Minnesota Vikings: 10 Reasons This Season Was Wasted

The Minnesota Vikings were one of seven NFL teams who finished the 2010 season with a 6-10 record. When you finish four games under .500 in an NFL season, it's a disappointment, but it's a record that still brings the promise of a quick turnaround. There is enough parity in pro football that every team that is just two wins short of winning half their games feels like they are a player or two, or an injury or two, from being a legitimate playoff contender.

The hope in Minnesota heading into the 2011 season was that the Vikings had enough talent left over from the team that was just a couple of plays from the 2010 Super Bowl to turn things around quickly and contend for a division title.

Obviously those who thought a division title was in reach were fooling themselves, but nobody suspected a season this terrible. So what happened? Here are 10 reasons the Vikings season went south faster than Herman Cain's Presidential run.

Leslie Frazier Was Hired as Head Coach

I want to be careful here because I have no idea if Leslie Frazier can be a great head coach in the NFL or not. I think he will be the head coach of the Vikings next year, so I certainly hope he can be. Those who argue he deserves a second season have plenty of ammunition on their side. The lockout kept Frazier from having a normal off-season and limited his ability to get a head start on the season, which proved to be crucial for a first year head coach who ended up using a rookie quarterback.

The reason I say that hiring Frazier was step one towards a wasted season is because this is a football team that was in desperate need of a kick in the ass, and Frazier isn't that guy. Coach Frazier is a calmer, more thoughtful type of coach than the fire and brimstone type. Jim Harbaugh was hired the same week as Frazier, took over another 6-10 team, and has the 49'ers at 10-3.

I think Frazier was a comfortable hire, for both the organization and for the players. He was a familiar voice, and though it's certainly not his fault, he was not a new voice, he was not something completely different for the players to be accountable to. Minnesota needed a complete separation from the Childress era, to completely start over, and unfortunately, Frazier wasn't that guy. 

It's all hindsight now, so the Vikings move forward with Frazier at the helm and Vikings fans can only hope that with a complete off-season and a year of experience under his belt, Frazier can turn this team around.

The NFL Lockout Hurt the Vikings More Than Most Teams

Imagine getting a brand new job and then not being able to show up for work for your first four months. You miss all of your orientation period and when you are finally allowed to show up to work, you have to hit the ground running and start winning football games a month later.

Leslie Frazier and his new coaching staff lost 130 days to the NFL lockout and it put them too far behind to ever catch up. A convenient crutch? Perhaps to a degree, but in this day and age when every player and every scheme is analyzed over and over on tape, Frazier and his new staff were robbed of crucial preparation time and the results have showed as much on the field.

Crucial player personnel evaluations and decisions had to be done without the normal off-season activity hamstrung the Vikings, with a brand new head coach, and eventually, a rookie quarterback-- the Vikings began the season behind the eight-ball and never caught up.

Was brand new 49'ers coach Jim Harbaugh faced with the exact same obstacles? Yes, and we'll follow up on that more later.

The Signing of Donovan McNabb

The most glaring mistake Leslie Frazier made in his first year as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings was signing Donovan McNabb on July 28, three days after the NFL lockout ended.

It's clear that Frazier thought McNabb had enough left in the tank to start for at least a season and provide the Vikings with experience and guile while the team groomed first round draft pick Christian Ponder as the quarterback of the future.

Frazier was wrong, McNabb was done as an effective starter in the NFL. His numbers for the Vikings were middling enough, but it was his body language and demeanor that were most damning. As the Vikings blew big leads during the first three games of the season, McNabb showed absolutely no ability to lead, to fight, to provide any type of veteran leadership that would pull the team together and pull out very winnable games.

McNabb had been awful in his last two seasons as a starter, both in Washington and during his last season in Philadelphia. For those who watched his time with the Vikings closely, it's no surprise at all that none of the teams that have needed quarterback help down the playoff stretch have called the out of work McNabb.

