Written By Chris Schad
Just fifteen days remain until the Minnesota Vikings report to training camp and optimism is spilling everywhere you look around the franchise. As a matter of fact, the optimism has reached the point where it almost feels like a baseball spring training rather than the march towards the end of summer and football season.
A simple Google search of “Minnesota Vikings Sleeper Team” throws a bevy of articles gushing about the purple. While this is common for the beginning of July, what’s shocking is that national outlets such as CBS Sportsline, ESPN and USA Today see the Vikings as a dark horse team that could make some noise in the NFC.
Thankfully, that optimism hasn’t found it’s way to the locker room. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was asked about his team’s prospects earlier this week and his answer wasn’t the Rex Ryan-esque Super Bowl guarantee that Viking fans may have been looking for. In fact, it was more of a Dennis Green-type answer.
“Right now, we’re not as good as what we think,” Bridgewater told USA Today’s Tom Pelissero. “We know that the ceiling is very high and the expectation level is very high — not only for the players, but from a coaching staff also. We know what’s being asked of us, but we have a long way to go.”
So if the Vikings aren’t what they think they are, are they what the fans think they are?
That will depend on what happens between now and the team’s first game at San Francisco on September 14. This is still a team with several holes, but they’re flaws that are (in the words of Christian Ponder) easily correctable.
The first major flaw is on the defensive side of the ball. Mike Zimmer was able to whip the unit into shape last season, but they’re more at a 5k level rather than the marathon sprinters he envisions them to be.
While the pass rush was back to itself a year ago (41 sacks was good for ninth in the league last year), the rush defense ranked 25th (1,943 yards). While stopping the high-octane passing attacks is one thing, the NFC North also contains great running backs with Eddie Lacy, Matt Forte and the newly-drafted Ameer Abdullah.
The Vikings hope that they fixed part of this by drafting sideline-to-sideline missile Eric Kendricks in May. Arguably the best tackler in the draft, Kendricks should make opposing running backs think twice about running into the teeth of the defense rather than ripping off five or six-yard runs.
“You take a guy who usually gets to the ball the way he does — he’s always been a ball hawk, even in college — it’s kind of carried over,” defensive coordinator George Edwards said to ESPN’s Ben Goessling during June minicamp. “I mean, he gets his hands on the ball a lot and gets in a good football position and understands how to get good angles.”
Linval Joseph also needs to adjust after struggling in the run stuffer role a year ago. His season was interrupted after he was shot at a nightclub last August, but his hefty salary means that he’ll need to take a step forward for the defense to succeed and, more importantly, stop the run.
Offensively, the Vikings need to strike fear into their opponents when people other than Adrian Peterson have the ball. You know the six-game surge (10 TD, 6 INT) that Bridgewater went on down the stretch, but he still needs his weapons to live up to the billing.
Mike Wallace should have a hand in that as the deep threat can also double as a versatile playmaker. His tremendous speed should mesh well in offensive coordinator Norv Turner’s system that emphasizes moving the ball down the field vertically, and he’ll serve as a nice diversion for “X” receiver Charles Johnson.
The Vikings also hope that Johnson isn’t a seven-game flash in the pan either as his final stretch included 25 receptions for 412 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He’s been performing well during OTAs but still hasn’t earned enough respect to have his jersey featured in stores.
“My dad wanted a jersey, so I went out and bought some old Percy Harvin jerseys and just took off the Harvin and put Johnson on the back.” Johnson told Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “But, man, I wish I could get my jersey.’’
For years, the Vikings offense has had the potential to sell plenty of jerseys, but this has to be the year they finally do it. After two injury-plagued seasons, Kyle Rudolph needs to prove that his massive salary is justified, and Cordarrelle Patterson needs to expand his route tree if he wants to see the field.
For a young team like the Vikings, talent sometimes takes a while to translate onto the field. While a 2012 campaign that saw the team make the playoffs can make things seem like they’re moving in the right direction, they still had a lot to learn before becoming a consistent winner.
In 2015, they have the talent to do just that. Now it’s just a matter of proving that they are who we think they are.