Teams' identities are pretty hard to define at such an early date. Are the "real" Vikes closer to the Rams blowout performance or the Patriots debacle? I think we'll have more than 3 wins this year but its hard to put a number on wins at the beginning of the year, especially when so much turmoil is going on in the organization. Not to mention losing the team's best player for the year. The Vikes won big against Philly last year without Adrian. Now I'm not suggesting that we should expect that kind of output on a weekly basis (especially after last week), but I do think the defense is improved and the offense has enough weapons to put up some points even with Cassel doing his Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde impression. I thought there was a chance of being a fringe playoff team at the beginning of the season if the Vikes caught enough breaks but with all that's happened that doesn't seem like a realistic possibility at this point.VikingLord wrote:I'm surprised people are still putting them at even 5 wins. Defense is improved, but far from top-notch. I'd say they're probably about a 10-20 ranked D this year when all is said-and-done. Better than what we've seen in recent memory, but not nearly good enough to win games by itself. Offense without AD is pathetic. Cassel doesn't scare anyone (save perhaps, Vikings fans and his coaches). Bridgewater might make it interesting, but he's unlikely to radically change the offensive dynamic in his rookie season if he finds his way onto the field. Ponder's greatest contribution this year would be if Spielman could find a way to trade him somewhere for a 6th rounder.
This is a team that will be lucky to win 3 games and could win as few as the 1 they got against the Rams. That might be hard to stomach, but the entire offense was constructed around AD, and without him back there they are going to struggle mightily to move the ball. The strategy was nip-and-tuck *with* AD's assumed contributions on offense. Without that, forget it. I'm afraid it's going to be a loooonnnggg season of slogging on offense.
On the bright side, hopefully this finally ends the "Chilly Ball" era for good and over-investing at RB.
I think I would mainly like to see improvement from the younger players (Rhodes, Floyd, Patterson, Kalil) and see moves in the right direction for the future. 5 wins seems like it is achievable but its really hard to tell so early in the season with the influence of injuries, teams not living up to what they were in recent years or some not so great teams improving. With Simpson not coming back I guess we'll find out what we have in Wright and whether Thielen and Smith can progress on some of the potential they showed in the preaseason. To say things are up in the air would be a bit of an understatement.
It has been gloomy over the past week but there are some areas of intrigue that should be interesting to watch over the course of the year. And if Bridgewater gets any playing time, that will definitely be a reason to tune in!
