Five Personnel Questions That Could Impact the Minnesota Vikings' Playbook

While defensive tackles Pat and Kevin Williams (no relation) were credited as the bedrock of the league’s No. 1 rushing defense in ‘08, the Pro Bowl pair also keyed Minnesota’s ability to pressure the quarterback.

The team’s Tampa 2 base defense relies heavily on the defensive line to rush the passer, and the Vikings’ front four ranked among the best in the business. Of Minnesota’s 45 sacks last season (No. 4 in the league), 34 came courtesy of the D-Line. Just two teams—the Titans and the Giants—boasted lines that got to the quarterback more often.

Williams and Williams accounted for 9.5 of those sacks (8.5 for Kevin, 1.0 for Pat). They also commanded double-teams that freed the rest of the linemen for 24.5 more, led by Jared Allen’s 14.5.

But the Williamses are still trying to dodge four-game suspensions after both tested positive last season for a banned diuretic that doubles as masking agent for steroids. A federal judge blocked the suspensions in December, and a trial date is set for June 15 (although the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports a decision could come as soon as tomorrow, if the presiding judge believes he has enough information).

Given that the NFL’s ability to enforce its own doping policy is at stake, you can bet Roger Goodell and company will come out swinging. If the league gets its way, Minnesota will have to rely on a crop of untested backups—Fred Evans, Leroy Guion and Jimmy Kennedy—that has combined for just two sacks over the past three seasons.

In the event of a Williams shortage, look for defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to modify his schemes and enlist his linebackers to keep the heat on opposing quarterbacks.

Minnesota’s linebacking corps tallied nine sacks last year, led by 5.5 from outside linebacker Chad Greenway in a breakout sophomore season,. Middle linebacker E.J. Henderson also has flashed potential as a pass-rushing threat, recording five sacks and three forced fumbles in 2007. He added a sack and a forced fumble last year before going on injured reserve after Week Four with two dislocated toes.

The Vikings also snuck cornerback Antoine Winfield across the line for a pair of sacks last year. Winfield forced and recovered fumbles both times, running one in for a touchdown against Carolina. He could get a few more looks on the pass rush in early in the year himself if the Williams Wall shows up late to the party.

Sullivan, the Vikings’ presumptive starting center, steps into a position that has belonged to Matt Birk since 2000. The cohesiveness of Minnesota’s line will hinge on how the 2008 sixth-round pick out of Notre Dame responds.

Sullivan will be the first Viking other than Birk to start at center since 2005, when Birk was sidelined for the season in August with a hip injury.

That year, Minnesota saw the rate at which it allowed sacks rise from 7.7 percent in ’04 (No. 11 in the league) to 9.6 percent in ‘05 (No. 4), before dropping back to 7.4 percent (No. 12) in ’06. While it’s difficult to isolate a single lineman’s contribution to protection schemes, Minnesota’s consistency in the seasons that bookended ‘05 suggested that the line struggled in Birk’s absence.

With plenty of advance notice and all of training camp to ready himself, Sullivan should be much more prepared than the backups who manned the position in ’05.

But centers, who are responsible for directing blocking assignments and adjusting the offensive line when necessary, need time to get comfortable. It’s a position that’s as cerebral as it is physical—and if 2009 second-round pick Phil Loadholt beats out Ryan Cook for the right tackle job, Sullivan will have a rookie lineman to bring on board as well.

Last year, Minnesota allowed the fifth-highest sack rate (8.7 percent) and seventh-highest sack total in the league.

If Sullivan and the O-Line go through growing pains that make the team’s pass protection even shakier, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and Childress could simplify the blocking schemes and fall back on short, safe pass calls to protect the quarterback.

If Tarvaris Jackson gets the nod, Childress certainly won’t want to risk letting his protégé—who combined for two touchdowns, six interceptions and a 51 percent completion percentage in his first two games of ’07 and his first two of ’08—stumble out of the gate for the third straight year.

And if Sage Rosenfels gets the call, Childress won't want to line up his quarterback for a knockout punch that brings Jackson back into the mix by necessity.

