The Vikings’ 48-30 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles was the most encouraging game I’ve seen from the team in a long, long time.

Without Adrian Peterson, Minnesota didn’t have its best player — and didn’t have backup running back Toby Gerhart, either. The team has been eliminated from playoff contention and is playing out the season, while the Eagles had everything to play for after a five-game winning streak put them on top of the NFC East. Chip Kelly is the new “It” coach in the NFL.

But with all that going against them, the Vikings not only won the game, they won it convincingly, scoring almost 50 points. Matt Asiata came through and picked up the yards at the goal line when the team needed them. Greg Jennings had a tremendous performance. Cordarrelle Patterson continues to improve and become a bigger part of the offense. The pass rushers did a good job of getting to Nick Foles. And I think Harrison Smith makes a big difference for the defense.

A lot of the credit has to go to Matt Cassel, who has led the team to three wins. He’s proved himself to be a solid quarterback. He does what he’s supposed to do and has made his teammates better this year. Jennings in particular seems to be a different guy when Cassel is on the field, as opposed to Christian Ponder. That is one of the most important traits for a quarterback.

And with Cassel’s performance, you don’t hear anybody clamoring for Ponder or Josh Freeman anymore. I don’t have any inside scoop in the front office, but my sense is the team has seen enough of them and we won’t see either of them on the field in purple again.

Now, do a few good games mean the Vikings no longer need to worry about drafting a quarterback? Absolutely not. But Cassel is giving the team the best chance to win right now. This roster can win with him playing quarterback while they find and develop the right young quarterback.

The Vikings are going to have a top-10 pick after this season, and when that happens, you absolutely have to find a star. You can’t reach for a player just because he plays the right position — it has to be a guy you believe in, 100 percent.

A common mistake is believing that you must find a quarterback in the first round — or that drafting a quarterback in the first round somehow makes him worthy of that pick. But it’s the ability to play that matters and finding the player you believe in. I was a third-round pick, as was Russell Wilson and Joe Montana. Everyone knows Tom Brady was a sixth-rounder; the 49ers got Colin Kaepernick in Round 2; and on and on.

Reaching for a guy you don’t believe in just because he’s “next” on the list costs your team a lot; not only do you get the wrong guy at quarterback, but you also miss out on taking a guy you believed in more at another position.

I don’t think there’s a sure thing in this draft along the lines of Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning. I’m not completely sold on any of them at this point. There are a lot of guys with potential, and it’s up to the Vikings’ scouts and front office to become intimately familiar with them, as players, as leaders and as people. Then identify who you really believe can play and get that guy when it makes sense.

I think there’s a good opportunity to use the first pick on a pass rusher, for instance, and then get the quarterback you believe in, in later rounds. Taking any quarterback is a risk. I’d rather take that risk in the second or third round and get a dominant pass rusher in Round 1. That’s how Seattle and San Francisco have built such great rosters: spending top picks on the core of their teams, building from the lines outward, and getting the right passers whom they really believed in later.

Which quarterback might that be this time? Maybe my alma mater’s Aaron Murray, whom the scouts don’t like because he’s “too short” and doesn’t have a rocket arm. But that’s exactly what they said about me, too. He’s smart, a good leader and very productive. And at Georgia, he broke every passing record in the SEC, the closest thing to professional football. As we get into the offseason, we’ll have more opportunity to study every available quarterback, going beyond just the obvious names to see who can really play.

Don’t reach. Trust the process and build the team the right way. There’s a lot of talent in Minnesota right now, and it’s important to make the right pick. If that player needs development time, like Kaepernick did in San Francisco, that’s OK. We’ve seen that Cassel will be able to hold the fort, as long as he doesn’t opt out of his contract after this season. The right quarterback is worth the wait.

Fran Tarkenton is Minnesota Vikings analyst for TwinCities.com and the Pioneer Press. He is a former Vikings quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Fame member. He also is an advocate for small businesses and the founder of SmallBizClub.com. Follow Fran at twitter.com/Fran_Tarkenton.