The Vikings Cut Bryant McKinnie

On August 2, the Vikings cut left tackle Bryant McKinnie, who'd started for the Vikings since November of his rookie season in 2002. McKinnie, a massive, mountain of a man, had always been a bit of a pain in the neck for the Vikings, he combined his size and supreme athleticism with varying degrees of effort and a boatload of off field miscues. 

At the time the Vikings let McKinnie go, it would have been hard to find a Vikings fan who didn't agree with the decision, as his play seemed to be fading as fast as his attitude. He showed up to training camp at least 30 pounds heavier than the team had asked him to report at, and it proved to be the last straw.

The problem was, the Vikings had no real viable solution at left tackle and ended up signing Charlie Johnson, who had been let go by the Colts. The effort has been there from Johnson, but he is clearly a downgrade from McKinnie, who's started every game for the playoff bound Baltimore Ravens. Johnson would have been a nice addition to the Vikings as backup, a depth player who could fill in at several spots, but he is not a good starting left tackle. 

Obviously getting cut was a good wake up call for McKinnie, who's played well for the Ravens, and it's too bad he couldn't get his act together when he was still a Viking. As frustrating a player as McKinnie was, it's proved that he was better giving minimal effort than most lineman in the NFL. You really can't coach 6'8, 360 and athletic.

The Offensive Line Needs Help

It might be unfair to compare the first year head coaching jobs done by the Vikings Leslie Frazier and the 49'ers Jim Harbaugh. While Frazier and the Vikings are wallowing at 2-11 and Harbaugh will probably win Coach of the Year and the 49'ers are 10-3 and headed to the playoffs, the situations they took over were obviously different.

Now I'm not saying Harbaugh isn't a better head coach than Frazier, and it's true that both took over 6-10 teams with pretty comparable talent on the rosters. While the Vikings play in a much tougher division than the 49'ers, the biggest separation between the two rosters can probably be found in the last two drafts.

While the Vikings have added Christian Ponder, a rookie who's learning on the job and Chris Cook, who showed promise before off-field issues have curtailed his career, the 49'ers have flat hit it out of the park the last two drafts, adding a stud defensive end, Aldon Smith and his 10.5 sacks this year, and even more importantly, the year before, when the 49'ers had the 11th and 17th picks in the first round and added starters at right offensive tackle and left guard, in Anthony Davis and Mike Iuputi.

What do you think Frazier would give for two first round talents on his offensive line? The NFL, as much as any other professional sport, is a league where you need talent at every position, the value of a quarterback, running backs and receivers is always contingent on how good their offensive line is.

Right now the Vikings offensive line isn't very good and needs to be upgraded heading into to 2012.

It's Tough to Win with a Rookie Quarterback

Oh, it's been done, and even several times recently with Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan all leading teams into the playoffs in their rookie seasons. They, however, are far from the norm, as throughout the history of the league, most teams that have rookies at the most important position on the field have gone through growing pains with their young signal-callers.

The Vikings, as we said earlier, were hoping that veteran Donovan McNabb could provide veteran leadership while helping groom Ponder to take the reins in a year or two. McNabb flopped badly and Ponder was thrown into the fire, having to take over a team that was 1-5 and going in the wrong direction.

Ponder played his worst game of the season on Sunday against the Lions, throwing three interceptions and losing a fumble before being pulled from the game. Ponder has had an up and down first year in the league, showing flashes of ability while also making more than his share of rookie mistakes.

It's been a learning year for Ponder, who has also suffered from the lack of an off-season to get himself acclimated to the Vikings offense and the pro game as a whole. 

The jury is still out on whether or not Ponder can be a great NFL quarterback, but as far as year one goes, he's another on a very long list of rookie quarterbacks who have looked anywhere from fantastic to awful, proof that it is still very rare to win in the NFL with a first year signal caller.

The Defensive Secondary Is a Shambles

Can you name the four starters in the Vikings secondary heading into next Sunday? Me neither, I'm not even sure the Vikings coaches could name them.

It's been that kind of season for the Vikings, especially in the secondary, which is the weakest spot on the team and that's saying something considering their talent on the offensive line and at wide receiver.

Fact: the Vikings secondary has been absolutely decimated by injuries.

