After an offseason to let the dust settle and regroup it is thought provoking for the surface fan to wonder how with a new head coach in Mike Zimmer, a rookie quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater, a defense that ranked dead last in the league (in 2013), and an Adrian Peterson fiasco distraction just how in the world this team was able to wind up with a 7-9 record.
Now, heading into the 2015 season the Vikings have another year under coach Zimmer while being able to build off Bridgewater’s rookie season. Most importantly though may be the return of Peterson who attempts to reclaim his title as the league’s best tailback.
With training camp fast approaching I delve into the biggest questions that still loom large for the purple and gold.
5. Who’s Calling the Shots?
Since the days of Maryland product EJ Henderson, the Vikings have longed for some true stability from their middle linebacker position. The “captain” of the defense, the middle linebacker is the majority of the time wearing the green dot on his helmet and making the defensive calls and adjustments during his pre snap reads. A lot going on for any player let alone one who might struggle following his own assignment and making a play.
Last year it was Jasper Brinkley who manned the middle as a solid two down thumper who could get downhill and make himself known inside the run game. However, Brinkley was a clear liability in the pass game, and once his contract expired this offseason the front office decided to part ways with him opening up yet another opportunity for someone, anyone, to seize the job and all its responsibilities.
This time around the Vikings took a shot on UCLA linebacker Eric Kendricks in the draft in hopes of finally solidifying the position for years to come. Kendricks, who was teammates and lined up next to Anthony Barr just two seasons ago will have another opportunity to play next to his former college roommate. Coming out of college Kendricks was an ultra productive body that earned the Butkus Award for the nation's best linebacker as a player who was highly instinctive and could be always seen around the ball. Not exactly a workout warrior Kendricks slipped into the second round but the team was more than satisfied to add more clean talent while filling a need in the process.
Kendricks isn't the big bodied thumper like his predecessor Brinkley was, but quite the opposite he excels in pass coverage and sticking to his opponents’ running backs and receivers in shallow routes. While thats all fine and dandy it would be foolish to hand him the starting job from day one, in fact Kendricks has some stiff competition behind him like fan favorite Audie Cole who fits the mold of your traditional inside backer at 6’4” 248 pounds.
Cole, who is entering his fourth year has always stood out when on the field however, never has seemed to win any linebacker job outright in the coaches eyes.
While fans seem to think Kendricks will be the Vikings new three down linebacker I'm taking the wait and see approach. On paper as of now it shouldn't surprise anyone to see Cole fill the role of Brinley as the team's two-down thumper helping in the run game, and from there watching Kendricks come in on passing downs maximizing his talents out in space and in coverage.
4. Offensive Line Continuity?
Ask any Vikings fans who follow the team closely and they will tell you the offensive line will be one of the biggest keys for offensive success.
After an injury stricken 2014 season that watched starters Phil Loadholt and Brandon Fusco lose their season to pectoral tears this unit turned into a revolving door of backup players plugged into the starting lineup with mostly limited success.
Added to the injuries was yet another head scratching inconsistent season by left tackle Matt Kalil who struggled early on in the season. Kalil did in fact end the season on a positive note stringing together five games in which he received a positive grade from PFF.
Still the question remained heading into the offseason wasn't if the front office was going to upgrade the unit, but more so by how much and exactly where.
After letting subpar left guard Charlie Johnson walk in free agency the team was rumored to be targeting Iowa offensive guard Brandon Scherff who was the consensus number one interior lineman in the draft.
Scherff did not last to the Vikings at pick number 11 but general manager Rick Spielman didn't panic. Spielman and his team waited patiently as they watched another highly regarded offensive lineman in TJ Clemmings fall in their laps all the way in the fourth round.
With a rumored foot injury teams were scared off by the Pittsburgh product, but the Vikings front office knew in their giving situation that his lingering foot and risk was worth the first-round grade reward. That started a mini-run on the position when they followed that up with Oklahoma’s Tyrus Thompson another solid day-two prospect and Alabama’s Austin Shepherd.
