Report: Vikings Starting Christian Ponder, Teddy Bridgewater Will Be Inactive

Update:

Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that the Vikings will be starting Christian Ponder in tonight’s game against the Green Bay Packers.

According to Rapoport,  rookie QB Teddy Bridgewater will be inactive for tonight’s game after he suffered an ankle sprain last weekend.

The strong clue that Bridgewater was unlikely to play came when the Vikings announced that they had promoted QB Chandler Harnish from the practice squad.

Had Bridgewater been healthy enough to play in tonight’s game, there wouldn’t have been much of a reason to add another quarterback to their active roster.

————

Vikings plan on waiting until 90 minutes before Thursday night’s game before deciding whether rookie QB Teddy Bridgewater will play against the Packers, according to Ian Rapoport.

Rapoport adds that Bridgewater still wants to play, but the Vikings want to make sure that they are limiting the injury risk.

————

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Thursday morning that “signs point to Teddy Bridgewater not playing tonight.”

Earlier in the week, HC Mike Zimmer mentioned that he expected Bridgewater to play against the Green Bay Packers, despite suffering an ankle injury on Sunday, per Chris Tomasson.

• Zimmer added that Bridgewater’s MRI came back just fine and he’s doing a lot better on Monday.

Assuming Schefter’s report is accurate, former first-round pick Christian Ponder would be in line to start against the Packers.

This would be a very difficult situation for Ponder given that he is on a short week and traveling to Green Bay to take on a Packers team that is coming off of an impressive win over the Bears in Week 4.

Last year, Ponder appeared in nine games for the Vikings and completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 1648 yards, seven touchdowns and nine interceptions. He added four rushing touchdowns as well.

We’ll have more updates leading up to kickoff tonight.