The success of the New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots in the 2012 playoffs demonstrates several points instructive for the Minnesota Vikings as they pare their 2012 draft board. Chief among these points is that successful teams are constructed by focusing on the offensive and defensive lines and that, while great receivers will boost...

The Minnesota Vikings face as many challenges as many of the 2011 non-playoff teams entering the 2011-2012 off-season. Those challenges are mitigated, however, by the fact that the Vikings have some high-caliber players at key positions. Those players make the team's prospects brighter than are those for teams such as the Colts, Cardinals, Browns, Jets, Bucs, or many of the other...

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Vikings announced the hiring of former Indianapolis Colts' defensive backs coach, Alan Williams. Willams' addition all but ensures that the Vikings will retain their 4-3 and Cover-2 schemes of 2011. More unsettling, continuing cronyism in hiring notwithstanding, are Williams' initial suggestions that personnel was not the problem for the...

The Minnesota Vikings are coming off of their worst season in team history, finishing 2011 with a 3-13 record. In the weeks since the season ended, the organization has determined that the solution to the team's 2011 woes is three-fold: promote one of the architects of the 2011 team to lead architect, retain the services of the coach responsible for the on-field performance...

Minnesota Representative John Marty has finally come out with it, the realization that the Vikings have enlisted the aid of those purportedly working on behalf of the public to identify a public-private stadium venture for the Minnesota Vikings that benefits the public beyond merely having an edifice that it doesn't even own. Marty's criticism of Ted Mondale, the crony pick of Governor...

Near the end of last season, with the team in disarray, the Minnesota Vikings finally acknowledged their mistake in hiring Brad Childress, firing the fifth-year coach. The move created a vacancy which the Vikings filled with defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier.Rather than audition candidates for the head-coaching vacancy, the Vikings did what they essentially did when hiring Childress...

On Friday, the Minnesota Vikings made it official--the organization truly is clueless. After agreeing to interview the former head coach of the disastrous Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Vikings showed the door to Kyle Dunbar, coach of the one consistently bright spot on their team. Asked whether he was getting a raw deal, Dunbar, playing the part of someone who knows he did get a raw...

In the wake of the worst season in team history, the Minnesota Vikings' first major off-season move was to promote to general manager one of the architects of that disaster. That decision came despite the availability of such experienced NFL veterans as Bill Polian and Jeff Fisher, among dozens of other equally competent talent evaluators.The decision to pass on Polian seemed logical...

As General Manager in three previous posts, Detroit, Chicago, and Miami, Rick Spielman was constantly under fire for player personnel moves. His decisions led to his dismissal from all three posts and resulted in his taking a position with the Minnesota Vikings that clearly was at least a partial step down from his previous jobs. Perhaps during his years as a personnel executive...

An MRI confirmed that Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson tore both his ACL and MCL against Washington on Saturday afternoon. The injuries likely will keep Peterson sidelined for at least nine months and could jeopardize his career in the NFL.Though likely difficult for Peterson to accept, he does at least have the comfort of tens of millions in guaranteed money courtesy...

In a league in which the have nots tend to live in the past and the haves innovate and set or at least adopt trends, the Minnesota Vikings stand at the juncture defining the two roads. One path permits the Vikings to put their quarterbacking fortunes in a late-round pick over an early round draft choice and signals the end of the high-paid running back era. Along this path are...

If there is any take-away from the Minnesota Vikings' 2011 NFL season it is that there is no telling what the team will do next--a reality that ought to be construed in the worst possible light. For a team with an atavistic offensive philosophy, seemingly no defensive philosophy, unless the team's front office is playing the over each week, substantial breakdowns on special teams...

To the extent that the Minnesota Vikings have a team philosophy--something governing both front office and on-field maneuvers--Sunday's loss at Detroit highlights the flaws in that philosophy and suggests that the Vikings are well-behind the curve in football acumen in this era of the NFL.For a team generally low on "explosive" plays, there were an inordinate number of such plays...

