Reasons to Worry for Minnesota Vikings Fans

As an avid Minnesota football fan, I have been spending some time worrying for my beloved Vikes.

As the defending champs of the division from last year, a lot of people expect the Dome Dwellers to return to the gridiron as Super Bowl contenders in 2010.

I, on the other hand, am not one of them, or at least I have my doubts.

Last year the Vikings split their regular season meetings with the Blue and Brown, with the furious Bears attack led by all 218 pounds of mediocrity at the quarterback spot in Kyle Orton, who put up 48 points against the Purp.

If a practice-squad-caliber quarterback is doing this, who knows what a young hot shot gunslinger will do to a defense that will probably be worse.

Antoine Winfield is getting older by the day and can't shut down receivers as consistently as he used to. Darren Sharper is gone and will be replaced by an inexperienced deep back. Also, the infamous run-plugger Pat Williams is starting to let age catch up with him.

Expect to see the Bears sending their young running back Matt Forte right up the middle and right at a broken piece of the Williams Wall, then to be followed up by a respectable passing game (which is all they need to beat us as they have a great defense themselves).

The Packers have also been bolstering their roster with some solid new additions to support their up-and-coming quarterback of the future and present. The Packers will be a plus-.500 team this year, mark my words.

So what have the Vikes done to progress along with the their division rivals?

Well... They are bringing in a 40-year-old who has lost his arm but still has a "big arm mentality." They let their best offensive lineman go and picked up an asthmatic pot head to runs silly little reverses.

My last and biggest concern that all my fellow Vikings fans will hate me for thinking about this soon: Is Adrian Peterson already over the hill?

The man fights hard game in and game out and has definitely lost a small amount of jump in his step in exchange for some extra baggage to carry around. Running backs in the NFL are starting to have shorter careers, and for a guy who gets the ball at least 25 times a game and smashes into behemoth linemen, I don't know how long it will be until he just deteriorates physically.

Perhaps I am being too negative. There are certainly things to look forward to, like the return of an athletic linebacker in E.J. Henderson and the steady improvement of Visanthe Shiancoe, but it is safe to say I don't feel completely confident that my Vikes will be the front runners in the NFC North.