The Vikings Biggest Mistake

The Minnesota Vikings season came to a crashing end on Saturday night after falling to the rival Green Bay Packers 24-10. Despite the season ending on a down note, it was a remarkable season for many reasons, and had one big error that might have made a difference last night.

That one big error? I think they should have kept Sage Rosenfels as their backup QB and switched Joe Webb to WR. This move would have helped in three ways, and I can't really think of a bad thing it would have brought. Joe Webb is NOT an NFL QB. Granted, he didn't play any meaningful snaps during the season, so the backup QB spot was mostly an afterthought through the season. However, having Rosenfels as the backup QB could have done a few things for the Vikings this year. It could have given Christian Ponder a voice of reason on the sidelines. Yes, the Vikings have a QB coach, but as in any job, while any coach or manager an help someone grow, having a peer that can share their experience is such a positive growth tool, and was something Ponder didn't have in Webb and would have had in Rosenfels. It also could have meant Leslie Fraiser wouldn't have been afraid to pull Ponder during one or two of his horrific games he struggled through. I'm not saying he would have replaced Ponder as the starting QB, but to give Ponder a chance to watch, learn, and find his focus again could have been good for him. And of course, it could have meant the Vikings could have still had an NFL QB ready to start in the playoff game against the Packers. Sure, there is a very good chance it would not have changed the result, but I am very confident that the Vikings chances of winning the game would have been much higher if Rosenfels would have been the backup QB instead of Webb.

The other side of that coin is keeping Rosenfels could have also move Webb to Wide Receiver. Joe Webb is a fantastic athlete. He is not an NFL QB. The Vikings biggest weakness this year was at WR, and this one little move of keeping Rosenfels and moving Webb to WR would have killed two birds with one stone. Yes, Webb would be inexperienced at WR. But putting his athletic abilities on the field, giving him a chance to be the deep threat, to run bubble-screens, to run a few wild-cat plays, to be a red-zone target that can jump through the roof to catch a high pass at the back of the end-zone. I don't see how any of those things wouldn't have helped the Vikings maybe even win one or two more games during the season, and possible still be playing in this years playoffs.

OK, having said that, this year was a FANTASTIC year. There is absolutely no way anyone could have expected a playoff team this year. I think 98% of Vikings fans would have been happy with the improvement if they won 7 games. But they over shot those expectations to win 10 games and make the playoffs. So here are some key players that helped make this a season of beating expectations:

Rick Spielman had a fantastic first season in his General Manager position. The draft was insanely successful and saw many players have huge impacts on the season. Matt Kalil, Harrison Smith, and Blair Walsh are all going to be studs for many years to come. Josh Robinson, Rhett Elison, and Jarius Wright are all going to be the type of roll players playoff teams need to be successful. Yes, Spielman didn't get the results he wanted by signing John Carlson or Jerome Simpson. I don't think those were bad decisions, they were good decisions that just didn't work out. Spielman filled a lot of holes in the roster last off season. If he can find a WR or two, a linebacker, and a backup QB to push Ponder, and have another very successful draft, this Vikings team is going to be tough to beat going forward.

Leslie Fraiser has turned a franchise that is used to being full of "character" moments (love boat, wizzinator) into a franchise that talks about football. His leadership and demeanor have greatly revitalized the franchise. Many in the national media compare him to Tony Dungy. I think a more appropriate comparison would be Bud Grant. And I look forward to Frasier leading this team into the future.

Bill Musgrave and Alan Williams. Bill Musgrave has one major issue he needs to fix. He out-thinks himself too often. I think when Ponder was struggling, he didn't call games in a way to help out. Those last four games of the season though, he was really dialed in and called outstanding games. But then again in that game yesterday, I think since he was stuck with Joe Webb at QB, he should have just kept running QB options instead of having Webb throw the ball as much as he did. The first drive was perfect. The rest of the game he called a different game. But the most overlooked part of Musgrave is that Adrian Peterson owes much of his success this year to the game plans and the running schemes Musgrave put together. Meanwhile, Alan Williams oversaw a defense that kept getting better as the season went on. As he learned on the job, as he learned what his players could do, as his players developed, our defense really started stepping up and kept us in games so the Vikings could win despite not being able to throw the ball. I'm excited about what he can do going forward.

And of course, there is Adrian Peterson. Good gawd, what a season that guy had. To do what he did when everyone knew he was getting the rock is just amazing. Odds are he will never have a season like this again, but I'm going to be the first person on his Drive for 25(00) bus next season.

Every team in the league, even the eventual Super Bowl Champion, will look back and see mistakes they will try to fix. It's my opinion the Vikings biggest one was the moves made with Rosenfels and Webb. Even with that move, the improvement from 3 wins to 10 wins is just incredible. And I have no problems giving this season a standing ovation.

