If Brett Favre has indeed thrown his last pass for the Vikings and decides to retire in the offseason, here are five options at quarterback for Minnesota next season.

1. Donovan McNabb
The Eagles currently have three quarterbacks on their roster and there’s some sentiment that they want Kevin Kolb to be the starter next season. There are a couple of connections that could link McNabb to Minnesota, none bigger than Brad Childress, who coached McNabb for seven years when he was the Eagles’ quarterback coach and offensive coordinator. Also, Minnesota’s current QB coach is Kevin Rogers, who was McNabb’s QB coach at Syracuse. If the Eagles do want to go with Kolb, Minnesota might be a logical landing spot for McNabb. Of course, the two teams would have to figure out compensation for the veteran QB.

2. Michael Vick
Even though he’s currently on the Eagles’ roster, the team has no intentions of making him a starter. If Philly decides to stick with McNabb or start the Kevin Kolb era, then Vick (who wants to be a starter) would be expendable. In fact, he may already be expendable and if the Eagles want a return on their investment, then they could deal him to an interested party. Vick could challenge Tarvaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels for the starting position, although the main problem is that Childress runs the West Coast Offense and Vick is a questionable fit for that system despite playing in it under Gregg Knapp in Atlanta.

3. Tarvaris Jackson
Jackson, the Vikings’ starter in last year’s playoffs, reportedly wants to stay in Minnesota to have the opportunity to earn his starting job back. He’s a restricted free agent, so the Vikings would have to match any offer that another team presents if they do want to hang onto him, but it’s doubtful that another club would shell out big bucks for Jackson anyway. The key is whether or not Childress still believes that Jackson has a future in the NFL as a starter. If he doesn’t, then obviously the Vikings won’t make much of an effort to re-sign him.

4. Sage Rosenfels
Before the signed Favre, the Vikes traded for Rosenfels because they wanted him to compete with Jackson. Considering he’s still under contract, it would make sense that they would given him an opportunity to start next season if none of the above options materialize. That said, he never did beat out Jackson for the team’s No. 2 job so it stands to reason that the Vikings only view him as a backup.

5. The Draft.
Jimmy Clausen, Sam Bradford, Jevan Snead, Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow, Dan LeFevour and Tim Hiller are just some of the quarterbacks that will be available in April’s draft. But as with all quarterback prospects, they all come with their faults and some of the top names won’t be available to the Vikings when they pick at the end of the first round.

Photo from fOTOGLIF