The Minnesota Vikings’ unwillingness to keep the quarterback around for 2018 clearly showed how they felt about his success last season.

Despite the Case Keenum winning seven of his first nine starts last season, Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was still hesitant to name Keenum as the team’s starting quarterback for the remainder of the year.

Prior to the Vikings’ Week 13 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, Zimmer responded to someone asking him if the team could still make a change at quarterback.

“We’re just going to go one week at a time. That’s just the way it is. I’m not looking to pull (Keenum), but every week is a different week in this league.”

So 13 weeks into the season and Minnesota was still struggling to convince themselves that Keenum was the guy to keep as their starting signal caller. This alone should be enough to let people know how Zimmer and the rest of the Vikings’ organization felt about Keenum heading into the 2018 offseason.

Yes, the quarterback was able to find some magic in 2017 and have himself an impressive season. But Minnesota didn’t feel like his play last year was something Keenum could sustain into the future.

Less than a month ago, Zimmer was talking about how he didn’t know which version of the quarterback would show up for next season.

The Vikings had a number of opportunities to keep the quarterback around for 2018. They could have placed the franchise tag or the transition tag on him or even attempted to work out a new deal before Keenum hit the open market in free agency.

But each time, Minnesota said, “no thanks.”

Instead, the Vikings let him explore other options and it resulted in Keenum finding a new home with the Denver Broncos.

The quarterback’s reported deal is only for two years, so obviously Minnesota wasn’t the only team around the NFL that had concerns about Keenum being able to maintain a high level of play. His contract will reportedly pay him at least $36 million over the next two seasons.

Keenum was clearly affordable enough for the Vikings to bring back next season. And while cheaper can sometimes be a safer option, Minnesota going after a proven quarterback in Kirk Cousins instead of Keenum this offseason was actually the safest choice they could have made.