Adrian Peterson vs. Peyton Manning

There is a lot of talk around the NFL regarding the MVP and Comeback Player of the Year awards, and almost all of that talk centers around the same two players. Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson.

First off, let me say that what these two are doing is truly fantastic and worthy of all the talk they are getting. And secondly, I will state that since I am a Minnesotan, a Vikings fan, and an Adrian Peterson fan, this might be a little biased, but I have always been a fan of Manning too, so I will hopefully prove that I am not just your typical rube.

Let's first talk about the Comeback Player of the Year award. So far, through the first 14 games each has played this year, both players are putting up some of the best numbers in their career. Peyton has come back from an injury that sapped the strength out of his throwing arm, yet he is posting numbers that rival his two best seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. 2004 was obviously his best year, with 2005 being easily his 2nd best year, and this year he is performing just as well as he did in back '05. Granted, Peyton's main strength is his mind, and as long as he keeps putting in the film study and game study that he is a legend for, he will always be a phenomenal quarterback in this league. But having lost his arm strength, and to come back after a full season away and perform like his 2nd best season ever is truly remarkable. Now, for Adrian, he only missed 1 full game last year. And like Peyton losing his arm strength, he had his knee blown up, and you'd have to say a running back tearing up his knee is similar to a QB losing his arm strength in how it affects both of them. And where Peyton is putting up numbers that rival his 2nd best season ever, Adrian is throwing down perhaps the best season ever by a running-back. He is currently ahead of the pace Eric Dickerson set in his record breaking season way back in 1984. Now, the medical field in all of it's advancing technologies has made it possible where tearing up a knee usually only takes about 9-months to come back from. However, most athletes say it still takes an additional year to start feeling like their original selves again. Adrian has said screw that additional year and is making his previous seasons (which have been excellent) look pedestrian. Both players have very similar stories here, which is why this is such a highly debated topic in the NFL. With everything said above, I'm going to have to say I'd give the Comeback Player award to Peyton this year, simply for the reason that he had to sit out a full season.

Now lets talk about the MVP award. Peyton went to the Denver Broncos during the off-season. A team that won it's division last season with Tim Tebow at quarterback. Let's let that sink in for a bit. The Broncos were good enough last year to win their division with Tim Tebow at quarterback, a guy that can't even unseat Mark Sanchez. Adrian Peterson is the ONLY option on the Vikings. Every defensive coordinator, every opposing defensive player, every fan at the stadium, every fan with their ass glued to their couch knows Peterson is going to be handed the ball. And he is still putting up the best season in NFL history. You take Manning off the Broncos, they are still the AFC West Division Champs. You take Adrian Peterson off the Vikings, and they are looking for their 3rd win instead of exceeding all expectation laid upon the team heading into the season. As tough as a decision the Comeback Player award is, the MVP award HAS top go to Adrian Peterson this year.

The Evolution of the Forward Pass

The Minnesota Vikings are doing something that has not been done in the NFL for a long, ne, for a very VERY long time. They have forgotten how to effectively use the forward pass. The Vikings possess arguably the best running back the league has seen over the past decade. Defenses will put 8 or 9 guys up near the line ("in the box" if I was to use NFL-speak) to try and stop Peterson to no avail. The advantages that gives the Vikings to complete a forward pass is one that no other team in the league gets. With that many guys focused on stopping the run, that leaves two, maybe three guys to cover our wide receivers. This is something that should be absolutely easy to take advantage of. And for some reason, the Vikings are unable to do so. Adrian Peterson rushed for over 200 yards in the first three quarters of the game against the Green Bay Packers, and in those first three quarters, they had managed to put up an anti-prolific 53 yards passing.

Insert migraine headache here.

There are a vast majority of people putting the blame of this on Christian Ponders shoulderpad covered shoulders. And that just isn't fair. I am not saying Christian is doing a good job, by any means. But for this to be going as bad as it is, it takes an entire team to be this bad at throwing a ball down the field. It has become painfully obvious that the Vikings possess both the best WR in the game in Percy Harvin (who has missed the last few games), and the absolute worst collection of WR's the league has seen since, well, maybe ever. The Vikings Wide Receivers constantly get the benefit of one-on-one coverage, and they are unable to ever get open. And the few times they do get open, they manage to drop a pass Ponder puts right in their hands or on their numbers (maybe Ponders tendency to be inaccurate in his other passes catches them off guard when he does hit them in their hands?). Then there is also Bill Musgrave, the offensive coordinator for the Vikings. This guy has got to be able to find a way to be able to get ONE receiver open on a play once or twice a game, no? Send the receivers in motion, run them off picks, something has got to pop into his head to take advantage of our receivers getting to find an open spot when only two defenders are worried about them. And then there is Leslie Frasier. Over-all, I think he has done a very good job at moving the team forward this year. The Vikings are a MUCH better team this year. Yes, there have been a few disappointing losses, games that maybe we could have won if we had done something on one or two plays in the game. But the fact we are competitive a year after winning just 3 games is a fantastic improvement. But Fraiser has to be more willing to sit Ponder down when his passes are obviously not working. I am also not here to say that Joe Webb is the answer. He is even less accurate in his passing than Ponder is. So, even though I wish we'd see Webb on the field once in a while to spice things up with that insane athletic ability Webb has, he is not the answer at QB. But throw him in there once in a while when Ponder is struggling.

