Texas A&M Football: COVID-19 could give Kellen Mond a shot in the NFL

Texas A&M football fans will not have a positive association with COVID-19. I suppose that sentence is redundant — nobody has a positive association with COVID-19. That said, the global pandemic has hit A&M worse than most college football teams.

Instead of watching the Gator Bowl at the time that this is being posted, A&M fans will watch Rutgers take their place.

Last season, A&M was one of the first one-loss Power Five teams to miss out on the College Football Playoff. Their only loss on the year was to the eventual champion Alabama Crimson Tide, leaving a weak resume as the only excuse to leave out the Aggies. That said, COVID-19 may help this former Texas A&M football player find his first opportunity in the NFL.

Former Texas A&M football starting QB Kellen Mond could get a shot in the NFL due to COVID-19

As most A&M fans know, Kellen Mond was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings early in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Mond was the 66th-overall pick and one of the first quarterbacks selected in the draft.

At Texas A&M, Kellen Mond had an extremely successful career and was known as a reliable quarterback. Rather than a high-risk draft pick like Johnny Manziel, Mond was a safe pick by the Vikings. In four years in College Station, Mond threw for 9,661 yards, 76 touchdowns, and 27 interceptions. He rushed the ball into the endzone 22 times, putting his athleticism on display.

In the NFL, Mond hasn’t had any regular-season opportunities yet. This week, The Minnesota Vikings promoted practice squad QB Kyle Sloter to the active roster. For some, this puts Kellen Mond’s status in question. In my opinion, this could be a sign that Mond’s opportunity is near.

First of all, raise your hand if you’ve heard of Kyle Sloter. I’ll wait… I don’t see any hands up but I’m also sitting alone in a house behind a desk. That said, Sloter is a former undrafted quarterback out of Northern Colorado with just a single starting season under his belt at the college level. If your first assumption is that he’s going to jump Kellen Mond, you must be new to the NFL.

In my opinion, this could mean one of two things. The first is that Kellen Mond could potentially have COVID-19. This would send him to the COVID-19 reserve list and with Sean Mannion already out, bring Sloter to the backup quarterback spot behind Kirk Cousins.

Technically speaking, this could indicate that Sloter is in place to jump Mond on the depth chart, but that seems like a huge stretch.

This could, however, also mean that Kirk Cousins may be in danger of missing time, which would give Kellen Mond his first NFL opportunity. At this point, it seems like anything could happen. Aggie fans will have to wait and see.