Minnesota Vikings: 10 Biggest Hurdles for the 2011 Season

In 2010, the Minnesota Vikings were supposed to compete for a Super Bowl. After a 6-10 season, the Vikings enter the 2011 season with mixed expectations—depending on who is asked.

Either way, 2011 will be in no way comparable to the magical 2009 season. It will be filled with ups and plenty of downs.

The Vikings have a new offensive and defensive coordinator and a rookie NFL head coach at the helm. It's not certain what they should expect out of these three men. 

Most of Minnesota's roster underachieved in 2010, but what will its members do in 2010? Will Kevin Williams accumulate more than one sack? Will Jared Allen bounce back and reinvent himself as a top-five pass rusher?

The questions are numerous as Minnesota enters 2011.  Here are 10 of the bigger hurdles the team faces in 2011. 

10. Adrian Peterson's Contract Status

This may or may not be a big deal at all, as different players handle contract years differently.

It may end up as an extremely big distraction for Peterson and the Vikings with consistent media attention to the issue, which may cause his performance to suffer.

Or it could serve as a tool of motivation for Peterson, and he could end up posting some of the best numbers of his NFL career. 

This is a concern because the Vikings will need to rely on a heavy dose of Peterson this year with the passing game serving as a big question mark entering this season. Minnesota needs Peterson to be 100 percent focused on the season so that it can get 100 percent of Peterson on game day. He needs to have a big year for Minnesota to be successful.

Peterson will leave his contract situation to his agent and the Vikings’ front office, but it still may serve as a distraction to one of the best running backs in the NFL.   

9. First Year NFL Head Coach

Leslie Frazier coached the Minnesota Vikings for the final six games of the 2010 season (Minnesota finished 3-3). But this will be his first full season as an NFL head coach. 

Some men have flourished in their first year (Rex Ryan took the Jets to the AFC Championship game in 2009), while plenty have struggled (Brad Childress finished 6-10 his first year as Minnesota’s head coach). Each situation is unique.

Frazier appeared to win over the Vikings locker room during his six-game stretch in 2010, and players have praised him for being a players’ coach throughout training camp. 

But Frazier has never had to deal with the stress and expectations that arise onto a head coach when a team is successful.  He’s never had to deal with a season that continues to spiral down the toilet as a head coach.  You just never know how a man will handle the situation.

He has the background to suggest he’ll be successful. He won a Super Bowl with the Chicago Bears as a player in 1985 and was the defensive coordinator under Tony Dungy when the Colts won the Super Bowl in 2006.  He was also the Vikings defensive coordinator in 2009 when the team led the NFL in sacks (48) and was second against the run (87.1 yards per game).

You just never know. 

8. Schedule

The 2011 schedule isn’t nearly as intimidating as the 2010 schedule (when Minnesota had to face the NFC and AFC East), but it’s still not the friendliest.

First off, as previously mentioned, the NFC North could be the best division in all of football in 2011. 

That means Minnesota has six games against the defending champion Green Bay Packers, the NFC runner-up Chicago Bears and the up and coming Detroit Lions.  None of those games will be even close to a cake walk.

Then the Vikings get to play the NFC South as one of their divisional opponents. Three of the four NFC South teams had winning records in 2010 (Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers). 

The Falcons had the best regular season record of any NFC team in 2010 (13-3), the Saints are two years removed from a Lombardi Trophy and the Buccaneers are an up and coming team that just missed the playoffs last season (10-6).

That’s nine games the Vikings need to worry about.

7. New Veteran Quarterback

Donovan McNabb struggled as the quarterback of the Washington Redskins.  He really struggled and had arguably his worst season in the NFL (a career-high 15 interceptions, lowest touchdown output since his rookie season (14) and lowest passer rating since his rookie season (77.1)).

Now he enters another new environment after spending the first 11 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles.

How will he mesh with the Vikings offensive personnel? How does he grasp offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s offense?

Not to mention the concerns that exist with regards to which McNabb will be under center this year: the McNabb that looked really old in 2010 or the McNabb that helped the Eagles to the postseason in 2009 and had a 90.2 passer rating to go along with 3,553 yards passing and 22 touchdowns in only 14 games?

6. Replacing Half of the Defensive Line

In 2009, the Minnesota front line was one of the best, if not the best (Minnesota’s defense led the NFL with 48 sacks and was second against the run allowing 87.1 yards per game) in the NFL, with Jared Allen and Ray Edwards at the defensive ends and Pat and Kevin Williams at the defensive tackles.

In 2010, the defense struggled to reach the quarterback finishing 20th in the league with 31 sacks and dropped to ninth against the run (102.2 yards per game) as Pat Williams looked old, Allen’s sack total dropped by 3.5 to 11, and Kevin Williams had the least sacks of his eight-year career (one).

Pat Williams and Ray Edwards aren’t Vikings in 2011.  But Allen and Kevin Williams remain.

To replace Edwards, the Vikings looked inside the organization and promoted fifth-year player Brian Robison.

Robison isn’t the ideal size of an NFL defensive end (6’3” and 259 pounds), but he’s extremely quick (13.5 sacks in 63 career games, most of which spent as a reserve).

As a full-time starter in 2011, Robison should come close to Edwards' 2010 sack total (8.5), but he will not stop the run as well as Edwards did. 

Remi Ayodele was signed from the New Orleans Saints to replace Pat Williams. At 6’2” and 318 pounds, he’s a big load inside that should do a solid job plugging up lanes to stop the run. Like Pat Williams, his abilities as a pass rusher are minimal (2.5 sacks over the past two seasons).

Even though the talent may be there to replace Edwards and Pat Williams, change doesn’t always come about successfully. 

