Making a Mess in Minnesota

Wow, what happened in Minnesota? The Vikings organization seems to be in a state of chaos. When new owner Ziggy Wilf took over the team, they were faced with some serious questions; instead of answers, more questions are all they seem to have found. This is a team that's seriously lacking in identity or direction, and it remains to be seen whether Wilf and new head coach Brad Childress can right the ship.

One of Wilf's first actions was to sign off on the trade that sent controversial but ultra-talented wide receiver Randy Moss to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for linebacker Napoleon Harris and the seventh overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft. Moss, already saddled with a history of behavioral problems, was fresh off the infamous "mooning" incident at Lambeau Field, and perhaps worse, had walked off the field during the final seconds of a game at the end of the regular season. Tired of Moss' continual antics, the Vikings front office finally decided it was time to cut the cord with the embattled wideout, in hopes that the loss of his gamebreaking talent would be offset by an improvement in locker room chemistry. After an MVP caliber season, the Vikes were also confident that quarterback Daunte Culpepper was capable of producing offensive fireworks without his top playmaker, and with an eye towards procuring a new stadium deal, the Vikes chose to clean up their image by trading the troubled star. After all, their offense had found success under Culpepper's guidance even with Moss hobbled by injuries for a portion of the 2003 campaign, and lacked neither depth nor diversity. After several years of having possibly the most explosive offense in the league, the Vikes believed it was time to shore up the defensive side of the ball.

They did so by adding expensive free agents in cornerback Fred Smoot, safety Darren Sharper, and defensive tackle Pat Williams. The seventh overall pick received in the Moss trade was used to draft his potential replacement, speed burner Troy Williamson from South Carolina. After ranking near the top of the league in most important offensive categories for the past several years, the Vikings thought they had finally found the balance neccesary to become a true championship contender, and most sports analysts agreed; after questioning the mental toughness of the team following playoff collapses in previous seasons, many had the Vikings as Super Bowl favorites during the 2005 pre-season. Things had never looked better.

But it wasn't to last. Reality crashed the party when Pro Bowl center Matt Birk went down with an injury before the beginning of the season. Optimism quickly turned to despair as the Vikes lost four of their first five games, including blowout losses in Cincinnati, Chicago and Atlanta. Worse, something was clearly wrong with Daunte Culpepper; instead of the dynamic passer of the previous season, the team's signal caller looked lost and confused, turning the ball over at an alarming pace and completely failing to spark the once-explosive offense. Unfortunately, Culpepper quickly became a scapegoat for pundits, who conveniently ignored the constant pressure he faced behind a suddenly porous offensive line which obviously missed Birk, their best player. The brainy Harvard grad was responsible for calling out the protection schemes, and without him the patch-work line was overwhelmed by blitzes, giving Culpepper little to no time to set his feet or read the defense. Minnesota, and Culpepper in particular, also seemed to miss previous offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, the mind behind the Vikes' vertical passing game, who had been allowed to leave for Miami during the off-season. While Linehan was turning wide reciever Chris Chambers into a star, the Vikes struggled mightily in his absence.

And then, as if embarrassing themselves on the field wasn't enough, the Vikings organization was humiliated by the now-infamous "sex boat" scandal, a sleazy episode which left multiple players facing charges related to engaging in a mass orgy on a rented boat on Lake Minnetonka. So much for cleaning up their image. Just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse for the team, they did. Culpepper completely blew out his knee in a devastating loss to the Carolina Panthers in week seven, and it seemed as though the season which had started with such promise was over before reaching the halfway mark. Then the Vikings engineered a surprising turnaround with steady but unspectacular veteran quarterback Brad Johnson at the helm, managing a six game winning streak. Despite this impressive feat, the team lost two of it's last three games, and finished out of the playoffs.

At this point, it seemed that maybe the season hadn't been a total loss; the new-look defense had made strides, and bolstered by the top play of Pat Williams and Darren Sharper, had managed to ascend to the middle of the pack statistically, a big improvement from the previous year. Also, the team showed some mental toughness and fortitude not seen before from coach Mike Tice's teams. However, it wasn't enough to save Tice, who had been on the proverbial hot seat for several years, as well as embarrassing the team when reports came to light that he had scalped tickets before the 2004 Super Bowl. Tice was fired mere hours after the end of the season.

Still, there was optimism in Minnesota after the hiring of long-time Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress as the new head coach. The Vikes lost wideout Nate Burleson to the Seattle Seahawks, but only after they had pried a much more valuable commodity from the Seahawks, highly sought-after guard Steve Hutchinson, generally regarded as one of the best in the league. Wilf also hired San Diego's head of scouting, Fran Foley, to be the Viking's vice president of player personnel, and announced that Foley, along with Childress and vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski, would form the "triangle of authority" charged with righting the ship in Minnesota.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, the off-season went bad from the start when Daunte Culpepper, the supposed face of the franchise, let it be known that he wanted to be traded out of Minnesota. The organization granted his wish in March, sending him to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a second round pick in the 2006 draft. Coach Childress raised some questions about his people skills when he continued to take shots at Culpepper through the media even after the trade. Then, things got worse when it came to light that Fran Foley had lied on his resume; the Vikings quickly cut their losses by firing Foley after the draft, but the two incidents left the triangle of authority looking about as welcoming as the Bermuda Triangle.

Then there was the draft itself. Although many experts lauded the pick of Iowa linebacker Chad Greenway in the first round, most were heavily critical of the rest of the Vikings' selections. In particular, the pick of quarterback Tavaris Jackson from division 1-AA Alabama State left some scratching their heads. Jackson was viewed as a solid prospect with the skill set to potentially become a decent starting quarterback in the NFL, but was considered a serious reach in the second round. In general, analysts gave Minnesota's draft very poor marks from top to bottom.

All in all, it's a tale of a rather stunning fall from grace. In two short years, this team has lost more offensive firepower than the Bears, winners of the NFC North and favorites again this year, have on their entire roster. Just a year ago, pundits were picking the Vikings to win the Super Bowl; now it's tough to find anyone ouside of the twin cities brave enough to predict that the team will make the playoffs. Although optimism flourishes in every training camp this time of year, the Vikings franchise appears to be a rudderless boat, lacking direction. The once-potent offense is now in the hands of the venerable Johnson and former first round bust Koren Robinson, a wideout that shares Moss' penchant for trouble but lacks his impressive ability. Although the defense does have some unproven young talent that may develop, as of now it's most consistent performers are several veterans on the wrong side of thirty. It appears that when the franchise shipped Culpepper to South Beach, their Super Bowl hopes may have sailed with him.