I still think Ponder can be a decent QB in this league. Yes, there are QB's that are coming in and doing wonderful things in their first year or two in the league now, but that is not something every QB will do. A couple guys named Eli Manning and Alex Smith struggled mightily their first two-three years and they have proven to be pretty good quarter-backs now (ok, yes, Smith has been replaced as a starter. That wasn't due to him not performing, but to his backups stellar play).

So, yes, the Vikings currently possess the worst passing attack the NFL has seen in a very long time. And the fact they are as inept as they are with entire defensive teams focusing on stopping Adrian Peterson exasperates the problem. I think too many people are putting the problem solely on Ponder. I'm blaming this display of fucktitude on Ponder, the offensive line, the wide receivers, Bill Musgrave, and on Leslie Frasier. The entire group should be embarrased (and thankfully it sounds like they are).

No Offence, But Your Offence Is Terrible

On Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings took on the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. It was a game I was hoping the Vikings would win, but was not expecting it as it is tough to win in Seattle (Just ask New England and Green Bay). This second-half of the schedule for the Vikings is going to be a tough one, and if they can't find a way to move the ball through the air, it could be a VERY long 7-game stretch.

There are a lot of people piling onto the "Bench Christian Ponder" bandwagon after he failed to even reach 100 yards passing for the 2nd time in 3 games. But how much of that blame goes to Ponder? We have exactly one wide reciever that can get open, and his name is Percy Harvin. The rest have not been able to do anything other than get pass-interference calls (Thank you Jerome Simpson for all two of those). So who exactly is Ponder supposed to throw to? There is also the issue of the offensive line not being able to block what the opponents are throwing at them, giving Ponder no time to figure out where to throw the ball. And then finally, we have Bill Musgrave and Leslie Frasier. These two guys need to figure out how to get this passing attack going. It has appeared that there has been zero plan of a)How are we going to attack this defense, and b) what is our identity over these last four games. The opening four games of the season, we had good plans, and they worked. Lately? It's like they completely forgot how to game plan. And then that brings us to Ponder. Yes, he has no WR's to throw to, yes, he has no time to even think about throwing it to them, and yes, the coaching staff has failed miserably in how to fix these issues. But there HAS been times where Ponder DID have open receivers and DID have time to throw it. And he missed.

The Vikings right now have possibly the two best offensive players in the league right now in Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin. Adrian is easily the best runningback in the league. And Percy is the best weapon in the league. Opponents have to defend Peterson, which should be leaving the passing game wide open. Why is that not happening? Even with the defense stacked against Peterson and leaving the WR's alone, we still see AP blowing up and putting up numbers that can only make you shake your head in amazement. And our offence can only put up 44 net yards through the air despite no one defending it. This shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. What is going to be difficult is figuring it out while playing a schedule that has us facing Detroit, Chicago twice, Green Bay twice, Houston, and the Rams.

I'll be very happy if we can sneak 3 more wins out of the season. Anything more than that will be a complete shock, and perhaps a sign Fraiser, Musgrave, and Ponder have figured out that the football does travel through the air.

The Vikings Draft

I'm probably a little tardy with a blog about the Vikings draft, but I wanted to let this settle in for a bit before commenting on it. Most "experts" say it takes three-years to evaluate a draft, but then none of these "experts" never tell us how anyone drafted three years ago. At the end of this blog I'm going to actually do that with the Vikings draft from 2007. Before I get to that, lets look at this 2010 Vikings draft.

Chris Cook, a CB from West Virginia was the Vikings first pick of the draft. I think this was their worst pick of the draft. It's my feeling that they gambled in trading down that one of their top CB's would still be there and they all got gobbled up. I think they could have traded down again and still got Cook if that is who they wanted. The highest pre-draft ranking I saw for Cook was a 46th pick. The Vikings took him 34th. Cook does fill a need since both starting CB's for the Vikings are coming off injuries, but I'm thinking he's going to be strictly a special teams player.

The Vikings next pick was Toby Gerhart, a RB from Stanford. I absolutely LOVE this pick. Taking him at #51 might have been a little bit of a reach, but this pick fits perfectly for the Vikings. Probably the biggest loss the Vikings suffered in the off-season was losing Chester Taylor (including the double impact of losing him to a division rival). No offence to Taylor, but I think Gerhart comes in a does a better job than Chester did this past season. Toby can run, block and catch just as well as Chester did, but Toby will also punish defenders. I can't imagine defensive players being too happy about having to try tackling Adrian Peterson, and then when AP takes a break they then have to face Gerhart.

