove he's still the same shutdown defender he was before the injury. And the opener comes against a Vikings team that expects big things offensively after signing quarterback Kirk Cousins in the offseason.So far Minnesota Vikings Hoodie , Sherman has drawn rave reviews for the leadership role he's taken with a young 49ers defense."It's inspiring just to play across from a guy like that that's played at a high level," cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon said. "I've always looked up to him, always thought highly of him. To be able to pick his brain just inspires me to take my game to the next level."Asked if this week of preparation feels different given his new surroundings, Sherman replied:"I got my Kobe cleats."Nike has a line of football cleats endorsed by former Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, a friend of Sherman's who offered the cornerback advice on how to rehab from an Achilles injury, since Bryant experienced the same setback.Sherman said he'll feel butterflies when he takes the field for his 49ers debut, but he said it won't be so different from his previous seven years with the Seahawks."(There's) always that rookie inside me. I don't think it changes from your first year to your eighth year," he said. "I think you always go into it knowing you're gonna have a chance to do something special and you're excited about the possibilities."NOTES: Weakside linebacker Malcolm Smith (hamstring) participated in Thursday's practice and is expected to be ready Sunday, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said. ... Saleh also said that rookie Fred Warner will start at middle linebacker.