Jeff: My 20th Year as a Vikes Fan

It's finally arrived: the day the Minnesota Vikings begin reporting to training camp. And so beings my 20th year as a Vikings fan. Yup sometime in the fateful year of 1987 my 9 year old self for some reason decided that I loved Anthony Carter and therefore should start cheering for his team. 20 years later I'm at least glad I didn't decide to cheer for the "home" team Seattle Seahawks. And really, although some other choices would have brought me things like Super Bowl victories, and not having to endure the 1998 NFC Championship game, it really could have been worse. As a Vikes fan, this is the first time in my 20 years cheering for them that I feel like the playoffs are really a long shot. Seriously in the past 2 decades, although our seasons have never ended well and have given fans of the Purple much more pain than any football fan should have to endure, at least we've had hope at the start of every year. From the Denny Green Era to Mike Tice to even Chilly's first go-around last year, at worst we were thinking playoffs. That's a lot better than it would have been to cheer for, say, the Lions, Browns, Cardinals, or Saints (well up until last year).

I suppose this year I know a bit of what it feels like to be a fan of one of those clubs. In last week's MMQB column, SI's Peter King had his inaugural "Power Rankings" and had the Vikes as the *AHEM* 31st best team. Or the 2nd worst behind only Cleveland. And as much as I'd like to, I have trouble finding evidence to disagree with him. Are the Vikes clearly the worst team in the NFC? No, but it wouldn't take much to go wrong for them to get there. Not much has changed from 2006 to 2007, other than drafting the Other-Worldly AP and losing outstanding D Coordinator Mike Tomlin to the Steelers. The defense still has the best tackle combo in the league in the Williams boys, and yet no threat of a pass rush from the edge. The linebackers are still a big question mark, and the answer to a secondary that gave up a LOT of catches last year was to sign another player at perhaps the deepest spot on the team- safety, where they grabbed Mike Doss. The new coordinator does know you can only start 2 safeties at a time right? Just checking.

Of course the big concern isn't on D, it's at quarterback and receiver. Like the defense, the front office did absolutely nothing to address these two obvious concerns. I certainly like Tavaris Jackson's potential down the road, but do not think he's a playoff-caliber quarterback right now. Sure I said the same thing about Daunte Culpepper before his first year as a starter, but the difference is, of course, that there's no Randy Moss or Cris Carter around to help out the new guy. If you want to have a passing game, you can get away with an inexperienced quarterback if you have good receivers, or if you have a great quarterback and terrible receivers (see Tom Brady until this year or Brett Favre for most of his career), but you can't have neither. Minnesota is expecting Jackson to become a solid signal caller with no discernable receiving talent on the roster. Bobby Wade (he of 101 catches and 2-count 'em 2!!!- TD's in 5 full seasons)and somebody called Visanthe Shiancoe (4 years with the Giants got him 35 catches and 3 whole TD's!) were the big offseason acquisitions that are supposed to spruce up the passing game? Really? Forgive me if I'm not more excited by that. I loved them drafting Peterson and believe he and Chester Taylor make a helluva running combo, but when the opposition is going to be putting 8 and 9 man fronts to stop them, how successful can we really expect them to be? AT least the Vikes addressed their questions on the right side of the line by...oh no wait sorry they did absolutely nothing other than hope the same guys who had problems last year won't have problems this year. Neato gang!

I guess I'm assuming the worst and hoping for the best, because unless Chilly is truly the offensive genius he claims he is, I'm not sure how the Vikings move the ball and keep themselves out of the divisional cellar. Still, I'm excited to see: the beginning of the AP Era, if last year's #1 pick Chad Greenway can make a full recovery from major knee surgery to make an impact at LB (I'm sure the Vikes will try and get him on special teams ASAP), if rookie receiver Sidney Rice can be anything close to productive, AND last but not least if Troy Williamson can make it the whole year without getting cut (I say no. He's out of here before Thanksgiving). See? Plenty of exciting storylines to follow for your 2007 Purple! But hey it could be worse...Cleveland or Oakland anyone? I didn't think so.