Aside from taking the passing attack back to basics while the line gels, Childress could also opt to lean on his running game. Minnesota ran on a little more than 51 percent of its downs last year, the fifth-highest rushing rate in the league. In Jackson’s starts, the Vikings ran 55 percent of the time, and could hit the ground running in similar fashion to start the ’09 campaign.

Of course, if Sullivan simply can’t hold the offensive line together, Cook—a center at New Mexico and Minnesota’s new backup at the position—will get a long look.

When Peterson announced plans to pack on as many as 12 pounds in the offseason to bring his playing weight up to 230, plenty of people—including his head coach—had their doubts.

Childress said 230 pounds sounds “awful big” for his star halfback, and wondered aloud if the extra baggage would hurt Peterson’s stamina and agility. San Diego’s LaDanian Tomlinson told Sports Illustrated that the weight is bound to slow Peterson down. And in the same report, former Saint Deuce McAllister blamed his own bulk-up regimen for knee stress that produced ACL tears in 2005 and ’07.

While that last scenario would be a catastrophic blow for Peterson and the Vikes, the concerns about compromising Peterson’s explosiveness are warranted (provided he actually manages to add and keep the weight). Last year, AP led the NFL with 20 runs of 20-plus yards or longer, including touchdown efforts of 28, 29, 54, and 67 yards.

In fact, 35 percent of Peterson’s yardage on the year came from those 20 carries. Take away the gamebreakers, and Peterson averaged 3.3 yards per carry on his other 343 attempts.

Naturally, ignoring any star’s best quality paints a bleak picture (Reggie White must look downright awful when you take away all of his sacks), but Peterson’s big-play ability is a key element of Minnesota’s offense. If he does add bulk at the expensive of speed and quickness, he’ll need to grind his way to a few more yards to make up the difference.

That could mean banging out more carries between the tackles. In ’08, just 88 of Peterson’s 363 attempts on the ground—and 434 of his 1,760 yards rushing—came on runs up the middle. Peterson’s ability to bounce off tacklers helped him pick up a robust 4.9 yards per carry on those runs, and he’ll need to build on that success going forward if he trades burst for brawn.

A beefier Peterson could also conflict with Minnesota’s ongoing efforts to send more passes his way. The Vikings indicated he’d be a bigger passing target last summer, but Peterson tallied just two more receptions in ’08 (21) than he did in ’07 (19), and gained 143 fewer yards to show for it. Throwing on extra muscle won’t exactly help him create the separation to catch more balls.

Too much time in the weight room, in fact, and Peterson could bench-press his way right out of the passing game. The top 20 pass-catching running backs in the league last year averaged a svelte 211 pounds. Just four of them tipped the scales at more than 220 pounds, and only one—St. Louis’ Steven Jackson—broke 230.

Conventional wisdom says rookie receivers have a tough time making an immediate impact. But calling Harvin a receiver grossly oversimplifies the range of his talents.

In three years at Florida, the 22nd overall pick of the ’09 draft was just as productive running the ball as he was catching it. His gains from scrimmage in the two roles were dead even: 1,929 yards receiving on 133 catches, 1,851 yards rushing on 194 carries. He finished second on the team in yards rushing in each of the last two seasons (behind quarterback Tim Tebow), and led the Gators in receptions both years.

As both a running back and a wideout, Harvin put up a host of crooked numbers. He picked up 9.4 yards per rush and 16.1 yards per reception as a junior last season, bringing home seven touchdowns on the ground and another 10 through the air. He broke off 17 plays of 20 yards or longer, including seven that went for scores.

If the Vikings have question marks regarding the team’s ability to gain yards in bunches, Harvin should have plenty of answers.

The current speculation is that Harvin will displace Bobby Wade, who caught 53 balls in ’08 for a middling 12.2 yards per reception, as Minnesota’s slot receiver. While that’s a distinct possibility, given that Harvin has upside, youth, and guaranteed money in his corner, Wade’s job may not be the one up for grabs. Sidney Rice still needs to show that he can produce after hobbling through a 15-catch, 141-yard season with a lingering knee injury.

