Despite his brief stay, Case Keenum holds a special place in Vikings history

Just six players remain from Case Keenum's lone season with the Vikings. He has worked with the Vikings' current head coach, passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach — in Washington, not in Minnesota. Assistant player performance director Derik Keyes is the only member of the Vikings' staff still remaining from 2017, when Keenum became the improbable leader of the team's fated run to the NFC Championship Game.

And yet, there's a fondness for Keenum, formed during his 10 months with the Vikings, that still lingers in Minnesota.

"I spent a lot of time with him," said wide receiver Adam Thielen, who grew close with Keenum in a team Bible study. "The way that he prepares, the way that he stays positive through everything, and just encourages [teammates], I know guys on that [Bills] team love that guy, because that's the type of person he is. I know that he's prepared to play if he needs to, and he'll play at a high level if he needs to get out there."

With Josh Allen questionable to play on Sunday after missing most of the Bills' practice week with a right elbow injury, it could be Keenum facing Minnesota on Sunday. He's done it before: his first preseason game after leaving the Vikings was against them in 2018, and in 2019, he returned to U.S. Bank Stadium as Washington's starting quarterback. Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell was Keenum's offensive coordinator then, and Kirk Cousins (the former Washington quarterback the Vikings signed to replace Keenum) was his opponent.

"I've played a lot of my former teams before; that's what happens when you have a lot of former teams," Keenum told Buffalo reporters this week, with his typical self-deprecating humor. "You can only say those types of things when it's your first time, but I've done it a bunch of times. So I know how to treat those weeks, too."

But if Keenum starts this weekend, he'll be throwing his first passes to Stefon Diggs since the playoff run that crystallized their connection in Vikings history. With the 7-1 Vikings possibly on the way to their best regular-season record since that charmed 2017 season, the Keenum-Diggs reunion provides an occasion to rewind the clock five years.

For all the great one-year quarterbacking wonders that propelled the Vikings to deep playoff runs, Keenum's 2017 campaign might be the unlikeliest of them all.

Since their last trip to the Super Bowl following the 1976 season, the Vikings have reached the NFC Championship Game six times, with six different quarterbacks: 1977 (Fran Tarkenton), 1987 (Wade Wilson), 1998 (Randall Cunningham), 2000 (Daunte Culpepper), 2009 (Brett Favre) and 2017 (Keenum).

Three of those quarterbacks — Tarkenton, Wilson and Culpepper — spent at least seven seasons with the Vikings. Cunningham had been a three-time Pro Bowler and two-time MVP runner-up before his 1998 season; Favre had three NFL MVPs before he joined the Vikings in 2009.

Keenum, by contrast, had made 24 NFL starts before the Vikings signed him to a one-year deal in 2017. He wasn't a lock to make the 53-man roster in training camp, before a strong preseason cemented his spot. With Keenum starting for the injured Sam Bradford, the Vikings were held under 10 points in a pair of losses during a 2-2 start.

Keenum didn't take the job full-time until an ill-fated plan to bring Bradford back in Week 5 went awry. And even as Keenum's second-half comeback in Chicago that night kicked off an eight-game win streak, coach Mike Zimmer declined to name him the permanent starter with Teddy Bridgewater waiting in the wings to return from his catastrophic knee injury the year before.

Somehow, against that backdrop, Keenum put together one of the great seasons in Vikings history. His 98.3 passer rating in 2017 is the ninth-best in team history, behind the 2016 season from the quarterback he replaced (Bradford) and the 2018 season from the quarterback that replaced him (Cousins). His 4.4% sack rate is the second-best in team history, as the 6-foot-1 quarterback spun out of pressure all season before finding Diggs and Thielen downfield on broken plays.

Before Keenum connected with Diggs for the "Minneapolis Miracle," he won 11 regular-season games as a starter; only Cunningham, Tarkenton, Favre and Joe Kapp have won more in a year for the Vikings.

The Vikings, unsure Keenum could replicate his 2017 season, decided to sign Cousins instead. Keenum hasn't come close to matching what he did that year, lasting one season as the Broncos' full-time starter and going 8-17 as a starting QB for three teams since then. He's thrown seven passes this season, and has started just twice since he played for O'Connell.

"I thought he played at a high level for us when I was coaching him," O'Connell said. "I'm a huge fan of Case. He knows exactly what he's looking at. Any voids or vacancies, any lapses in coverage, Case will make you pay."

However many times Keenum is a Vikings opponent the rest of his career, his legacy in Minnesota will be tied to that brief, bizarre, brilliant moment five years ago.