Fact: the Vikings secondary really wasn't very good before all the injuries.

Antoine Winfield is still a top-notch tackler, but is too old and beat up to be a front line cover man, he's now best suited to be a nickel-back where he can help stuff the run and cover shorter routes.

Beyond that, the Vikings need help pretty much everywhere in the secondary, especially if Chris Cook doesn't return to the team. Husain Abdullah is the only other player who has shown enough ability to possibly start in the league.

In a nutshell, it's a group that has an end making a run at a league record for sacks, one of the top defensive lines in the league at rushing the passer and they haven't intercepted a pass in eight full games.

The Vikings Best Player Got Hurt

Here's a telling sign that 2011 has been a lost season for the Minnesota Vikings: Adrian Peterson's injury might be a blessing in disguise.

In a year that was going absolutely nowhere after a brutal 0-4 start where they blew huge leads in their first three games, Peterson suffered a high ankle sprain against the Raiders on November 20th and hasn't played since.

You can certainly make the argument that this will ultimately be a good thing for the Vikings, not having your best player taking shots and losing tread off the proverbial tire during a season that is doomed anyway. Peterson doesn't know how to dial it down and nobody is asking him to, he goes as hard as he can every time he touches the ball and he would work just as hard at 2-11 as he would at 11-2. We don't need him getting beat up and suffering any other injuries for no real reason. I'm not saying he shouldn't play, but he certainly shouldn't play if he's anything less than 100 percent, let the ankle heal completely and live to run another day.

Peterson's time off has also given the Vikings the chance to take a harder look at Toby Gerhart, who after a poor first start, has played much better in the last two games. He may not be the ideal third down back, but he can provide a nice change of pace to the electric Peterson.

The Vikings Haven't Replaced Sidney Rice

The Vikings chose not pay the injury prone Sidney Rice following his breakout season of 2009, when Rice caught 83 passes for 1,312 yards and eight touchdowns. Rice injured his hip in the NFC championship game against the Saints and didn't have surgery on it until just before the start of 2010's training camp. He missed the first half of the season and then signed with the Seahawks in the off-season.

Not paying Rice big bucks was the right move by Minnesota, but they haven't had a true number one receiver since he left. Percy Harvin is a dynamic slot receiver and runner, but he doesn't stretch the field with deep routes. The Vikings signed Michael Jenkins before the season and he had decent numbers (38 catches for 466 yards in 11 games) before going on injured reserve, but Jenkins is a number three receiver at best and the Vikings have to find a number one guy before the 2012 season.

For 2011 the Vikings have had no deep threat, nobody to pull the safeties back and open things up underneath for Harvin and the two tight ends, Visanthe Shiancoe and Kyle Rudolph. Minnesota's lack of receiving depth heading into the 2011 season couldn't have helped Ponder's progress and it certainly stunted the offense's capability.

Finding a receiver is right at the top of the team's to-get list along with offensive line and secondary help heading into 2012.

The Vikings Aren't as Bad as Their Record

The good news out of 2011 for Vikings fans is that the team certainly isn't as bad as their record, so the turnaround to better days shouldn't take as long as most teams that finish with two or three wins.

Minnesota has only been blown out twice and has arguably had a chance to win every other game on their schedule. It is a team that is going to have to learn how to win again, as 2011 has been a year where it seems the Vikings do anything they have to do to lose.

A team with Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin, Kyle Rudolph, Jared Allen and Chad Greenway has enough pieces in place to become good again fast.

Christian Ponder has suffered a lot of growing pains, and the Vikings will have to make the determination that he is indeed growing, and that he can cut down on the number of bad throws in coming seasons. Most NFL quarterbacks make their biggest jumps between their first and second seasons. Hopefully for the Vikings, an offseason of working with his receivers and coaches will help him make a big jump forward in 2012. 

The Vikings will for sure add a starting player with their first pick in the draft, whether it be an offensive lineman, a receiver or a defensive back. Hopefully they can add two other starters with high picks in the second and third rounds, and get a couple more via free-agency.

With all that in place, there is no reason the Vikings can't get right back into the playoff race next season.