If Rice can’t cut the mustard, the steady but unspectacular Wade is a poor fit for the No. 2 receiver role, which means Harvin could find himself lining up on the outside opposite Bernard Berrian.

But Harvin can complement his new teammates as well as replace them. Every pass-catcher on the Vikings roster combined for just 27 receptions out of four-receiver formations last year—in large part because Minnesota didn’t have four quality receivers to field. If Harvin is as good as advertised, that could change.

Minnesota’s aversion to split-back formations could change as well. Adrian Peterson registered a paltry 27 carries out of a split backfield in ’08, alternating downs with Chester Taylor rather than working alongside him.

A few more split-back calls this year would throw another wrinkle at defenses designed to contain Peterson, and give Harvin a few cracks behind one of the league’s better run-blocking lines. A Harvin-Peterson backfield would also give Harvin the opportunity to do damage on play-action receptions.

Wherever Harvin lands in the offense, the Vikings also intend to pencil him in for kick and punt return duty. That won’t impact the team’s X’s and O’s, but might give a shot in the arm to a special-teams unit that ranked 20th in kick return average and 24th in punt runbacks.

Although Tarvaris Jackson has three years in Minnesota’s system under his belt and still qualifies as Childress’ pet project, the newly acquired Rosenfels is expected to get a fair shake at the starting job (assuming Brett Favre stays out of the picture, of course).

Jackson’s stock among the local faithful took a hit in the offseason when free-agent receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh—whom the Vikings pursued with a fervor in the offseason—cited stability at the quarterback position among his reasons for spurning Minnesota for Seattle.

While Childress may not be swayed by public sentiment (after an ugly home win over Detroit last October, the coach claimed he couldn’t even hear the boos), the Vikings aren’t in a position to wait for Jackson to find his footing this time around. Even if the fourth-year quarterback gets the starting nod, he’ll be on a short leash.

That makes Rosenfels a good bet to see the field sooner or later. While the prospect of a career backup lining up under center may not inspire Vikings fans to jump for joy, the eight-year veteran certainly can do a few things that Jackson can’t.

Jackson has the bigger arm of the two—11.4 percent of his pass attempts last year were tries of 30 yards or longer, while Rosenfels went that deep just 5.1 percent of the time—but Rosenfels is much more adept at putting the ball on the money on mid-range throws. He connected on 60 percent of his passes thrown between 11 and 20 yards last season, against Jackson’s 44 percent mark in the same range (for the curious, departed fill-in Gus Frerotte hit 48 percent of his 11-to-20-yard passes, and completed only nine throws of 30 yards or longer)

Rosenfels’ accuracy on those medium-distance attempts should be a boon for tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, who thrives on working in the seams of zone coverage schemes and picked up 302 of his 596 yards receiving in ’08 on catches in the 11-to-20-yard range. Rosenfels could also develop a productive rapport with Percy Harvin, whose ability to dash free on slant routes makes him an inviting target on mid-range throws up the middle.

Rosenfels is also an upgrade over Jackson in his ability to spread the ball around the field. Jackson looked far more at ease throwing to his right last year than he did going left. Ninety of his 149 attempts went to the right side of the field, along with 610 of 1,056 yards passing (57 percent). He completed just 27 passes to the left side of the field, including seven of 18 tries to the left sideline.

Those habits didn’t gibe with Bernard Berrian’s proclivity for tracking down balls along that same sideline, where Berrian racked up a little more than half of his 964 yards receiving. Jackson and Berrian connected for just one pass of 20-plus yards to the left side last year, a 54-yard touchdown in the regular-season finale against New York.

Rosenfels, on the other hand, demonstrated no glaring preference for either side of the field, attempting 75 throws to the right and 81 to the left. High completion rates to both sides—65 percent to the right, 70 percent to the left—indicate that Rosenfels was comfortable hitting his targets wherever they emerged.

If that means he can put Berrian and the Vikings’ other deep threats in a position to do damage more often, he’ll give Minnesota’s vertical attack a much-needed boost.