Vikings Are Super Bowl Contenders

The Vikings' season starts Sunday against Tampa Bay. The Purple nation is hoping it ends in Detroit. I have seen predictions on the Vikings range from 2nd in their division to Super Bowl contenders.

There are 4 factors that determine a team's success in the NFL; talent, coaching, strength of schedule, and strength of conference, in that order.

The Vikings have some of the best talent in the league. Offensively, this team can compete with any team in the league. I rank only Indianapolis' offense higher than Minnesota's.

Defensively, the Vikings are a question mark. There are a lot of new players, but they are all talented. This will not be the porous, easily-moved defense of last year. The real question on defense, though, is how fast they come together and start playing as a team. If it happens fast, the Vikings will dominate the NFC. But, experience and common sense say it will take 4-6 weeks for the defense to start playing to their potential.

Special teams should also be much improved over last season. Which goes a long way toward helping the defense improve and the offense to score.

Coaching is the second big factor. Any coaching staff that produces the late season collapses the Vikings have experienced the last 2 seasons is suspect at best. The Vikings have new coordinators on offense and defense, which means a lot of adjusting to do. And Head Coach Mike Tice has a very questionable track record of game day decisions. He also presided over the failure-to-make-a-draft-selection-on-time fiasco. And don't forget the "Randy Ratio", in which Tice publicly aired his game plan to the entire league prior to the season starting 2 years ago.

Mike Tice has become a very good Monday-Saturday coach. He needs to become much better on game day, but I have my doubts about that happening. He is too conservative on the road and late in games, and has shown an inability to maintain a ground game outside of the Metrodome.

The Vikings play a fairly strong schedule this year. Outside of their division, they play only 3 of last year's playoff teams, but they also play the Ravens and Panthers, both of whom are healthy and improved, and both are capable of making a Super Bowl run of their own. Overall, the Vikes play half of their schedule against teams that were 8-8 or better last year. For an NFC team, that's a tough schedule.

The schedule may be a bit tough, but it is definitely not overwhelming. The Vikings have the talent to win 10-13 games on this schedule.

The NFC showed last year that it is very weak. A Falcons team with questionable defense and no discernible passing game made it easily to the championship game. Even the Vikings, with that late-season collapse and pathetic defensive play, made it to the 2nd round of the NFC playoffs.

The NFC will improve overall this year. The Panthers are healthy, the Cowboys and Redskins are both well-coached and improved, the Lions have made strides toward competitiveness, and the Cardinals could be a force in the playoffs, too. Given all that, the NFC playoffs will be very different and more competitive this year.

Finally, the bottom line is this, the Vikings will struggle at times, but they should be able to pull out a 10-6 or 11-5 season. Either of those records should win the division and send the Vikings to the playoffs.

The Vikings have the talent to win 13 games. They play in a weak division in a weak conference, and have a strong schedule. I see them getting to the 2nd round of the playoffs and probably the NFC Championship game. But I think the game-day coaching will hold this team back and stop them a little short of the Super Bowl. I hope I am wrong, but I've seen nothing in the past 3 years to suggest this is a Super Bowl-caliber coaching staff.

The Vikings are Super Bowl contenders, but just barely. If Tice opens up and gets more aggressive in his play-calling, anything could happen.