Everson Griffen, DE, USC was the Vikings 3rd pick in the draft (taken in the 4th round). This is another pick I love. Most people gave him first-round grades, in fact the lowest grade I saw given to him pre-draft was as the 23rd best prospect. The Vikings took him with the 100th pick, which totally makes up for the reach on Cook. He fell to the 4th round mostly from teams doubting his drive and determination. From the looks of it, that could be a legitimate concern, but I find it hard to believe anyone can work with a guy like Jared Allen every day and not have some of Allen's drive rub off on you. When Griffen is on, people have been comparing him to Dwight Freeney. Anytime you can draft someone in the 4th round that is compared to Freeney I'm thinking you got yourself a pretty good pick.

The Vikings next pick was Chris DeGeare, OL, Wake Forrest. Uh... ok. As good as the Griffen pick was, this one makes me scratch my head. I never saw this guy ranked higher than 262nd in anyone pre-draft rankings. The Vikings took him at 161. That is just an incredible reach. And then lets consider how un-intelligent this DeGeare is. He missed a year of football because he couldn't figure out his school work. His scouting report say he has never been able to figure out the twists and stunts defensive linemen pull. Great. Welcome to the NFL DeGeare.

For their 5th selection, the Vikings took Nate Tripplet, LB, Minnesota. This pick right here might have been the worst pick in the entire draft. By any team. I don't think anyone in the world had him ranked in their top 500 players. In fact, in the five places I found that had players ranked at least 500 deep he wasn't listed on any of them. And the Vikings used their #167 pick on him.

Joe Webb was the Vikings next pick, and possibly the most confusing pick they made, at least initially. Most places had Webb listed as a QB. He was listed as a QB on the NFL.coms draft tracker. Ok, the Vikings obviously need a QB. And Webb did something in his last two seasons that no QB had ever done in the history of college football by passing for 2,000 yards and rushing for 1,000 yards two seasons in a row. Most of his scouting report basically made him a Tavarious Jackson clone. Why would the Vikings take a QB that is pretty much exactly like one that has already failed? Then it turns out they took him to play WR, which is where he played his first year in college, and now it's looking like it could be one very nice pick. Just like Randy Moss when the Vikings drafted him, Webb has a freakish combo of size and athleticism. How athletic is he? His college coach was also the college coach of one Bo Jackson. That coach said Joe is in Bo's league. In Webb, the Vikings got a 6'3" 223 pound WR that can run a 4.4 in the 40 yard dash, and a 42-1/2" vertical. He only had 30 receptions that one year he played WR in college so he might be a little raw out there. But getting this kind of potential with a 6th round pick is very much worth the gamble. Not to mention I'm already getting giddy about a possible wild-cat formation with Webb at QB, Percy and AP in the backfield. That could drive some defenses nuts. After the initial confusion, I'm now excited for this pick and hoping he turns out.

The Vikings 7th selection was Mickey Shuler, TE, Penn State. I think this pick was also a bit of a reach. He does fit the blocking TE mold pretty well, and that's a spot the Vikings will need to cover as Jimmy Kliensasser is getting up there in experience. I'm not sure this pick makes the team except for maybe being on the practice squad.

Ryan D'Imperio, LB, Rutgers was the Vikings 8th and final selection in this 2010 NFL draft. This is yet another pick that I'm sure would have not been drafted by anyone else. I think he has the same odds of winning the lottery as making the team.

So, over the past couple of years, the Vikings have done remarkably well in the draft. All seven picks last year started and contributed. This year... I love two of the picks (Gerhart and Griffen). I think those two could possibly turn in performances that overshadow how bad the rest of the draft was. I think two other picks will contribute (Webb and Cook). I'm at a loss for words at how bad the rest of the selections were. But then again, I'm a restaurant manager. Maybe the guys that get paid to do this knew what they were doing again and we'll see all seven do well.

Now, lets look back at the 2007 Vikings draft.

1. Adrian Peterson. All-world stud. Grade A+.
2. Sidney Rice. All-pro WR last year. Grade A.
3. Marcus McCauley. Held his own during his rookie season, has disappeared since then. No longer on the team. Grade D+.
4. Brian Robison. Very solid backup on a very good defensive line. Grade B-
5. Aundrae Allison. Never made it above 4th WR. No longer on the team. Grade D.
6. Rufus Alexander. Failed. Grade F.
7. Tyler Thigpen. Tyler started 14 games in 2008. For the Chiefs. Nice pick, the failure here was trying to sneak him onto the practice squad. Grade C-
8. Chandler Williams. Failed. Grade F.

Adding it all up, for the 2007 draft I'd give the Vikings a final grade of a C+/B-.