"I'm not surprised at all," Tarkenton said. And then off he went riffing on the winless Vikings and what they should do to better themselves. "First of all, Donovan McNabb is one of my favorite pro players. I think he has been a very great professional quarterback. He says the right things. He does the right things. Right now, I want to see us go younger quicker. I told people back before the Vikings made the move, 'If you think Donovan McNabb is the answer, he's not.' You're going with another old quarterback. We need to play Christian Ponder. I haven't watched Christian Ponder play. But you never know until you play him. I would have played him from Day One. You have to play him to see if you have him for your future." Source: Bob Sansevere, twincities.com
They would and should play Ponder if they could manage to protect him. It doesn't help the Vikings have no help at WR.
Play Joe Webb. You're 0-4 and you obviously think Ponder isn't ready yet, it's a win-win situation for them. They're out the playoff hunt, if you let Joe play and he wins, you have trade bait while Ponder gets ready to go. If Joe plays and he does bad, then you continue to move on when Ponder's ready