Rich Weighs In on the Vikings Starting Kyler Murray Over Carson Wentz in Week 3

Carson Wentz has the hot hand in Minnesota. Kyler Murray gets the ball back anyway, and Rich thinks that is exactly how it should go.

The Vikings are 2-0 with Wentz under center, and the natural Overreaction Monday instinct is to ride him the rest of the year. Rich never bought it. "I don't think Kevin O'Connell is going to do that," he said. "I know Wentz is a hot hand and he's won twice, but he is the backup to a guy that they really want to see and they put a ton of time and effort into during the spring and the summer."

That investment ran deep. Minnesota went far enough with Murray, Rich pointed out, to tell J.J. McCarthy he was now third string. Benching Murray for getting hurt would send its own message. "It's also a tough message to the locker room to say, you too can lose your job if you get injured," Rich said.

So the job goes back to Murray, who played only 11 snaps in the season opener against the Packers, "very few of them of note," before clearing protocol. The word out of Minnesota was simple: "Kyler has cleared the final phase of the protocol," and "he will start this week against Tampa Bay."

That sets up what Rich called another must-see game in Week 3. Minnesota goes for 3-0 at Tampa, and the quarterback matchup writes its own storyline. "First overall pick versus first overall pick," Rich said. Two Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winners, with similar paths to the NFL, except Baker Mayfield bounced around before landing in Tampa. Both have been paid. "One's 2-0, but not because of him," Rich said. "And one's 0-2 after paying the other."

The Bucs, in his words, "have to have this one." And the ripple effects in the NFC North are wild. If Tampa wins and Murray doesn't perform as well as, say, Deshaun Watson did, questions return in Minnesota. If the Vikings lose and Chicago also loses on Monday night, the Packers (who face Atlanta) and the Lions (who get the Jets) could both be 2-1 alongside the Vikings, with the Bears at 1-2 because Caleb Williams is hurt.

"That wasn't the conversation coming out of week one by any stretch," Rich said, "which is why everybody's got to take a beat and a breath when you're flipping out about how bad your team is. Or maybe how great your team has looked."

His summary of the first two weeks: "Crazy. This league's nuts."