Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota Vikings

2013 Season:  5-10-1

'There's no place like home' seemed to be the slogan for the Vikings last season, finishing the year 0-7-1 on the road.  Right after the tie with the Packers I immediately wanted to forget that it ever happened, but it did.  Their 2nd meeting ended in a 26-26 tie. 

The Vikings said good bye to the Metrodome after playing there for 32 years.  They also said goodbye to 3rd year head coach Leslie Frazier and Jared Allen.  Allen finished 7th in the league with 11.5 sacks.

In 14 games Adrian Peterson rushed for 1,266 yards, which was 2nd in the league.  Coming off a magical 2012 season where he was only 9 yards shy of breaking the all time season rushing record Peterson entering his 8th season increased his mileage behind 3 different quarterbacks.  Christian Ponder stunk up the 1st half of the season, then entered Matt Cassel who stepped up stunk it up but bounced back at the end of the season, Josh Freeman for a very brief stint got a chance to stink it up as well.  Greg Jennings in his 1st season with the team led the team with 68 receptions 804 yards.  Vikings were the 13th ranked offense in yards per game but 10th in the league in fumbles.  All of that with possibly the best running back ever in their backfield.   

Defensively they were the 2nd worst.  Injuries and youth in the secondary really hurt the Vikings chance to be a good team on defense.  Chad Greenway anchored the defense, was 10th in the league in tackles with 134 tackles.  Lost a few close games that could be remedied with experience and health on both sides of the ball.

Key Additions:  Anthony Barr, Mike Zimmer, Linval Joseph, Captain Munnerlyn, Linval Joseph, Teddy Bridgewater

Key Losses:  Leslie Frazier, Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Toby Gerhart

Fantasy players to watch:  Adrian Peterson, Greg Jennings, Cordarrelle Patterson, Kyle Rudolph

2014 Season Outlook:  As the new stadium is under construction, Vikings will have to play outside in the Gophers TCF Bank Stadium.  Late in the season it will be some cold cold games.

The Vikings brought in a Defensive coordinator to be Head coach to help steam this defense with Mike Zimmer.  They also drafted Anthony Barr from UCLA in the 1st round.  Went out and got CB Captain Munnerlyn from the Panthers, entering his 6th season, recorded 74 tackles and 2int's with Carolina last season.  He will make a huge impact in the young secondary with a healthy S Harrison Smith and CB Xavier Rhodes.  They also added DT Linval Joseph from the Giants to line up with the young Shariff Floyd to help plug the middle.  So they lost some very good experienced players in Jared Allen and Kevin Williams, but they replaced them with some pretty good talent.  Chad Greenway have been playing lights out during his career entering his 8th season recording 899 tackles throughout his time with the Vikings.  The defense will be a lot better than 2nd worst from a year ago.

The offense is strapped with arguably the best Running Back in history Adrian Peterson.  Matt Cassel at this point is the starter, but drafting Bridgewater will help to keep the pressure on him if he's not performing well.  It will be a smart idea to build Teddy up before throwing him in the fire. Cassel will need to have significant protection on the offensive line because he will be surrounding with some weapons.  Cordarrelle Paterson will be a weapon on Special teams and on offense that the league will know who he is by season's end.  The league will not want to punt to Marcus Sherels watch out if he catches one or intercepts a pass.  Kyle Rudolph back healthy will get attention away from Greg Jennings which will open up defenses around the league.  In the toughest division in football, I think the Vikings will make a lot of noise if the defense plays ok.  A little biased yes! But I see a 11-5 season and an exit in the NFC championship game