The Vikings opened their game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday with something that Vikings' fans have not seen all year--sensible use of Joe Webb, Lorenzo Booker, and Visanthe Shiancoe. Unfortunately for Minnesota, execution did not meet design and the Vikings were forced to punt after five plays from scrimmage.The ensuing punt hit the one-quarter-foot line where, thanks to...

Absent injured starting running back Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings turned to slow-footed Toby Gerhart, a short tight-end in fullback's clothing, to carry the ball on Sunday. For the season, Peterson had averaged 87 yards on 18 carries per game with just over one touchdown per game rushing. On 17 carries yesterday, Gerhart mustered 44 rushing yards. He was also stopped...

The Minnesota Vikings began the year suggesting that there was a new sheriff in town and that things would be run differently. For Vikings' fans who have lived through this sort of mess in the past--see circa Les Steckel, Denny Green, Mike Tice, Brad Childress--the promise seemed more hortatory than certain. But with so many holes to fill and so little pressure on the team to make...

In less than one-half hour, the Minnesota Vikings will take the field inside the frozen tundra materializing outside yesterday to take on the Oakland Raiders. At 2-7, the Vikings are only mathematically alive in this year's playoff race. At 5-4, the Raiders stand atop the AFC West. Combined, the two teams account for a negative 90 scoring differential.Unfortunately for Vikings...

If a veteran NFL General Manager were asked how to construct the prototypical unsuccessful NFL team, he undoubtedly would suggest that one must draft poorly, mismanage personnel, coach poorly, employ a run-first philosophy in a pass-first league, employ a run-stop defense in a pass-happy league, and give little regard to rules of play. Of those criteria, this year's Minnesota Vikings...

Depending on the outcome of tonight's game at Lambeau Field, the Minnesota Vikings could find themselves caught betwixt and between--betwixt and between good teams and bad, rather than merely drifting aimlessly among the bad. For, with a victory over the Packers tonight, the Vikings would move from 14th place in the NFC to 10th place in the Conference. Though the leap would...

The drum beat goes on from the NFL, local media, and NFL-orchestrated call for a publicly funded stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. Those whose jobs and/or high salaries depend on the Vikings remaining in Minnesota--virtually everyone working at the Vikings' flagship station, those with high paying sports commentator salaries, those working local news, and those with connections...

Adrian Peterson was fumbling along in his attempt to gain traction against one of the worst rush defenses in the NFL, mustering a paltry fourteen yards on six carries with half of his carries going for zero or negative yardage. That's when the Minnesota Vikings' coaching brain trust decided to consider the alternatives. Option one was to continue banging their collective head into...

For anyone close to a situation, there is nothing worse than being the last to know about a development. In the World of the Minnesota Vikings, being the last to know has become common place this season, with three additions to that list just this week.On Monday, Minnesota Vikings' head coach, Leslie Frazier, announced that the Vikings had to sit down with erstwhile wide-receiver...

In 1984, the Minnesota Vikings finished 3-13. That was the year that Les Steckel and his no-nonsense boot camp received a tryout in the NFL. That tryout lasted but that one year, never again to return to the league.2011 is shaping up to be every bit as uninspiring and demoralizing as was that 1984 debacle, only this version of 1984 comes courtesy of a soft-spoken, eminently likable...

Much like most of what emotes from the mouths of the Minnesota Vikings' inner circle of stadium building drum beaters these days, the Vikings' contention that building a stadium on the public dime is critical to local job building is an outright loser of a platform. For, while stadium construction certainly would create jobs, it would do so with an opportunity cost of not creating...

In his long-running radio show, widely syndicated radio personality, Paul Harvey, would offer some surprising information without disclosing the subject or some mundane information about a subject without disclosing the surprising information until later. What came next was what Harvey referred to as "the rest of the story."For some time now, the Minnesota Vikings have been attempting...