Thankfully the best time of the year has arrived, football season. I'm a lifelong Vikings and Iowa Hawkeyes fan, each with their share of highs and lows. I have no opinions of the Vikings just yet given the strange nature of their off-season. Here was a team that got off to a nice start off the gate , sputtered down the stretch but still likely could have made the playoffs in spite of being inept at quarterback, pathetic on the right side of the offensive line, terrible at wide receiver, vanilla play calling, and no pass rush.
Quarterback : All eyes will be on Tarvaris Jackson in the first pre-season game tonight, and I hope Childress gives him more than just one or two series' of play. My expectations are low, but if he's put in the right situation where the running game is going to protect him (and the pathetic right side of the line can protect him) I believe he can elevate himself into the Top 13-20 QB's in the league. The tools and athleticism are there, but it was clear in the games he played in last season that the game was moving too fast for him.
Brooks Bollinger is being overlooked in all of this and if Tarvaris looks shaky in the 4 pre-season games, he needs to be the starter. Most fans look at the game against New England when he came in the 4th quarter and got crushed and immediately assume he's not suitable to be a starter. I look at when he came in against Chicago and was efficiently able to move the ball down the field and become intrigued. In the short-term Brooks Bollinger could potentially manage this team well, and I hope he gets every chance to compete with Jackson.
RG and RT : Nothing made me scream more last season than the names of Artis Hicks, Marcus Johnson, and Ryan Cook. Their inability to even protect Brad Johnson ultimately lead to his and there demise. With their inability to even run-block made the run offense as predictable as any team in the league. Every defense that faced the Vikings knew that A) Chester Taylor would run off Steve Hutchinson and B) Brad Johnson can't throw deep. At times the best option they had at RG was Jason Whittle and he was not re-signed.
I wasn't that blown away by Ryan Cook last season. In fact his name to me mirrors such horrible 2nd round picks as James Manley, Raonall Smith, Willie Howard, and Michael Boireau. If he winds up becoming a player, great, but he will still be a huge reach in my eyes. He has some nice tools and a good work ethic, but he will have the burden of being a Viking's fans whipping boy if he has the same kind of struggles that Marcus Johnson has had.
Wide Receiver : This collection of receivers ranks at the bottom of the NFL, and rightfully so. The Vikings did their usual charade of "not overspending" and let Drew Bennett and Kevin Curtis run off to contending NFC teams. In all fairness, I would have spent the money on Bennett who has the ability to be a solid no. 1 or a good No. 2 then I would have spent on Kevin Curtis. Curtis is going to be a fine player in the slot, but the Viking's roster is riddled with players who have the same kind of potential with a much lower price tag.
We've been given the usual "Troy Williamson has improved!" speech from the various media outlets, but I'm skeptical. I don't believe anyone expects him to become a top 10 receiver or ever 30 for that matter, but hopefully can prove to be a deep threat and inject a little life in this offense. And hopefully with his new glasses he'll improve his doomed eye sight.
Sidney Rice and Aundrae Allison are both receivers I'm hoping will be healthy enough to play tonight. Rice has the physical skills that even as a rookie he could be the biggest scoring threat this offense has. Seeing the clips of him reminds me of a healthier Marcus Robinson (who was ridiculously overlooked when healthy last season) and could give the Vikes some hope in the red zone. I have not seen enough of Allison to gain a fair opinion, but everything I've read appears that he's another physical talent that can catch the ball. I expect this group overall to improve dramatically this season.
Play Calling : In all fairness to Brad Childress, he didn't have a lot of premiere players at his disposal to do a lot of things creatively. However when it was clear that his offense was unable to move the ball with a wore down Chester Taylor it wouldn't have been a horrible idea to run reverses or screens with Troy Williamson and some of the other receivers, gadget plays, just something to liven things up. They had success with a Fake FG earlier in the season and ever since then seemed to play each game with their tails between their legs. It remains to be seen if Darrell Bevell will get an increased role, but it certainly couldn't be worse than what was seen at the end of last season.
Pass Rush : Another area that was incredibly weak but has a lot of upside for this season. Ray Edwards has been talked a lot about in camp and I felt like he wasn't getting enough snaps last season has the opportunity to be a big impact player this season. The other player I'm excited about is Brian Robison. As a Hawkeye fan, I was able to see first hand in the Alamo Bowl last year the kind of speed, quickness, and athleticism that can produce a pass rush. Kenechi Udeze who's been thrown under the bus by a lot of people has a lot more ability than most people will give him credit for. I look for him to turn in a better season. Losing Erasmus James killed what little pass rush the team had last season and it remains to be seen if he can recover fully or not.
I'm living without cable right now which means, for each week I'm only getting to catch 1 Twins game, and the rest I'm struggling to listen to on 1500 KSTP as I curse Nick Punto's name at the top of my lungs. Thankfully the Vikings game is on Channel 5 in the Twin Cities and for once my boredom of local TV will end if only for a few minutes.
-MJ
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