Schedule preview: Minnesota Vikings face tough transition

For a team that many thought would go all the way after their 2009 campaign a season cannot be more disappointing than the Vikings just had. Now many people see them as the most needy team in the NFC North entering a rebuilding period.
Is there any validity to this? Well for a start they are the oldest team in the NFL with an average age of over 28 years old. They have a rookie head coach and a pretty awful quarterback situation. Pat Williams has called it a career thus ending the Williams wall, and many key players have reached the end of their deals meaning some talent will be leaving the Metrodome (or what is left of it!) All this we already know. But their new coach has been with the Vikings for a while and has been sought out for numerous head coaching jobs. He nearly became the Lions head coach. Plus, as long as they have Percy Harvin and Adrian Peterson everything will work out fine for their new QB surely?

Well to be honest they did well to win 6 games last year. They overcame a cocky Eagles side who thought they could just turn up and win against Joe Webb and the Vikings. They danced around the issue of Favre's inconsistency for far too long and losing Sidney Rice was a huge blow. They got their first win against the Lions in week 3 when Shaun Hill threw 2 interceptions in the endzone and an unsettled Lions team gave the game away. Remember CC Brown allowing Adrian Peterson to have half the field rather than closing the angle of pursuit for an 80 yard TD? Against Buffalo and Washington they showed flashes of the team we thought they would be, and now they are older and in need of plenty of overhaul.

Quarterback is the obviuos hole in this organisation finding a new face. They also need offensive line help. A new left tackle would not be a bad idea and some mock drafts see them taking one in the first round. In the past few weeks however Jake Locker and Ryan Mallet have been brought in by the Vikings so QB looks the way to go. Leslie Frazier has made public his desire to bring in one early.

As much as it pains me to say it (HAHAHAHAHAHA!) I don't see a quick turnaround for the Vikings. They have too many holes to fill for one year and one of them is quarterback. Their offense flagged immensely after Sidney Rice went down and the Lions manhandled them so easily in week 17 without even using Calvin Johnson. Their secondary issues are now plunged even deeper by Cook's trouble with the law and although they have good players most of them are turning older. 7-9 at best is what I think for next year and a Lions sweep will happen for the first time in a long time!