Wha' Happened?: The Vikings

Perhaps the Vikings should be happy even making it into the playoffs. After all, they barely edged the Chicago Bears for the NFC North by beating a Giants team with nothing to play for with a last second field goal at home.

Minnesota's 10-6 regular season was good enough to host Philadelphia (9-6-1). Then, the Vikings' team was good enough to get beat 26-14. Rather than provide a point-by-point recap of how that game panned out (like Rochester's post from the other day), I'm going to look at what's going to make or break the Vikings for next season:

1. Quarterback. Quarterback by committee doesn't work in the NFL. It's even less likely to work when that committee is Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte. Jackson had the starting spot only to lose it to Frerotte after the second game; Frerotte went on to start nine straight only to play himself back to Designated Clipboard Holder for the Vikings last five games.

2. ...Face it, it's "quarterback" period. Sure, you could make a case for "wide receiver" but it's hard to know what Minnesota's current guys are capable of considering who they've had throwing to them.

The smartest thing "Major Brad" has done as head coach of the Vikings is publicly state that the quarterback competition is open for 2009. Of course, that competition isn't going to be worth much without someone brought in from the outside: otherwise, with Frerotte unlikely to be back, it's going to be Tarvaris v. John David Booty....

Maybe it's because I'm so familiar with NFC North (nee Central) history, but, even though he's got a long career ahead of him, without some sort of help (or the good sense to get away from the Vikings) I fear Adrian Peterson could be the next Barry Sanders.