5. Replacing Mount McKinnie

On August 2, the Vikings cut their starting left tackle, Bryant McKinnie. McKinnie had been with Minnesota since the 2002 season when he was taken seventh overall out of Miami in that year’s draft.

McKinnie was a physical force at 6’8” and a playing weight of 335 pounds.  He was named to the 2010 Pro Bowl too. 

But it’s been said that McKinnie showed up 50 pounds overweight when training camp commenced. While he was an extremely talented left tackle, he was also very lazy and had some bad years.

He played poorly in 2010 and was part of why Vikings quarterbacks were consistently on the run in 2010.

The Vikings made a solid addition when they picked up Charlie Johnson to fill in for McKinnie. Johnson, who started at left tackle for the Indianapolis Colts the past four seasons, is a solid left tackle but not near the physical force that McKinnie was (Johnson stands 6’4” and 305 pounds).

He was owned in training camp while battling defensive end Jared Allen, but that doesn’t mean Johnson is a terrible tackle.  It could just mean that Allen is in for a huge season.

Either way, it’s something to keep an eye on in the 2011 season, and it could cause problems for the less-mobile version of Donovan McNabb that the Vikings have under center.

4. Can the Pass Rush Return?

In 2010, the secondary battled through injuries to numerous defensive backs. Yet, Minnesota still finished in the top 10 (tied for ninth) in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game (210).  That number could have been even less if the front seven had done more to disrupt the quarterback’s rhythm.

Defensive end Jared Allen lit up left tackle Charlie Johnson in training camp, which Viking fans can only hope means Allen will have a phenomenal year and not that Johnson will do terribly.

Brian Robison will be a better pass rusher than former defensive end Ray Edwards. And hopefully, Kevin Williams can force more inside pressure than he did in 2010.

New defensive coordinator Fred Pagac said he wants to bring more pressure with blitzes this year.  We’ll see if it actually brings about more of a rush onto the quarterback. 

 

3. No True No. 1 Receiver...Yet

Sidney Rice saved the Vikings receiving core in 2009 with his breakout season (83 catches, eight touchdowns and 1,312 yards).  Then he crushed it in 2010 when he was out the first 10 games of the 2010 season with a hip injury.

In 2011, the receiving core will feature a big dose of Percy Harvin. 

Harvin, at 5’11” and 184 pounds, isn’t built like a prototypical No. 1 wide receiver.  But he led Minnesota with 71 receptions, 868 yards and five touchdowns in 14 games last season. 

He’s possibly on his way to becoming a No. 1 wide receiver in the NFL, as Carolina’s Steve Smith has shown No. 1 receivers don’t have to be huge (5’9” and 185 pounds).

Harvin will have to take another big step forward in 2011; otherwise, the Vikings receivers may be in trouble.

Bernard Berrian, signed after the 2007 season, was brought in to revive the deep ball after Randy Moss’ departure after the 2004 season.  He’s been a massive disappointment (131 catches, 11 touchdowns and 1,834 yards in three seasons as a Viking) and had to restructure his contract after last season so as to be retained by the Vikings. 

Greg Camarillo, acquired from the Miami Dolphins for cornerback Benny Sapp last season, has reliable hands but no other impressive trait as a wide receiver.

Michael Jenkins was brought in from Atlanta this season to possible replace Sidney Rice, as the two are physically very similar (Jenkins at 6’4” and 214 pounds, Rice at 6’4” and 202 pounds). But Jenkins’ career isn’t all that impressive: In eight NFL seasons, he’s never caught more than 53 passes, 780 yards, or seven touchdowns in one season. 

The Vikings receivers are unimpressive on paper, but there’s always hope that someone will breakout like Rice did in 2009.  Otherwise, look for more of tight ends Visanthe Shiancoe and Kyle Rudolph in the passing game along with running back Adrian Peterson. 

2. Implementation of New Offense

With the lockout in place until just before training camps opened, teams across the NFL had little time to implement their schemes. 

The Vikings were not like most NFL teams that at least had the same coaching regime in place.  They changed offensive and defensive coordinators and have a first year head coach in place for the 2011 season. 

The defensive coordinator, Fred Pagac, served as the linebackers coach last season, so it’s not like players aren’t familiar with him. 

But Bill Musgrave was in Atlanta serving as the Falcons’ quarterback coach during the 2010 season. And now, he’s in charge of Minnesota’s offense.

Players say they’re excited and getting more comfortable with Musgrave’s offense, but with anything that’s new, there comes a bump or two. 

The players are probably putting on a good front for the media so fans feel better about the offense entering 2011.  Maybe they’re not.

We’ll have to wait until September 11 when the Vikings open at the San Diego Chargers to find out where this offense is at.

1. Participation in the NFC North

In years past, the NFC North has been looked down upon by most in the NFL.

The Detroit Lions have been notoriously bad throughout the first decade of the 2000s, the Chicago Bears are as inconsistent of a team as there is in the NFL (one year playoff bound, the next not even coming close to playoffs) and the Green Bay Packers were an up and coming team with Aaron Rodgers as their quarterback.

This year, it could be the best division in all of football.

The Lions may have the best defensive line in football with Ndamukong Suh (10 sacks and 66 tackles as a rookie) and Nick Fairley (the 13th pick of the 2011 draft) at defensive tackles and Kyle Vanden Bosch (four sacks and 49 tackles in 11 games last year) and Cliff Avril (8.5 sacks and 33 tackles in 13 games).

If quarterback Matthew Stafford can stay healthy, they have the weapons with receiver Calvin Johnson and running back Javhid Best to make some noise in the NFC North (some people project a playoff appearance).

The Bears and Packers battled in the NFC Championship game in 2011, and the Packers only went on to win the Super Bowl with all the major pieces returning in 2011.

The Vikings, if they’re not careful, could find themselves in the cellar of this division.