The team announced their plans to move Brandon Fusco form the right side to the left pairing him up with Matt Kalil, but the move also allows Clemmings to stay on the right side if they so decide to slide him into the right guard spot, which as of now seems like the case.
The team did a good job of adding solid young talent through the draft and while Clemmings is the odds on favorite to win the open starting job anyone of the three mentioned could standout during training camp.
From there, the bigger question becomes just how long will it take for this unit to mesh together and form some sort of cohesiveness. Coaches have praised the progression of their offensive line throughout minicamps and OTAs however, they are quick to point out the inability to truly dissect and evaluate this position without putting the pads on. That test will come down in Mankato as five of these players will separate from the pack and hope to become the same five men standing during their last game of the season.
Norv Turner’s offense will rely heavily on a ground-and-pound physical brand of running which means the pressure is on for this unit to succeed. As if protecting their second-year and soon to be franchise quarterback wasn't enough.
3. Who is Cordarrelle Patterson and what does he do?
It seems like a long time ago from now when both the local and national media had already placed the hall of fame crown on top of Cordarrelle Patterson’s head doesn't it?
The first-round wide out took a giant leap back last year as he failed to live up to the unrealistic and downright unfair expectations put upon himself to become a true number one wide out in the NFL. Patterson burst onto the scene the last five games as a rookie in 2013 under Leslie Frazier and carried that momentum into training camp last year.
However, Patterson’s loosey goosey and nonchalant attitude at practice and off the field didnt sit well with new head coach Mike Zimmer and for good reason. Patterson struggled to run the most basic routes and more so struggled to get open as he found it nearly impossible to create any type of separation off the line of scrimmage and into his patterns.
It was a huge wake up call for him as transitioning from the bottom of the barrell to the national spotlight and media attention, which also went hand in hand with the attention of opposing defenses and their number one cornerbacks.
By season's end Patterson was having a hard team even seeing the field as the team's starting receiver in week one has now been overpassed by names like Jarius Wright, Charles Johnson, and Adam Thielen.
Heading into year three however, Patterson hopes something will click much like most wideouts entering their third season. As everyone knows the talent and explosion is still there for Patterson it's just a matter of putting it on the field more consistently which will allow coaches to feel confident enough to keep him in the game.
This could mean Norv Turner will have the tall task and will face the biggest challenge of finding new and more creative ways of getting Patterson the ball in open space, which is easier said then done.
Keep this in mind though, with Adrian Peterson coming back, teams will now move their attention into the backfield once again giving Patterson more one-on-one looks and more opportunities to make the splash play. In the only game these two have played in together back in week one of last season Patterson had over a hundred total yards and scored on a 78 yard touchdown, coincidence?
Before Patterson gets the chance to take those bubble screen and HB tosses the distance he will have to put on his work boots and climb his way past a slew of talented receivers ahead of him on the depth chart, as guys like Mike Wallace, Johnson, and Wright all currently lie ahead of him on the depth chart, while Patterson continues to practice with the second team offense.
2. How Much Dust is on Peterson’s Tires?
The sudden suspension to Peterson after just one week of play last season was a critical blow to a Norv Turner offense that is notoriously built around a physical rushing attack. The negative outcry of the general fanbase stems from the running back turning 30 years old since his last time on the field, a number that mine as well be linked to the ebola virus among many other diseases due to the fact no one will touch you or come close given the sudden drop of production at the position as history shows.
Is history ready to repeat it self? While turning 30 is notorious for the “check engine” light to emerge on the front of most aging tailbacks physical dashboard, it can and should be argued Peterson isn’t like “most” tailbacks.
The Oklahoma Sooner product fell to the Vikings with pick number seven in the 2006 draft and made the six teams before him pay for passing on him with an attention grabbing rookie season to say the least. Since then Peterson has been a rock of consistency and success for his team as a true workhorse in their backfield. Looking back thus far on his career what might be most impressive is Peterson’s statistics he was able to produce with so little talent around him, playing with quarterbacks like Tavaris Jackson and Christian Ponder for the majority of his games while facing eight-to-nine men box fronts on an every down basis.
