| There’s no denying things have gotten
pretty sticky up in Vikings country since the season ended. For starters, after a
surprisingly strong season spearheaded by the emergence of second-year QB Daunte
Culpepper, the Vikings crashed and burned big-time in the playoffs.
That’s hardly earthshaking news, considering Minnesota’s consistently
lackluster efforts in the postseason under head coach Dennis Green.
But this year they really stunk, coming up with a stunningly uninspired
performance in their 41-0 loss to the Giants in the NFC championship game, which has left
a bad taste in the mouths of many Minnesota players that continues to linger.
Just ask Vikings OT Todd Steussie, who ripped teammate Randy Moss every which way but
loose the other day with accusations that the star wide receiver hardly went all-out in
the Giants debacle.
Can you spell internal friction?
Making matters much worse, though, was the sudden retirement of Vikings RB Robert
Smith, who has decided to leave the NFL at the top of his game and pursue other challenges
far removed from the football field.
Good for Robert Smith. Bad for Dennis Green.
Without ever getting the kudos he deserved, Smith rushed for 32 touchdowns and averaged
a most-impressive 4.8 yards per carry in his eight-year career. He also managed to finish
his career as the Vikings’ all-time leading rusher with 6,818 yards despite a
plethora of injuries ranging from surgeries on both knees to a serious case of chicken
pox. Last year, playing in every game for the first time in his career, Smith led the NFC
in rushing with 1,521 yards and also became much more of a receiving threat out of the
backfield.
Smith is going to be hard to replace, and Green knows that Moe Williams, the top
candidate currently on the Vikings’ roster to fill that role, is not the answer.
But Green will find a replacement, despite the fact the Vikings are currently $7-$8
million over the 2001 projected salary cap of $68 million.
If Dennis Green were on the show "Survivor," the odds are strong he’d be
the next Richard Hatch.
For those of you with short memories, it’s worth remembering that the Vikings were
hardly one big happy family last offseason. Green’s decision to go with Culpepper
over the more experienced Jeff George made many experts shake their heads in dismay.
Heads shook even more when Green said the team’s top priority was to re-sign P
Mitch Berger. Say what? A punter as a top priority? Many started to wonder if Green was
losing it.
But things worked out nicely for Green, whose faith in Culpepper was rewarded with a
6-0 start that shot the Vikings up the charts in a hurry.
Finding a quality running back to replace Smith might present an even bigger challenge,
but you can bet Green is up to the task. "Dennis had an alternate plan in
place," Vikings assistant head coach Mike Tice said one day after Smith’s
retirement. "He always does."
Don’t look for Smith’s immediate replacement to come out of this year’s
draft. Even though Green might decide to move up in the first round from the 27th
spot with the intention of selecting a quality running back, it’s likely that back
would ease his way into the picture the same way as Culpepper, who carried a clipboard on
the sideline his rookie season.
However, a free agent such as Baltimore’s Priest Holmes, or maybe even a trade
acquisition such as Seattle’s Ricky Watters or Buffalo’s Antowain Smith, is
another story altogether.
And after all is said and done, the Vikings will continue to be one of the
league’s more potent offensive teams. They will overachieve and make a lot of critics
eat crow, and they will get into the playoffs.
I’ve been guilty of writing off the Vikings prematurely before, and I won’t
do it again, even though Green is always going to catch flak for not getting the most out
of his teams in the playoffs.
But at least his teams make it that far.
Almost always. |
