Maybe all Vikings quarterback Keenum needed was a chance

Keenum had just finished a prolific career at the University of Houston, setting NCAA records for passing yards (19,217) and passing touchdowns (155).

Still, Keenum was considered a "system quarterback" because of the offense he ran in college. Many NFL executives were worried whether the throws he made in that spread offense would translate to the next level.

Not Gruden.

"Does the draft really matter?" Gruden asked as Keenum flashed a bashful grin. "All it takes is one coach that believes in you. Make a note here. Just be ready. Just be ready. Just be ready. Because you're going to get your chance. You like this stuff. You're going to be alright, Keenum. You just keep competing. You just keep working. Somebody's going to take you. Somebody's not. Somebody's going to be sorry."

To be fair, Gruden, a Super Bowl winner who recently was hired to coach the Oakland Raiders, had a reputation of liking, well, pretty much everyone during his time as an analyst.

Nonetheless, Gruden was clearly on to something six years ago.

"Yeah, I've seen the video," Keenum said with a smile last week. "It was cool to have a guy like that, that has the experience that he has, say those things. It was definitely good to hear at the time."

As everyone knows by now, Keenum finally got his chance with the Vikings this season. He took over for the injured Sam Bradford, and put in a good situation for the first time in his career, the 29-year-old gunslinger flourished.

Keenum finished with an 11-3 record as the starter, leading the Vikings to the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs. He silenced the haters by throwing for 3,547 yards and 22 touchdowns and helping the Vikings reach the NFC Championship Game for the first time in nearly a decade.

It's been far and away the best season of his career, after a few rough years with the Houston Texans — he went 0-8 in his first season as a starter — and a couple more uninspiring years with the Los Angeles Rams — he went 4-5 last season before being benched in favor of No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff.

Still, Keenum refuses to call himself a late bloomer. In his mind he's been the same player since he entered the NFL.

Former Vikings quarterback Rich Gannon agreed with Keenum that labels are dumb, and while neither player likes the term late bloomer, it's hard to argue that their career arcs don't follow similar trajectories.

Gannon played 17 seasons in the NFL, and like Keenum, experienced success only after some early struggles. He eventually was named the 2002 NFL MVP, as he led the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl before losing to ... wait for it ... Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"If a guy doesn't get with the right organization, the right coaching staff, the right play-caller, the right players, he can have a bad experience," Gannon said. "And I think that's what happened with (Keenum). Sometimes it just takes the right situation for a guy to really take off."

"When he saw this opportunity, unlike a lot of other quarterbacks that would've gone in there and walked on eggshells and been timid, he went in there and was like, 'This is my team now. I'm going to take us as far as we can go,' " Gannon added. "He's got some juice. He's got some swagger. You can see the team really believes in him."

Trent Green, on the other hand, is a guy who proudly wears the label of late bloomer, and thinks it's fair to put Keenum in that same conversation.

Green played 11 seasons in the NFL, but only after being cut and spending some time in the Canadian Football League. He finally got an opportunity with the Washington Redskins and parlayed that into a lengthy career.

"I was 27 years old when I got my first snap and I was 28 years old when I got my first start," Green said. "Mentally, I thought I was ready to play sooner than that. So when I got my opportunity I was ready to roll, and I think it's a similar thing with him. As far as the late bloomer thing, I don't think that's a negative thing. He just took his experiences as a younger player and then carried it over as best he could when he finally got a legitimate chance."

Green said because he had to wait so long of his opportunity, once he got it, he never wanted to let it go. He expects the same thing out of Keenum moving forward.

"It kept me hungry," Green said. "You never forget it. You never forget being on the street, knocking on the door, trying to get on a team. You never forget it."

Matt Hasselbeck is another guy who rode the pine before getting his chance with the Seattle Seahawks, and he always has been impressed by Keenum.

"He's been good for a long time, and people have been counting him out because of how he looks," Hasselbeck said. "He's kind of a regular looking guy, not tall, doesn't walk into the room and scream franchise quarterback because he's not 6-foot-5 or anything like that."

Hasselbeck played 17 seasons in the NFL with his career winding down right as Keenum was breaking into the league.

"Just having played against him, I'm not surprised with the success he's had," Hasselbeck said. "I remember playing against him when he was with the Houston Texans and he was the starter, and the dude was balling out on a bad team. That was five years ago and here we are now and people are still doubting this guy."

Keenum, meanwhile, doesn't like to look back.

Ask him about being the underdog and he quickly shifts the focus to the next game on the schedule. "I don't think in terms like that," Keenum said. "Are we proud of what we accomplished? Heck yes. Do we have more out in front of us? Heck yes."

Ask about his previous stops and the most he'll give is two sentences before moving on to the next question. "Like I've said before, every experience I've had has prepared me," Keenum said. "I draw on every little thing that's made me into who I am as a person. That's what I'll be taking into Sunday (against the Philadelphia Eagles)."

Back to that conversation with Gruden six years ago, Keenum was asked earlier this week if those words stuck with him throughout his career.

Did he always feel like all he needed was a chance?

Keenum took a deep breath and cracked a smile before answering confidently with one word: "Yep"