Peterson has also faced heavy criticism about the fact he has not played a meaningful game since the beginning of last year, stressing the amount of rust and dust his body will have on him when he starts the season. Playing devil's advocate, I can't help but ask myself if a year off of football is such a bad thing. One would assume that same 30 year old body had to be thankful to take a break from the 300 plus tackles from middle linebackers and strong safeties crept up in the box that awaited him, not to mention the riggers of the daily grind that comes with the territory of being an NFL veteran for an entire year.
Plenty of questions the Vikings and rest of the league are ready to have answered when it comes to Peterson and his playing shape, and ability to bounce back from last years mishap.
After covering the team all offseason though I can tell you Norv Turner isn’t going to ease Peterson into the weekly game plan. Instead look for a heavy dose of number 28 in the backfield pounding away in between the tackles as Turner attempts to create and build what he had hoped to do last season, which is a run-first gameplan led by a physical brand of play.
1. The Progression of Teddy
The Vikings have started to become a “sleeper” team from the national media's eyes after watching what coach Zimmer was able to do with the worst ranked defense in just one year bumping them up statically all the way to 16th overall. With the addition of Adrian Peterson and the team bringing in another solid crop of young talent through the draft with players like cornerback Trae Waynes, Kendricks, Cleanings, and Diggs it's easy to see why the purple and gold have become a sexy pick to make even more strides in year two.
However, in all reality the team is still one more year away from reaching its full and true potential of what they could be for a long future run.
That all starts and ends with Teddy Bridgewater.
The rookie quarterback was flushed into action in week three when he took over for an injured Matt Cassel and never looked back. Teddy showed the humbleness and grace on and off the field of a prospect many had pegged as the number one overall prospect of the 2014 draft class.
Ups and downs to start his career was ended with a string of six games that proved to the fanbase, the front office, and most importantly the coaches and players inside the locker room that he had the “it” factor needed to be a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Entering year two the stakes are high and the pressure is already mounting as those same national media outlets that have the Vikings pegged as a sexy sleeper pick because they assume Bridgewater will make a giant leap in his second go around.
In the NFL however, it isn't wise to assume anything, just ask Cordarrelle Patterson.
Bridgewater does have the benefit of playing in the same system with the same playbook and coordinators for the second season in a row which if you ask any veteran quarterback they will tell you is something to smile about for any young signal caller.
In fact, when Troy Aikman was in town and watching practice he was quoted by saying every quarterback in the NFL grows the most from that first season to the second as they now truly understand just how fast the speed of the game is played at.
Unfortunately much like Patterson, teams and defenses won't take Bridgewater lightly this time around and will know now his true capabilities.
As a second year quarterback who showed tons of promise and potential Teddy will have a handful of breakout games in which he takes over and puts the team on his back. Vice versa, as any second year quarterback Bridgewater will have a handful of games where the game still seems too fast, the mental capacity cannot keep up, and the young gunslinger will try to do too much all on his own resulting in some growing pain losses.
Both those categories are a given, but what I want to see is those last handful of games that lie somewhere in the middle. Those “inbetween” games where the defense has kept the offense in it, the game isn't won or lost yet, and the ball is in Teddy’s hands to take reigns and let his natural football instincts take over. Its those games in which he will grow the most from and learn just exactly how to win in the NFL, and even more so what exactly it takes to win in the NFL in between the ears.
No questioning the team will be improved yet again this year under coach Zimmer and Turner given the additions General Manager Rick Spielman has provided. However, this second year in their current rebuilding project boiled down to just one thing for me, and that's the progression of Teddy Bridgewater. The Vikings likely aren't going to win the Super Bowl in 2015, and according to Vegas likely won't make the playoffs either, but that doesn't mean they aren't on their way.
Heading into next years offseason while the team looks to add more talent and fill their last remaining weaknesses, the goal is to be able to stand proud and say confidently that quarterback is not one of those needs, and won't be for a very long time, thanks to the progression of Teddy Bridgewater from his first to second season.
Stay tuned to Luke Inman as he travels down to Mankato for more coverage of the Vikings
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