Minnesota Vikings Will Be Very Busy This Offseason

The common consensus around the league is that WR Sidney Rice is going to be playing somewhere other than Minnesota next season.

It has been hard for fans to accept, but the fact is Rice is very likely going to move on.

Luckily for the Vikings, this year's free-agent class is deepest at wide receiver. Plenty of big names with deep-threat skills are going to be available, from Braylon Edwards to Mike Sims-Walker.

There is the likely possibility that even Roy Williams is going to be cut from Dallas. I'm not a fan of Williams, just saying he will be looking for work.

My point in starting off this article with Rice and the receiver situation is to make sure you aren't reading the rest of this piece thinking, "Well maybe Rice will still be here."

He won't. Let's move on to what is really important to this team.

Defense. Plain and simple.

Show me something more important to this team in the last five years. It has not been a matter of dispute that Minnesota has played some incredible defense over the last few years, but that it fell off last year.

If the Vikings are going to compete in this division, more importantly in this league, then defense is going to need to get better.

Expect this side of the ball to receive the most attention.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, O.J. Atogwe said he "spoke briefly with the Vikings" before he signed with Washington. This signals to me that, whatever diplomatic route Leslie Frazier has chosen to take, he is not stupid, and he knows Madieu Williams does not belong as his starter.

The fact that Minnesota approached a free agent with many of its own unsigned leads me personally to believe that the team plans to be very active this offseason.

The Vikings may not be targeting the biggest names, but they will target role players to plant around their stars.

They have no lack of talent, they lack a supporting crew. So this offseason, whenever it starts, keep your eyes out for some of the great talents who will come a little cheaper.